Electronic agent
An electronic agent is a computer program or other automated means that starts an action, or responds to electronic records, on its own, without a person reviewing it at the time. The term comes from the federal ESIGN Act and the state UETA laws, and today it's how US law describes AI agents.
Updated November 9, 2026 · 1 min read
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Why it matters
Both laws say a contract isn't invalid just because electronic agents helped form it. ESIGN requires the agent's action to be legally attributable to the person to be bound, and UETA lets contracts form between two agents, or between an agent and a person, even when no one reviewed the agent's actions. In short, what your agent does, you did.
An example
A supplier's ordering system accepts a contractor's online order and confirms it automatically. Nobody at the supplier saw the order, yet the sale is a contract, because the system acted as the supplier's electronic agent.
In SignMaster
AI assistants connected to SignMaster can prepare envelopes, but they can't send, remind or void without a person approving each request, and they never sign. Can an AI agent sign a contract? explains why.