Our outsourced marketing and IT vendors are clearly using AI to deliver their services to us, but their pricing remains the same. How do we audit their deliverables and renegotiate these contracts fairly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your outsourced vendors are using AI to deliver their services, you should expect to see either a reduction in their fees or a dramatic increase in the volume and quality of their output. To address this, bring the issue to your next vendor review. Ask them directly how they are leveraging AI in their operations and how that efficiency is being passed down to you. If your marketing agency is using AI to write blog posts in ten minutes that used to take them five hours, you should not be paying the same flat rate for content creation.
- Require vendors to disclose their use of AI in writing.
- Renegotiate contracts to focus on deliverables and performance outcomes rather than hourly rates.
- Set higher quality and volume standards to match their increased capacity.

If a vendor refuses to adjust their pricing or increase their output despite utilizing automation, it may be time to shop around. The market is adjusting quickly, and you should not be paying premium human hourly rates for machine generated work. Keep your vendors honest by holding them to the same operational efficiency standards you expect from your own internal team.