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AI can accelerate activity across nearly every area of a business—from sales and hiring to partnerships—but turning those opportunities into business value still depends on getting agreements signed. AI is speeding up work across sales, hiring, and partnerships. Before a customer signs on, an employee starts, or a partnership gets underway, someone still has to get an agreement signed. Businesses in our survey reported 102% average growth in new agreement volume over the past year. As businesses handle more agreements, teams have more documents to prepare, more signatures to collect, and more tools to keep connected. Our research explores where that pressure is building—and what stands between a growing business and a completed agreement.
Dropbox Sign surveyed 104 professionals from technology, AI, software, finance, and healthcare companies at The AI Conference 2026 in San Francisco. This report shares more than 80 statistics on how businesses use eSignatures, where they’re handling more agreements, and what slows down the signing process. We also explore how those challenges are changing as businesses bring AI into their work.
Key report findings
- 102.0% average growth in new agreements over the past year
- 91.1% of organizations experienced agreement growth
- 73.3% of organizations experienced +50% agreement growth
- 44.2% of eSignature requesters still experience friction preparing and adding fields
- 95.2% of companies experience friction with API or embedded eSignature workflow
- 38.5% of companies embed eSignature into their product or website
Businesses are handling more agreements, specifically sales and customer agreements. The biggest delays come from preparing documents and, for people who send signatures through an app, waiting and routing comes next. For teams using an API, documentation and the cost of keeping the integration running can also slow things down.
New agreement volume is up 102%
Businesses surveyed reported handling an average of 102.0% more agreements than a year ago. Sales and customer agreements (contracts, order forms, renewals, and NDAs), employee agreements, and partnership agreements are among the types driving that growth.
91.1% of organizations reported agreement growth over the past year as AI helps businesses get more work done, faster. 8.9% reported no change in their agreement volumes just yet.
Agreement growth over the past 12 months
- 5.6% saw +500% agreement growth at their company
- 1.1% saw 400% agreement growth at their company
- 1.1% saw 300% agreement growth at their company
- 5.6% saw 200% agreement growth at their company
- 24.4% saw 100% agreement growth at their company
- 5.6% saw 90% agreement growth at their company
- 6.7% saw 80% agreement growth at their company
- 7.8% saw 70% agreement growth at their company
- 2.2% saw 60% agreement growth at their company
- 13.3% saw 50% agreement growth at their company
- 3.3% saw 40% agreement growth at their company
- 3.3% saw 30% agreement growth at their company
- 8.9% saw 20% agreement growth at their company
- 2.2% saw 10% agreement growth at their company
- 8.9% saw no change at their company
Nearly a quarter of respondents reported 100% growth in agreements. 73.3% of companies have seen at least 50% or greater growth, and 13.3% saw at least 200% agreement growth in the past year. As AI helps businesses get more work done, we expect the number of agreements they handle to keep growing.
Sales, hiring, and partnerships lead agreement growth
Which areas of the organization are accelerating contract volumes the fastest? Agreement growth is showing up first in the documents that bring in customers, employees, and business partners.
But the growth is not confined to one team. Organizations report growth across 2.5 business areas on average, including legal and compliance, product and technology, and procurement:
- 50.0% saw sales & customer agreement growth
- 38.5% saw hiring & workforce agreement growth
- 36.5% saw partnerships & integrations agreement growth
- 32.3% saw legal, compliance, & risk agreement growth
- 31.3% saw product, technology, & data agreement growth
- 27.1% saw procurement & vendor agreement growth
- 18.8% saw marketing & content agreement growth
- 14.6% saw finance & internal operations agreement growth
- 11.5% saw customer onboarding & service agreement growth
- 7.3% saw real estate & facilities agreement growth
- 7.3% saw another area
Sales and customer agreements lead growth with exactly half of organizations reporting an increase, covering contracts, order forms, renewals, and NDAs. Hiring and workforce agreements follow at 38.5%, while partnership and integration agreements reach 36.5%.
What does all this agreement growth mean for organizations? When we see sales and customer agreement growth, organizations are closing more new deals, renewing accounts, and expanding customer relationships. Growth in hiring agreements points to companies adding employees and contractors. More product and technology agreements can suggest businesses are investing in better tools and services for customers. More real estate and facilities agreements can mean they’re signing more leases, buying property, or arranging maintenance. Growth in legal, compliance, and risk agreements can also be a positive sign. It can show that businesses are addressing privacy, regulatory, security, and policy requirements that help them earn customers’ trust and win business.
Companies use multiple ways to collect signatures
Signature collection happens so seamlessly these days, you may not even realize you’re signing. And other times, you may still hold the actual pen that’s executing an agreement in writing. Companies aren’t collecting signatures one, exclusive way. On average, companies use 1.4 methods to collect signatures, depending on what works best for them and the people they’re signing agreements with.
- 47.1% send individual requests directly through an eSignature application
- 38.5% eSignature API embedded collection through the product or website
- 27.9% integrate with internal tooling (HR, Sales, Finance, etc. tools)
- 24.0% print, sign, scan, or email signature collection
- 6.7% fax or online fax signatures
Direct requests through an eSignature application remain the most common method at 47.1%, while 38.5% embed eSignature into a product or website. Over a quarter of companies are also using integrations to move agreements along faster within the HR, finance, sales, and legal tools they already work in.
Top friction points in sending individual eSignature requests
As agreement volumes rise, individual senders have more documents to prepare, requests to route, and signatures to follow up on. Small inefficiencies in these recurring tasks can compound, adding administrative work and slowing completion.
In fact, only 8.7% of respondents reported no friction in their individual eSignature process, while 91.3% experienced at least one friction point. Those who ran into problems reported 2.0 on average. Preparing documents and adding fields was the most common challenge.
The most commonly reported friction points were:
- 44.2% preparing documents and adding fields
- 29.5% waiting for signatures and sending reminders
- 27.4% routing to the right signers or the right order
- 17.9% a difficult signer experience, especially on mobile
- 16.8% mistakes that require a resend
- 14.7% security, identity, audit, or compliance requirements
- 12.6% tracking status or updating other systems by hand
- 12.6% an inconsistent process
- 6.3% the process costs too much to administer
- 14.4% other
Preparing documents and adding fields is the most commonly reported friction point, at 44.2%, making recurring document setup a practical starting point for improvement. For frequently used agreements, easy-to-use templates can reduce repetitive preparation by letting requesters reuse document formatting, fields, and signer roles. As volumes grow, that consistency can help teams manage more requests with less repeated setup work.
Waiting for signatures and sending reminders follows at 29.5%, while routing requests to the right signers or in the right order reaches 27.4%. Together, these findings highlight opportunities to simplify the everyday steps involved in preparing, sending, and completing agreements.
Individual eSignature friction by provider
Docusign respondents reported the second highest average number of friction points at 2.32 issues, behind Adobe Sign at 2.61. Dropbox Sign came in as the lowest-friction eSignature solution for individual requests at just 1.72, with PandaDoc coming in second at 2.25 friction points. The breakdown below shows how those reported challenges varied across providers.
Top friction points in API and embedded eSignature workflows
As agreement volumes grow, teams embedding signatures into their products or websites must manage both implementation and ongoing maintenance. Small challenges in these recurring tasks can compound, adding engineering work as workflows evolve. Only 4.8% of respondents said their API or embedded signing workflow works well with 95.2% experience friction in the process, showing 1.8 reported friction points on average.
The most commonly reported challenges were:
- 36.4% documentation, SDKs, or authentication
- 28.3% the integration costs too much time or money to maintain
- 21.2% testing, debugging, callbacks, or errors
- 20.2% getting into production takes too long
- 17.2% templates, fields, roles, or routing need too much custom work
- 12.1% security, compliance, international, or scaling requirements
- 11.1% the embedded signer experience is hard to customize
- 11.1% connecting signature data with other systems
- 18.2% other
The findings highlight the importance of planning for both launch and ongoing upkeep. Documentation, SDKs, and authentication lead the reported challenges, followed by integration maintenance. For teams supporting growing agreement volumes, assessing the work required to build, maintain, and adapt an integration can help inform resourcing decisions from the outset.
API and embedded eSignature friction by provider
In the report’s provider breakdown, respondents using Docusign had the highest average number of reported API friction points: 2.14, compared with lower more comparable results for Adobe Sign, Dropbox Sign, and PandaDoc.
Ranking eSignature providers by lowest-reported friction
Dropbox Sign ranks lowest on a combined measure of reported friction across individual requests and API workflows among the four leading eSignature providers in this survey. Giving both workflow averages equal weight, Dropbox Sign’s combined measure is 1.73, followed by PandaDoc at 2.03, Adobe Sign at 2.15, and Docusign at 2.23 eSignature friction points.
Dropbox Sign, formerly HelloSign, has been simplifying eSignatures for 14 years, since launching in 2012. Recognized for its ease of use and developer-friendly API, it helps businesses send agreements and embed signing into their products with straightforward tools for teams and developers.
Supporting the next wave of agreement growth
Agreements connect business activity to real commitments—from winning customers to hiring employees and building partnerships. As volumes grow, the opportunity is to make these workflows easier to repeat, manage, and maintain.
Four takeaways stand out:
- Agreement volume is rising: Respondents reported 102% average growth, with sales, hiring, and partnerships leading.
- Preparation creates repeated work: Document setup and adding fields were the most commonly reported individual signing challenges.
- Integration effort extends beyond launch: Documentation and maintenance led API and embedded signing friction.
- Dropbox Sign led the combined comparison: It had the lowest combined measure of reported friction across individual and API workflows in this survey.
For business leaders and developers, these findings point toward a practical priority: simplify the recurring work around agreements while planning for the demands of growing volume. Repeatable document setup, clear coordination, and manageable integrations can help teams build agreement processes that support their next stage of growth.
This research draws on a Dropbox Sign survey of 104 professionals at The AI Conference in San Francisco, September 30–October 1, 2026. Findings reflect attendees’ self-reported experiences and provide a focused snapshot of agreement workflows.
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