The 3 questions to ask IT before your next AI renewal

Last week I wrote about reading the AI clauses in your vendor contracts. A few of you replied with the same next question: I found something concerning, now what? The value shows up when you take it to IT or legal, and that's the step most of us avoid, because nobody wants to be the person who slows down a tool the team likes. Here's how I run that conversation so it reads as diligence and keeps the rollout moving.

With a recent client, I opened with one line: "We're doing a pass on vendor data practices ahead of renewal, partly so we can answer cleanly if a customer asks." Then I kept it to 3 questions and let legal run the review.

1: Which of our tools have AI features on, and which of those touch customer data? They didn't have a full list, which was the first useful finding.

2: Do our contracts have a no-training clause, and where can we opt out? Legal found 2 vendors with no protection and one with an opt-out nobody had flipped.

3: Who signs off before we turn on a new AI feature? The answer was no one, so we fixed that.

The whole review took 30 minutes, and I walked out with a real picture of our exposure. Next time I'd fold these into our renewal prep as a standing pre-read. The questions did the work.

The full IT-and-legal prep prompt is for CoS Signal members, along with the prompt library and everything else members get. Founding rate is locked at $14.99/month or $99/year.

The federal government has proposed a standard AI contract clause that would bar vendors from using government data to train their models. When the biggest buyer in the country moves to put "no training on our data" in writing, asking your vendors for the same language becomes a normal procurement ask. That's where procurement is heading.

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2 terms worth knowing before that meeting: a no-training clause (the vendor can't use your data to train or improve its models) and a permitted-purpose clause (they can only use your data to run the service). Both are becoming standard asks in enterprise deals. What Enterprise Customers Ask AI Vendors Before They Sign (Fridman Law) is a clear, current rundown of the questions buyers bring to the table. Free.

This issue closes the vendor data arc. Part 1 was reading the clause, Part 2 was the conversation. If you do one thing this week, book the 30 minutes with IT or legal. The tool your team loves probably stays. What changes is that you made an informed call to keep it.