How do I avoid getting locked into a vendor once they've built our AI systems?

How do I avoid getting locked into a vendor once they've built our first AI systems?

Ownership is a list, not a vibe. Code, configurations, documentation, credentials in your account, named in the contract. Lock-in rarely announces itself. It looks more like systems running in the vendor's environment using their tools, credentials only they hold, and documentation that never quite arrives or is out of date. Then you want to leave, and discover that the thing that you paid for can't come with you.

So make ownership concrete before you start. Everything built lives in accounts that you control. Every credential is yours. Documentation is a deliverable, not a courtesy.

We work entirely inside our clients' own architecture. Their accounts, their systems, their credentials, everything inside their systems from day one. There's no handover problem at the end, because it never lived on our side. A build you can't take with you isn't an asset. It's a subscription with a few extra steps.

Add one clause before your next signature: on exit, all systems, access and documentation transfer, and the vendor demonstrates the handover. Anyone who resists that clause has just told you the answer.