The Hidden Financial Peril of Agentic AI Contracts

Traditional software procurement, built on stable, forecastable licensing, is failing to keep pace with the autonomy of agentic AI. According to Info-Tech Research Group, businesses are signing agreements that lack essential financial guardrails, such as hard spending caps or clear audit rights. Because billing definitions often reside in vendor-controlled documentation rather than the signed contract, pricing logic can shift unilaterally after deployment, leaving companies with little leverage to negotiate once workflows are active.

John Donovan, principal research director at Info-Tech, warns that without preemptive protections, organizations are effectively handing vendors a blank check. To combat this, the firm recommends a four-phase governance framework that includes decoding vendor billing logic, simulating 12-month spend trajectories, and establishing kill switches to throttle runaway consumption. By formalizing dispute mechanisms and defining usage thresholds before implementation, CIOs can shift the power dynamic back toward the buyer before the vendor’s invoice arrives.