Rise of Agentic AI Pushes Enterprise Software Contracts Toward Outsourcing Model

For the past two decades, enterprise software has largely relied on SaaS contracts priced by seat or license, with vendors primarily guaranteeing uptime and offering compensation for outages. But Agentic AI can now approve refunds, reconcile accounts and initiate payments, meaning errors can directly cause financial losses. Mayer Brown and Stoel Rives therefore argue that contracts must include human review, audit rights and clearer allocations of liability.

PYMNTS reported on Feb. 24, 2026, that Mayer Brown had said on Feb. 17 that these contracts were shifting toward managed-services or outsourcing structures. On March 19, it also cited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as saying at GTC 2026 that SaaS would move toward outcome-based “GaaS” pricing. A survey found that 43% of chief financial officers expected Agentic AI to have a high impact on dynamic budget reallocation, while 47% anticipated a moderate impact. The reports did not disclose actual contract values.