Which question matters the most?

Question 20, the renewal price lock. Without it, every other clause unlocks at renewal.

How do we forecast token consumption in year two?

Use a P90 consumption forecast based on year one usage. Most enterprise AI deployments see 2.5 to 4 times the year one consumption in year two.

Is copyright indemnity worth the legal review effort?

Yes for content generation workloads. The indemnity is now standard at three major vendors.

How long does an enterprise AI contract review take?

Two to four weeks with a buyer side advisor.

Do these questions apply to embedded AI features in existing vendor contracts?

Yes, with modifications. Embedded AI features in Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday all carry similar clauses inside the parent contract.

How does Redress engage on AI contracts?

We review the master agreement, run the scorecard, redline the contract, and sit at the negotiation table with your procurement and legal teams.

AI Procurement Checklist: 20 Questions Before Signing

Article · GenAI Procurement

The AI procurement checklist. 20 questions before you sign.

Enterprise AI contracts are being signed faster than any software category in memory, on paper the legal team has never seen before. Ask all twenty questions before signature and score yourself at the bottom: eighteen or more answered yes is negotiating posture; under ten means pause the signature.

AI procurement strategy paper AI contract negotiation paper Negotiation scorecard

0 of 20 complete

01Commercial · Q1–5

The money questions

The token price at signature means nothing if the vendor controls the price book at every anniversary.

Q1. Is the token unit price locked for the term, or capped year over year?
Q2. Is the rate card lock in the master agreement, not an email or order form?
Q3. Is the volume commit sized to a 90 percent confidence forecast, not the vendor projection?
Q4. Does overage run at the commit discount, or at least under a defined uplift cap?
Q5. On hybrid pricing, is the seat fee floor as scrutinized as the consumption rate?

02Data · Q6–9

The data questions

A model trained on your prompts has absorbed your business. These clauses outlive the contract.

Q6. Is customer data excluded from model training, confirmed in writing?
Q7. Is the data region confirmed for both inference and prompt log storage?
Q8. Can you pin a model version if a silent swap changes behavior?
Q9. Are audit logs defined: retention, export format, access controls?

03Indemnity · Q10–13

The liability questions

The default in most AI contracts is no indemnity at all. Everything here is negotiated or absent.

Q10. Is there a copyright indemnity, with scope, cap, and exclusions confirmed?
Q11. Is there a defect indemnity with a defined cap?
Q12. Is regulator inquiry cost covered, if you are in a regulated industry?
Q13. Is breach notification negotiated to 24 hours for material breaches?

04Performance · Q14–17

The SLA questions

The vendor default is no latency commitment and a generic throughput ceiling.

Q14. Is there a percentile based latency target for production workloads?
Q15. Is dedicated throughput capacity contracted where the tier ceiling binds?
Q16. Is the model swap right reserved in the master agreement?
Q17. Do uptime credits scale with outage severity, not just duration?

05Exit · Q18–20

The exit questions

The renewal price lock is the highest value clause in any AI contract. Without it, the vendor sets year two unilaterally.

Q18. Is data export defined: prompts, fine tuning data, logs, embeddings, format, timeline, cost?
Q19. Is there a transition window for model continuity on non renewal?
Q20. Is the renewal price locked or capped at signature?

✓Score it

Your buyer side posture

Count your ticks above.

18 to 20: excellent posture. Negotiate aggressively.
14 to 17: good. Lock the remaining clauses before signature.
10 to 13: average. Quiet risks will surface in year two.
Under 10: pause the signature and rework the master agreement.

Before you sign

Have Redress read the paper first.

We benchmark AI vendor terms across published engagements with BBVA, Lowe’s, and leading banks, and negotiate the twenty clauses above before signature. Fixed fee or contingency: no savings, no fee. The full playbook is in the enterprise AI procurement strategy paper and the AI platform contract negotiation paper.