The Exit Plan: Leaving Your AI Vendor

Nobody plans the breakup on the wedding day. Everyone should.

Your AI exit plan has four parts, and all of them belong in the contract before you sign. First, data export: in what format, how quickly, and with what help? "We'll figure it out later" is how migrations become hostage situations.

Second, deletion: what gets deleted when you leave, from where, and on what timeline? Include backups and logs in the question, because vendors love to forget those.

Third, transition assistance: will the vendor help you move, for how long, and at what cost? Thirty days of included support is standard to request. Zero days is standard to regret.

Fourth, surviving terms: which obligations continue after termination? Confidentiality and data protection shouldn't evaporate the day the contract ends.

This isn't pessimism. Tools get outgrown, vendors get acquired, pricing changes, better options appear. Exits are normal. What's abnormal is being unable to leave a tool you've outgrown because nobody negotiated the door.

Sign the exit on the happiest day. You'll thank yourself on the hardest one.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.