Your AI Vendor Just Changed the Rules. Your Risk Just Changed, Too.
When an AI vendor changes its terms of service, most companies treat it like a routine software update. A memo is sent, a box is checked. This is a critical mistake.
A vendor's policy change isn't just a simple update; it's a fundamental shift in your company's risk surface. Many teams treat consumer and enterprise AI accounts as interchangeable, but a change to consumer terms, like a vendor suddenly reserving the right to use your team's chats for training or extending data retention from 30 days to five years, can mean your confidential IP and customer data are now part of their model. If your teams mix personal and work accounts, you have a hidden data governance problem that your public-facing privacy policy doesn't account for.
The answer isn’t to ban these powerful tools. The answer is to have a lightweight, repeatable play to run every time a vendor changes the rules mid-flight.
What This Means for Your Data and Your Promises
When a vendor’s terms change, there are three immediate impacts to check: your legal basis for data use (are your chats now being used for training?), your data retention schedule (30 days vs. multi-year), and any account carve-outs (consumer vs. enterprise/API). Your enterprise customers and auditors will ask for your stance on these changes, and they will expect evidence (screenshots, policy links, decision logs).
Having a simple process to manage these changes isn't just good hygiene; it's a trust signal. It proves you have a mature process for managing your supply chain risk, which shortens security reviews and unblocks deals.
The 6-Step Response Play You Can Run Today
This entire process can be completed in about a week, spending just 30-60 minutes on each step.
Scope the Blast Radius: Identify every place this vendor touches customer or employee data. Is it an app, a code-completion tool, a customer support API? Know exactly where the change has an impact.
Confirm Account Type: The carve-out between consumer, enterprise, and API tiers is critical. Verify which accounts are affected by the new terms and confirm that your commercial or enterprise accounts are excluded from training by default.
Decide on New Settings: Based on the risk, make a clear decision: will you opt in or opt out of new data training settings? Document this decision and the date it was made.
Implement Controls: Take direct action. Toggle the necessary settings in the tool (e.g., turn off training/memory), use incognito modes where available, and confirm the data retention window for your chosen setting.
Update Your Records: This is non-negotiable. Update your internal data map, ROPA (Record of Processing Activities), or DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment). Create a simple entry in a change log with the date and approver.
Prove & Communicate: Take screenshots of the new settings. Save links to the vendor’s new policy and status pages. Write a concise, one-paragraph update for your internal teams and, if necessary, your public-facing Trust Center.
An FAQ You Can Reuse
Keeping short, clear answers on hand will save your sales and support teams hours of work.
“Are our chats used for training?”
Your Answer: “No. As of [Date], we have opted out of all training on our company accounts. You can see the setting here: [Screenshot/Link].”
“How long does [Vendor] keep our data?”
Your Answer: “The vendor’s standard retention window for our enterprise account is 30 days.”
“Does this affect our enterprise plan?”
Your Answer: “No. These recent changes only apply to consumer-tier accounts. Our commercial agreement excludes our data from model training.”
“Why did the AI’s responses change last week?”
Your Answer: “The vendor reported a brief quality issue on [Date], which is now resolved. You can see their official status update here: [Link to Vendor Status Page].”
The Takeaway
Vendor policies will always change. Building a simple, repeatable process to manage those changes is the key to turning a chaotic fire drill into a routine business practice. Map the impact, choose your settings, implement the controls, update your records, and prove it happened. That’s how you build a compliance program that is both resilient and believable.