Glossary · Category
Procurement & vendor
71 plain-English definitions.
- AI budget approval process
- The internal workflow a company uses to review and authorize spending on new AI initiatives
- AI contract negotiation
- The process of negotiating pricing, terms, and protections in a contract with an AI vendor
- AI integration partner
- A consulting or systems integration firm hired to help implement an AI vendor's product
- AI interoperability standards
- Common protocols and formats that let AI systems from different vendors work together
- AI license agreement review
- Legal review of the terms governing how a company is permitted to use a licensed AI product
- AI pilot program
- An initial, limited trial of an AI solution used to validate feasibility before broader rollout
- AI POC to production
- The process of scaling a successful AI pilot project into a fully deployed, production-grade system
- AI procurement checklist
- A structured list of criteria used to evaluate and select an AI vendor before purchase
- AI procurement lead time
- How long it typically takes to move from identifying a need to signing a contract with an AI vendor
- AI procurement policy
- An internal company policy governing how AI tools and services must be evaluated and approved before purchase
- AI procurement risk matrix
- A tool used to score and compare the risk profile of competing AI vendor options
- AI proof of concept
- A small-scale pilot project used to test whether a proposed AI solution works before committing to full deployment
- AI vendor comparison
- A side-by-side assessment of competing AI providers' features, pricing, and compliance posture
- AI vendor consolidation
- Reducing the number of separate AI vendors a company relies on to simplify management and cut costs
- AI vendor consolidation savings
- Cost reductions achieved by reducing the number of overlapping AI tools and vendors a company pays for
- AI vendor consolidation strategy
- A deliberate plan to reduce the number of overlapping AI tools and vendors a company maintains
- AI vendor contract renewal negotiation
- Renegotiating pricing and terms with an existing AI vendor at contract renewal time
- AI vendor data breach history
- A vendor's track record of past security incidents, used as a factor in procurement risk assessment
- AI vendor data ownership clause
- Contract language clarifying who owns data generated or processed through an AI vendor's service
- AI vendor exit clause
- A contract provision specifying the terms and process for terminating an agreement with an AI vendor
- AI vendor exit strategy
- A plan for how to migrate off an AI vendor's platform without major disruption if the relationship ends
- AI vendor financial stability
- An assessment of whether an AI vendor has the funding and revenue to remain viable long-term
- AI vendor lock-in
- The situation where switching away from an AI provider becomes costly or difficult due to proprietary formats or deep integration
- AI vendor lock-in cost calculator
- A tool estimating the financial impact of switching away from an incumbent AI vendor
- AI vendor onboarding
- The process of integrating a newly selected AI vendor's product into a company's existing systems and workflows
- AI vendor performance review
- A periodic evaluation of whether an AI vendor is meeting agreed service levels and expectations
- AI vendor pricing model comparison
- Comparing how different AI vendors structure their pricing, whether per-seat, per-token, or flat fee
- AI vendor red flags
- Warning signs during vendor evaluation that suggest an AI provider may be a poor or risky choice
- AI vendor reference checks
- Contacting a prospective AI vendor's existing customers to validate their claims before signing
- AI vendor roadmap alignment
- Assessing whether a vendor's planned product direction matches a company's long-term AI strategy
- AI vendor scorecard
- A standardized rubric used to rate and compare AI vendors on criteria like security, cost, and support
- AI vendor security certifications checklist
- A list of the security and compliance certifications procurement teams typically require an AI vendor to hold
- AI vendor SLA
- A vendor's contractual guarantees around uptime, support response time, and performance for its AI service
- AI vendor total cost transparency
- The extent to which an AI vendor discloses all fees, not just the headline price, before a contract is signed
- AI vendor viability assessment
- Evaluating whether an AI startup or vendor is financially stable enough to be a safe long-term partner
- avoiding AI vendor lock-in
- Strategies such as using open standards and multi-provider architectures to keep the option of switching AI vendors open
- best LLM for enterprise
- The large language model considered most suitable for business use based on capability, cost, and support
- build vs buy AI
- The strategic decision of whether to build custom AI capabilities in-house or purchase them from a vendor
- custom AI model vs off-the-shelf
- The decision between building a bespoke model versus purchasing a pre-built commercial model
- data portability AI
- The ability to extract a company's data and configurations out of an AI vendor's platform for use elsewhere
- data usage rights AI vendor
- Contractual terms specifying whether and how an AI vendor may use a customer's data, including for training other models
- enterprise AI budget RFP cycle
- The recurring annual or quarterly process by which companies solicit and evaluate AI vendor bids
- enterprise AI contract terms
- The specific legal and commercial provisions negotiated in an agreement with an AI vendor
- enterprise AI framework agreement
- A master contract establishing terms under which a company can purchase multiple AI services from a vendor over time
- enterprise AI implementation timeline
- The expected schedule for rolling out a new AI system from purchase to full production use
- enterprise AI marketplace
- A curated catalog through which a company's employees can discover and request approved AI tools
- enterprise AI platform comparison
- A comparison of end-to-end AI platforms designed for large organizations' needs
- enterprise AI procurement best practices
- Recommended steps organizations should follow when sourcing and buying AI products and services
- enterprise AI procurement team
- The cross-functional group responsible for sourcing and approving AI vendor purchases
- enterprise AI support SLA
- A vendor's contractual commitment to response and resolution times for enterprise customer support requests
- enterprise AI trial
- A vendor-offered evaluation period allowing a company to test an AI product before purchasing
- enterprise AI trial to contract conversion
- The process of moving from a vendor's evaluation trial into a signed, paid enterprise agreement
- enterprise AI vendor bake-off
- A structured, side-by-side evaluation where competing AI vendors are tested on the same real workload
- enterprise AI vendor evaluation
- The formal process of comparing AI vendors on capability, security, cost, and support before signing a contract
- enterprise AI vendor onboarding checklist
- A structured list of steps to complete when bringing a new AI vendor into production use
- enterprise AI vendor pricing negotiation leverage
- Factors, such as usage volume or contract length, a company can use to negotiate better AI vendor pricing
- enterprise AI vendor shortlist
- The narrowed set of vendors a company advances to final evaluation after an initial screening
- enterprise software AI add-on pricing
- The extra fee software vendors charge to enable AI features within an existing product
- GAIA-X certification AI vendor
- A European certification verifying an AI vendor's data sovereignty, portability, and interoperability practices
- LLM API uptime comparison
- A comparison of how reliably different large language model providers keep their APIs available
- LLM provider comparison
- An evaluation of competing large language model providers across cost, capability, and compliance
- model API deprecation notice
- A vendor's advance warning that a specific model version will be retired and should be migrated away from
- model training data opt-out
- A setting that prevents a customer's inputs and outputs from being used to improve a vendor's future models
- multi-vendor AI strategy
- Deliberately using more than one AI provider to avoid dependency on a single vendor and improve negotiating leverage
- neutral AI infrastructure layer
- A vendor-agnostic middleware layer that lets a company switch underlying AI models without rewriting applications
- open standards AI
- Publicly available, non-proprietary specifications that let different AI tools and vendors interoperate
- opt out of AI training data
- A contractual or configuration setting ensuring a company's data is not used to train the vendor's models
- preferred AI vendor list
- A pre-approved list of AI vendors that employees and departments are allowed to purchase from
- RFP for AI vendor
- A request for proposal document companies send to prospective AI vendors to solicit competitive bids
- switching costs AI provider
- The time, money, and effort required to migrate from one AI vendor to another
- total addressable AI vendors
- The full universe of vendors a company evaluates when sourcing a new AI capability