The Value Standard
A Senate Bill on AI Agents Sets Conditions on the Buyer
The first federal text on AI agents does not ask the software to behave well. It specifies conditions the arrangement must have, and most enterprises cannot meet one of them internally.
Read MoreWendell Berry’s Nine Tests for Any New Tool
Wendell Berry set nine standards for any new tool in 1987, and only one asked whether it did the work better. The other eight asked what it would cost the work already being done well.
Read MoreBritain Made Buyers Publish a Verdict on Their Suppliers
The Procurement Act 2023 now makes public buyers assess their suppliers and publish the verdict. The statute never says the verdict has to be about the value the contract was bought for.
Read MoreThe Business Case for Your Purchase Was Written Without You
Most buying teams have never met business value engineering, the seller discipline that writes the case for their purchases. An insider explains what to ask for.
Read MoreYour Contract’s Audit Right Can’t Tell You If the Purchase Worked
A buyer with a right to audit can examine everything the seller spent and still learn nothing about whether the thing it bought worked. Those are two different rights, and most contracts carry only one.
Read MoreAI Vendor Checklists Have Quietly Become a Buying Standard
Enterprise buyers assembled an evidence-gated purchasing instrument for AI vendors one RFP at a time. It gates payment on proof rather than promise, it is already operating, and it still has no name.
Read MoreHow Buyers Earn Preferred-Customer Status With Suppliers
Suppliers decide which buyers get their best people and scarcest capacity. The research says that decision runs on demonstrated behavior, not on order size, and it is reissued rather than banked.
Read MoreWhy Big Four Reports Shipped With Fabricated AI Citations
Deloitte, KPMG and EY each shipped a report with fabricated citations inside eight months. None of them decided to skip the check. The check was never priced, so it never happened.
Read MoreA CFO’s Four AI Guardrails All Point at the Buyer’s Own Systems
A CFO lays out exactly what enterprise AI accountability requires. Every requirement points at the buyer’s own systems, and none of them point at the vendor.
Read MoreEurope Lets AI Buyers Complain About Suppliers, With Evidence
Europe just gave the AI buyer a formal complaint right against its supplier. The statute puts the burden of evidence on the buyer, which is where it always belonged.
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