What happens to your data at the end of an AI SaaS contract?

In brief.
You cancel a subscription to an AI service that has analysed your documents for years. What happens to your data? Too often, nobody knows exactly. A document AI system does not just store your files: it creates derivatives of them, search indexes, mathematical representations, logs, cached answers. A return clause that covers only “the documents” leaves the essentials in place. Reversibility is negotiated on the way in, not on the way out.

The blind spot of derivatives

Your tenders, once ingested, exist in several forms: the original file, its indexed fragments, its mathematical representations, the generated answers that quote passages from it, the logs that record who asked for what. Each of these may contain strategic information that can be reconstructed. Deleting the file without purging the index, caches and logs is like removing the book from the library while leaving the photocopy on the table.

The clauses to demand before signing

Return: a full export of your content and your repository, in a reusable format, with no prohibitive fees. Deletion: a dated commitment explicitly covering derivatives, at the provider and its subcontractors, backups included according to a defined schedule. Evidence: a certificate of deletion, ideally auditable. Post-contract use: an express prohibition on using your data, even aggregated, to improve models that serve other customers. Timeframe: a reasonable reversibility window. A pre-sales test that reveals a provider’s maturity: ask them to describe in writing the full life cycle of a document on their side, from ingestion to deletion.

The Optivalue.ai approach

Guaranteed deletion at the end of the contract is a structural commitment of Optivalue.ai: it covers the data and their derivatives, and the architecture of one private instance per customer makes it simple to carry out and to prove, since nothing is shared.

What is derived data?
Indexes, vector representations, logs, caches: all the secondary forms the system creates from your files.

‍How can deletion be proven?
Through a dated contractual certificate covering derivatives and subcontractors, ideally with a right to audit.