Buying AI Wisely: An Executive Playbook for Procurement, Contracts, and Vendor Risk

Many executives treat AI vendors like technology purchases instead of strategic, operational partnerships—resulting in hidden costs, brittle integrations, unclear accountability, and regulatory blind spots. This episode offers a practical, vendor-agnostic playbook for C-level leaders and senior data executives on buying AI with rigor: how to define outcome-oriented SLAs, negotiate data and model audit rights, design phased pilots that validate business metrics, enforce security and compliance clauses, and plan exit and portability terms to avoid vendor lock-in. The monologue translates procurement theory into actionable negotiation levers, decision gates, and governance checkpoints that preserve business value while reducing technical and legal risk. Listeners will leave with a checklist they can apply immediately when evaluating proposals, running vendor pilots, and aligning procurement, legal, and data teams around measurable success criteria.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/datascience-show-podcast--6817783/support.I share practical AI leadership notes on LinkedIn — the kind you can forward internally or reuse in executive discussions.Follow Mirko on LinkedIn if you want decision-ready frameworks, not hype.