Ai4
Uncoordinated departmental AI deployments multiply software renewal expenses and drive failure rates to 95% by neglecting upfront data governance across business units.
AI-assisted summary of The AI Rush Is Making Contract Intelligence Cost More - Not Less: Why AI Fails Without Governed — original source. Check the original for full context.
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Detailed notes
## Background Published on YouTube by the Ai4 channel on August 19, 2026, this session features Naresh Kommula, Lead IT Architect at McKesson. The presentation examines why the rush to deploy artificial intelligence often inflates enterprise costs through departmental data fragmentation and outlines how adopting a Governed Contract Data Layer (GCDL) and the Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF) can transform contracts into unified enterprise data assets.
## TL;DR Despite the ease of deploying modern AI models, enterprise contract intelligence initiatives frequently fail to scale and inflate technology costs due to siloed departmental pilots and uncoordinated data pipelines. Organizations routinely lose approximately 9% of their contract value because of poor post-execution operationalization, exacerbated by tool-first mindsets, fragmented clause ownership, and reactive compliance. To resolve this paradox, Naresh Kommula introduces the Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF) and Governed Contract Data Layer (GCDL), which establish upfront cross-functional alignment and a single source of truth for contract data. Shifting from disconnected point tools to a governed, continuous feedback loop eliminates duplicate extraction pipelines, reduces overall total cost of ownership, and builds a dependable foundation for agentic AI.
## Atmosphere & style The presentation carries a pragmatic, authoritative, and diagnostic tone characteristic of an enterprise architecture conference keynote. Kommula cuts through the prevailing generative AI hype by grounding his analysis in concrete financial stakes, sobering failure rates, and practical organizational friction. The progression moves deliberately from highlighting the hidden operational traps of rapid pilot deployments toward delivering a structured, systems-oriented blueprint for long-term data governance.
## Key takeaways - [00:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=4s) The rapid rush to deploy enterprise AI is paradoxically driving up total costs rather than lowering them due to compounding complexity and fragmented silos. - [00:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=54s) Organizations lose an estimated 9% of total contract value annually due to poor post-execution operationalization, equating to $90 million in leakage for a $1 billion enterprise. - [03:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=180s) High AI pilot failure rates (such as 95% failing to scale in 2025 MIT data) stem from organizational and data bottlenecks rather than limitations in AI model capability. - [05:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=319s) The primary underlying driver of enterprise AI cost is fragmented, siloed implementations rather than token consumption or inference infrastructure overhead. - [07:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=468s) Intense market pressure drives departments to launch isolated AI pilots, resulting in overlapping tools, duplicate data pipelines, and compounding multi-million-dollar software renewals. - [09:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=594s) Legal, procurement, sales, and finance teams routinely run disconnected AI extraction and OCR pipelines on the exact same historical contract archives. - [13:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=801s) Contract AI initiatives fail due to four structural root causes: tool-first thinking, fragmented ownership, non-standardized contract terms, and reactive post-execution governance. - [17:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1030s) The Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF) provides an operating model—not a vendor tool—to establish continuous enterprise governance and cross-functional alignment. - [18:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1112s) A Governed Contract Data Layer (GCDL) establishes a single enterprise source of truth, eliminating redundant extraction pipelines for analytics, operational systems, and AI agents. - [20:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1223s) Upfront cross-departmental alignment creates a virtuous feedback loop, generating clean obligation data that enables predictable AI models, advanced predictive analytics, and lower TCO. - [21:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1300s) Organizations must resolve internal fragmentation and align adjacent departments (such as legal, finance, and procurement) before writing code or purchasing AI software.
## Detailed walkthrough Here is the detailed, faithful walkthrough of part 1 of the transcript.
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[00:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=4s) The Paradox of the AI Rush: Higher Enterprise Costs
Naresh Kommula (Lead IT Architect at McKesson) opens his presentation by highlighting a growing paradox in modern enterprise technology: while the "AI rush" has made it dramatically easier to build and deploy contract intelligence solutions, it is simultaneously driving up overall costs rather than lowering them. Organizations everywhere are actively running AI pilots—some of which are successfully scaling, and others that are already in production and performing well. Yet beneath these surface-level successes, enterprise costs are escalating rapidly.
```mermaid accTitle: The Enterprise AI Paradox Flow flowchart LR subgraph Expansion["AI Pilot Proliferation"] A["Rapid AI Deployment"] --> B["Successful Departmental Pilots"] B --> C["Scale to Production"] subgraph Consequence["Enterprise Impact"] C --> D["Compounding Complexity & Data Silos"] D --> E["Rising Enterprise Costs"] end end ```
The core objective of this session is to uncover the underlying structural reasons behind this paradox and explore how organizations can shift toward an enterprise-wide mindset to resolve it.
- Organizations are scaling AI pilots successfully, yet overall enterprise operational and technology costs continue to rise. - The shift requires moving away from isolated departmental initiatives toward a unified, governed enterprise approach.
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[00:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=54s) Unlocking the Lost 9% Value in Enterprise Contracts
Contracts represent the single most critical asset in any business because "that's where the money lives." Citing a World Commerce & Contracting (World CC) survey, Kommula notes that organizations routinely lose approximately **9% of their total contract value** due to poor post-execution operationalization. To illustrate the real-world financial stakes, he points out that a company with $1 billion in revenue is effectively losing around **$90 million** every year.
This revenue leakage does not happen because companies lack agreed-upon contractual terms. Rather, it occurs because operational teams struggle to operationalize and enforce those terms after the ink is dry. Whether in manufacturing, supply chain, software, or retail, contracts serve as the "bread and butter" of the business. Enterprise leaders recognize this challenge and continually attempt to eliminate revenue leakage, save money, and untap the full potential of their agreement portfolio.
- **9% Value Leakage:** Average lost contract value identified by World Commerce & Contracting research. - **$90M Impact:** Estimated financial loss for a $1 billion revenue enterprise due to poor operationalization. - **Universal Applicability:** Contract execution directly impacts every sector, including retail, software, manufacturing, and supply chain.
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[03:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=180s) The AI Pilot Trap: Why 95% of Initiatives Fail to Scale
In response to these operational challenges, enterprise teams are launching continuous improvement initiatives and embedding AI everywhere to improve automation efficiency and generate advanced analytics. However, the reality of AI adoption reflects steep failure rates across the industry:
```mermaid accTitle: Industry AI Pilot Failure Rates Over Time flowchart LR subgraph Historical["2025 Realities"] A["MIT Survey 2025"] --> B["95% Pilots Fail to Scale or Reach Production"] end subgraph Present["2026 Projections"] C["Gartner Survey 2026"] --> D["60% Pilots Fail to Go Live or Deliver Target ROI"] end subgraph Future["2027 Agentic Era"] E["Gartner Forecast 2027"] --> F["40% Agentic Deployments Fail to Produce Adequate ROI"] end ```
Kommula stresses that these failures are not caused by bad teams, poor solutions, or underperforming AI models. Model capability is no longer the bottleneck—technological progress is moving so fast that solutions implemented just a year ago are already obsolete, with those same features being natively subsumed into newer frontier models and provider services.
- **2025 MIT Survey:** Approximately 95% of AI pilots failed to scale or move into production. - **2026 Gartner Benchmark:** Around 60% of pilots are unable to go live or deliver expected ROI. - **2027 Agentic Era:** Gartner projects that 40% of upcoming agentic AI deployments will still fail to generate sufficient ROI. - **Rapid Model Obsolescence:** Bespoke solutions built 12 months ago are frequently rendered obsolete by standard features in new frontier models.
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[05:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=319s) The Ungoverned Data Trap and Common Cost Misconceptions
When exploring why AI solutions fail to scale, the most widely cited cause is **ungoverned data**. Enterprise leaders see this issue highlighted across industry talks and social media. Without governed data and a structured data layer, organizations cannot successfully deploy or scale advanced agentic solutions. However, while ungoverned data is a recognized issue, achieving alignment across large organizations remains a massive hurdle.
When asked what factors drive up the total cost of enterprise AI, industry discussions usually focus on immediate technical expenses: - **Token consumption costs** from high-volume LLM API calls. - **Inference infrastructure overhead** required to run complex models. - **Observability tools** marketed by exhibition hall vendors to monitor AI pipelines. - **Underlying model trust and safety mechanisms**.
While vendor solutions targeting observability and token reduction offer valid short-term optimizations, they fail to solve the primary underlying driver of enterprise cost: **fragmented AI solutions**.
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[07:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=468s) How Fragmented AI Solutions Inflate Enterprise Overhead
Driven by the "AI rush," business and IT leaders feel intense pressure to deploy solutions quickly to demonstrate market responsiveness. "If you're not implementing a solution with AI," Kommula notes, "they see you as... not up to the market." This pressure causes departments to build AI capabilities in siloed, isolated pockets.
```mermaid accTitle: Departmental Silos vs Enterprise Cost Multiplication flowchart TD subgraph SiloedInputs["Fragmented Departmental Pilots"] L["Legal: OCR & Risk Extraction"] P["Procurement: Commitments & Vendor Terms"] S["Sales: Pricing & Rebates"] F["Finance & Compliance: Audit Models"] end subgraph CompoundingCost["Enterprise Oversight"] L --> C["Compounding Multi-Million Dollar Renewals"] P --> C S --> C F --> C C --> E["Elevated Total Cost of Ownership TCO"] end ```
While an isolated pilot might look cost-effective and deliver strong ROI within a single department, this fragmentation multiplies costs when viewed from an enterprise level. When CTOs, CIOs, or enterprise architects review annual budgets, they discover compounding $1 million to $10 million renewal fees across multiple departments for redundant, overlapping tools.
- **Market Pressure:** Fear of falling behind drives rapid, uncoordinated AI adoption across business units. - **Local Success vs. Global Cost:** Individual departmental wins obscure larger macro-level cost compounding. - **Compounding Renewals:** Redundant AI pilots create massive subscription renewal burdens for C-suite leaders.
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[09:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=594s) The Siloed Reality of Contract Intelligence Across Departments
Contracts intersect virtually every organizational function, making contract intelligence a primary target for siloed AI projects. However, because each department views contracts through its own operational lens, teams routinely process the same historical documents independently:
| Department | Primary Focus | Typical AI Use Case & Problem | |:--- |:--- |:--- | | **Legal** | Risk mitigation & drafting | Scanning historical PDF archives using OCR to extract legal risk terms. | | **Procurement** | Commitments & vendor terms | Running separate OCR extraction pilots on the exact same PDFs to track purchasing obligations. | | **Sales** | Revenue & deal velocity | Extracting custom pricing, rebate structures, and commercial terms. | | **Finance & Compliance** | Auditability & regulatory terms | Building isolated models to track financial exposure and operational compliance. |
Because vendor offerings and CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) tools pitch standalone point solutions, departments execute their own "cheap pilots." While each pilot receives local funding approval, the resulting fragmentation leads to duplicate data pipelines, conflicting definition models, and ballooning enterprise software expenses.
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[13:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=801s) Four Structural Root Causes Driving AI Cost Escalation
Kommula identifies four core structural failures that cause enterprise contract AI initiatives to break down:
```mermaid accTitle: Four Structural Failure Modes of AI Contract Initiatives flowchart TD subgraph RootCauses["Structural Failure Modes"] A["1. Tool-First Thinking"] B["2. Fragmented Ownership"] C["3. Weak Sand (Lack of Standardization)"] D["4. Post-Execution Governance"] end subgraph Impact["Enterprise Failure"] A --> E["Siloed Tools Without Alignment"] B --> E["Nobody Owns the Contract End-to-End"] C --> E["Creative Unstandardized Terms Break Ops"] D --> E["Reactive Governance Overhead"] end ```
1. **Tool-First Thinking:** In the rush to adopt AI, teams purchase software to solve immediate problems before building operational alignment with downstream teams. 2. **Fragmented Ownership:** A single 50-page contract contains quality, procurement, rebate, and regulatory terms. Because departments only care about their own specific clauses, "everyone cares about the contract, but no one cares as a whole." 3. **"Weak Sand" (Lack of Standardization):** Sales teams frequently draft highly creative, non-standard terms to close deals quickly. This lack of standardization creates immense complexity when downstream operational teams try to execute the contract. 4. **Governance After Execution:** Enterprise teams often delay governance until after contracts are executed. Unscrambling complex terms post-execution requires establishing specialized compliance teams to manually monitor operations, creating ongoing overhead.
- **Non-Standard Terms:** High-margin sectors like pharmaceuticals and banking suffer heavily from custom deal structures that break standard operational workflows. - **Governance Bottlenecks:** Managing compliance reactively post-execution requires dedicated monitoring teams, driving up enterprise headcount and operational costs.
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[17:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1030s) The Solution: Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF)
To address these structural issues, Kommula introduces the **Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF)**. COIF is not another software product or vendor tool; it is an enterprise operating model designed to align stakeholders, streamline data flows, and reduce the overall cost of contract AI deployments.
```mermaid accTitle: Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework Flywheel flowchart TD subgraph Core["Continuous Governance Center"] CG["Continuous Enterprise Governance"] end subgraph Flywheel["COIF Flywheel Operating Model"] A["1. Contract Obligation Alignment"] --> B["2. Governed Contract Data Layer GCDL"] B --> C["3. Connected Contract Intelligence"] C --> A end CG --- Flywheel ```
The framework operates as a continuous flywheel structured around four core iterative principles: **Align**, **Govern**, **Intelligence**, and **Improve & Repeat**.
- **Not a New Tool:** Operates on top of existing software architectures to bring structural alignment across business units. - **Flywheel Architecture:** Replaces isolated, point-to-point integrations with a continuous operational feedback loop. - **Centralized Governance:** Anchors all operational decisions in a unified enterprise standard rather than siloed departmental logic.
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[18:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1112s) The Core Components of the COIF Operating Model
The Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework consists of three interconnected operational components anchored by continuous governance:
1. **Contract Obligation Alignment:** Establishes cross-departmental agreement upfront. Before writing or executing a contract, teams evaluate how specific terms will impact downstream operational units such as administration, finance, invoicing, and order fulfillment. 2. **Governed Contract Data Layer (GCDL):** A single, unified data abstraction layer that standardizes contract definitions across the organization. Instead of sales, procurement, and finance building separate data extraction pipelines, all AI agents, analytical dashboards, and operational reports consume normalized data from this single source of truth. 3. **Connected Contract Intelligence:** Continuously cross-references formal contractual obligations against real-world operational actuals to generate actionable insights and flag risk exposure in real time.
```mermaid accTitle: Governed Contract Data Layer Ecosystem flowchart LR subgraph Consumers["Enterprise Data Consumers"] A1["Procurement Teams"] A2["Finance & Invoicing"] A3["Sales Operations"] A4["AI Agents & Analytics"] end subgraph CoreLayer["Unified Infrastructure"] GCDL["Governed Contract Data Layer GCDL"] end subgraph Source["Raw Data Inputs"] PDFs["Historical Contract Archives & PDFs"] end PDFs --> GCDL GCDL --> A1 GCDL --> A2 GCDL --> A3 GCDL --> A4 ```
By embedding **Continuous Governance** at the heart of this flywheel, organizations eliminate duplicate data processing, align departmental definitions, and establish a trusted, scalable foundation for future agentic AI capabilities.
- **Upfront Alignment:** Prevents downstream execution issues by reviewing contract structures before final execution. - **Single Source of Truth:** The GCDL eliminates redundant OCR scanning and disparate data models across enterprise tools. - **Real-Time Auditing:** Connected intelligence compares agreed contract terms against actual operational metrics to automatically detect revenue leakage and non-compliance.
<ElicitationsGroup message="To explore the concepts from this session further:"> <Elicitation label="Summarize Part 2 of this presentation" query="Provide a detailed walkthrough of Part 2 of the presentation on Governed Contract Data Layers."/> <Elicitation label="Compare CLM tools vs. Governed Data Layers" query="Compare traditional Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software with a Governed Contract Data Layer (GCDL)."/> </ElicitationsGroup>
[20:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1223s) The Virtuous Feedback Loop of the COIF Model
Establishing structural alignment early in the contract lifecycle fundamentally transforms both operational performance and the total cost of solution ownership. Under the Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF), upfront cross-functional alignment generates clean, high-quality obligation data around core contractual terms. That reliable data layer serves as the catalyst for deeper automation and advanced intelligence: machine learning models produce predictable, trustworthy results rather than erratic outputs, giving business units robust predictive analytics across their entire portfolio of contracts.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: The Virtuous Feedback Loop of Governed Contract Intelligence subgraph Foundation["Governed Foundation"] A["Upfront Cross-Team Alignment"] --> B["High-Quality Obligation Data"] end subgraph Intelligence["Intelligence & Automation"] B --> C["Predictable AI Models & Automation"] C --> D["Advanced Predictive Analytics"] end subgraph Outcomes["Continuous Optimization"] D --> E["Standardized Contracts & Cost Reductions"] E -. "Continuous Feedback Loop".-> A end ```
The resulting intelligence initiates an ongoing compounding cycle across the organization. The insights extracted from governed contract data directly inform process improvements, accelerate contract standardization, and drive down operational waste. Because each phase operates as an interconnected feedback loop, the enterprise steadily improves its institutional knowledge over time, systematically shrinking operational expenses while elevating execution speed and accuracy.
- **Foundational Alignment:** High-quality data capture at the inception stage ensures that downstream models execute with precision and avoid governance drift. - **Predictive Capabilities:** Reliable obligation intelligence enables organizations to forecast contractual risks and performance milestones proactively rather than reacting post-signature. - **Continuous Feedback Mechanism:** Refined business processes and standardized clause libraries feed directly back into earlier lifecycle stages, lowering long-term total cost of ownership (TCO).
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[21:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=1300s) Fixing Fragmentation Before Rushing into AI
Before bringing the presentation to a close, Naresh Kommula imparts a crucial architectural principle for any team planning an artificial intelligence rollout, whether focused specifically on contract intelligence or general enterprise AI: address internal fragmentation before writing code or purchasing software. The prevailing instinct among business units is to rush ahead, acquiring or building siloed point solutions tailored solely to their immediate departmental pain points. That siloed mentality inevitably guarantees fragmented data pipelines and skyrocketing governance overhead across the wider enterprise.
Leaders must step back and prioritize alignment across departments before deploying tools. If achieving sweeping, enterprise-wide consensus immediately feels too daunting, organizations should begin by aligning departments that operate side-by-side—such as legal, procurement, finance, and operations. Kommula underscores that making this singular architectural commitment up front will dramatically reduce the total cost of enterprise AI ownership over the solution's lifetime. Concluding his address, he invites questions on the COIF model and thanks the audience, met with warm applause.
- **The Rush to Implement:** Departmental silos and hasty AI deployments duplicate data pipelines and obligation models, driving up costs rather than lowering them. - **Adjacent Alignment:** Bridging the gap between immediately adjacent business units provides an achievable, pragmatic starting point for unified contract governance. - **Cost Impact:** Upfront organizational alignment stands as the single most effective lever for curbing downstream AI maintenance, integration, and operational expenses.
## Notable quotes > [00:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=54s) that's where the money lives. — Naresh Kommula
> [07:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=468s) If you're not implementing a solution with AI, they see you as... not up to the market. — Naresh Kommula
> [13:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8&t=801s) everyone cares about the contract, but no one cares as a whole. — Naresh Kommula
## Mentioned Naresh Kommula, McKesson, Ai4, World Commerce & Contracting, MIT, Gartner, Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework, Governed Contract Data Layer, Contract Lifecycle Management
## Video description Naresh Kommula - Lead IT Architect, McKesson
AI is making it easier than ever to build & deploy contract intelligence solutions, yet many organizations are experiencing rising complexity, governance overhead, and inconsistent AI outcomes. As AI expands across legal, procurement, finance, compliance, and operations, organizations often create multiple versions of contract intelligence, each with its own obligation models, governance processes, and data pipelines.
This session explores why contracts must be treated as governed enterprise data assets rather than unstructured documents. Attendees will learn how the Governed Contract Data Layer (GCDL) and Contract Obligation Intelligence Framework (COIF) can create a shared operational language for contractual obligations, improve compliance, reduce duplication, and provide a trusted foundation for scalable AI and emerging agentic capabilities.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSxWviHdc8)