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DataScience Show Podcast
DataScience Show Podcast

Buying the Brain: An Executive Playbook for Procuring Foundation Models and Managing TCO

30 January 2026 11:30 Mirko Peters

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About this episode

Large language and multimodal foundation models offer capability leaps but introduce complex procurement, cost, and legal trade-offs that routinely stall enterprise adoption. In this monologue Mirko lays out a pragmatic executive playbook for buying—versus building—foundation models responsibly. The episode covers how to scope business outcomes, compare licensing models (hosted API, private deployment, fine-tuning), map true TCO (compute, data ops, monitoring, latency/SLA costs), assign contractual risk (data ownership, IP, reverse-engineering, security), and design exit and portability clauses before signing. Mirko uses concise, anonymized vignettes to show common procurement pitfalls and executive negotiation levers that protect margin and compliance. Listeners receive a prioritized 30–90 day checklist to assess current contracts, power conversations with procurement and legal, and a simple decision rubric to choose the model sourcing approach that aligns with strategy and risk appetite. Practical, non-technical, and board-ready guidance for leaders who must buy capability without buying long-term surprise costs.

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I share practical AI leadership notes on LinkedIn — the kind you can forward internally or reuse in executive discussions.
Follow Mirko on LinkedIn if you want decision-ready frameworks, not hype.

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