Executive Summary
Legal teams red-line AI master service agreements (MSAs) after procurement has already short-listed a vendor. By then, sunk cost and launch pressure weaken walk-away leverage. A procurement scorecard grades vendors before production data moves—on data handling, subprocessors, eval artifacts, and autonomous-action caps—so high-risk suppliers fail review early, not at renewal.
This framework complements contract language (The Indemnity Gap covers clauses; this covers buyer-side scoring before signature). Composite mid-market buyers who adopted a six-dimension scorecard cut average vendor onboarding from 11 weeks to 6 and rejected two vendors that would have failed subprocessor disclosure at go-live.
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