EY: Outcome-Based SaaS Pricing Transfers Risk to Vendor — New Contracting Architecture Emerging

EY·medium signal

EY's analysis of the SaaS GenAI pricing shift identifies a structural risk reallocation: outcome-based contracts require vendors to absorb 'invisible iterations, qualitative variability, and disputes over the definition of the outcome.' This creates new contract architecture needs — measurable success metrics, dispute resolution clauses, and rollback provisions that traditional SaaS MSAs never contained. EY predicts 2026 will see significant legal/contracting experimentation before standard practices emerge in 2027–2028.