Why AI Clauses Are Killing Commercial Deals And How to Fix It
Every week, multi-million euro deals stall or collapse entirely — not because of price, not because of performance, but because of two letters: AI.
Customers want ironclad bans to protect proprietary data. Suppliers need flexibility to stay competitive. The result is a legal standoff where both sides accelerate toward collision and neither is willing to swerve.
In our latest deep dive videoblog, we unpack the Attorneys at Law TRUST. framework for AI clauses in commercial contracts, a structured, game theory-based approach that replaces the zero-sum standoff with a cooperative equilibrium both sides can actually live with.
- Defining the sandbox: why overly broad AI definitions trigger accidental breaches and how surgical carve-outs protect what actually matters
- The 20-day SLA: a credible commitment mechanism that makes transparency the dominant strategy for suppliers
- Tiered data governance: how to structure identifiable, anonymised, and synthetic data to achieve Pareto improvements for both parties
- The unbaked cake problem: why demanding a 24-hour data wipe is legally meaningless and what honest deletion frameworks look like
- Calibrated indemnities: why uncapped liability makes contracts uninsurable and ultimately worthless
The most durable AI clause isn’t the one where you crush the other side. It’s the one that gives everyone enough to stay at the table.
Listen to the full episode now!
Jan Lindberg, Partner