What should I ask about an AI scribe contract before I sign?

Five things, and none of them are about the note. How long the term runs. When exactly you are allowed to leave. Whether you can start with one clinician instead of the whole practice. What the setup fee buys. And what happens to your data if you go. One office manager learned the second of those ten months too late.

Why is the contract the risk and not the software?

Because you can tell in two weeks whether the software suits you. You cannot tell in two years whether you can leave.

Everyone evaluates the note. It is the visible part, it demonstrates well, and it is what you will judge on day one. The contract is eleven pages you sign once, in a hurry, because the trial went fine.

The software decision is reversible. That is what a trial is for. The contract decision usually is not.

What does a bad exit look like?

An office manager described one in a thread a few years ago.

Her practice used a scribe for a year, decided it was not working, and went to cancel. They were told the next chance to cancel was ten months away, because cancellation was only possible at the exact anniversary. The terms, which she said nobody had read closely enough, left almost no room to argue.

Nothing about the note had changed. They simply were not allowed to stop paying for it.

Ask when you may cancel, in what window, and by what method. Get the answer in writing before the trial, not after.

Why does all-or-nothing pricing matter so much?

Because it takes away your cheapest way to find out.

One practice in that same thread was told it could not start with a single clinician. It had to be every provider or none, with a setup fee on top, at a per-clinician monthly price more than ten times what others in the room said they paid.

A vendor confident in the product lets one person try it. A vendor that needs the whole practice on day one is managing its own risk, not yours. You can price that difference: the cost of being wrong, multiplied by the number of people you had to commit.

What happens to your notes if you leave?

Ask, and get it in writing.

Signed notes live in the record you signed them into, so this is usually less frightening than it sounds. Ask anyway about the rest: the audio, the drafts that were never signed, and anything kept to improve the product. Ask how long it is held after you go, and how you ask for it to be deleted.

A vendor that cannot answer this in a sentence has not been asked often enough.

What does a fair deal look like?

Short, visible and reversible.

A published price you can read without booking a call. A month to month option, even if the annual one is cheaper. One clinician first. A cancellation you can make in any month, in writing, with an ordinary notice period. And a clear line on what happens to your data afterwards.

None of that is generous. It is what a product that expects to keep you can afford to offer.

The short version

Ask five things: how long the term runs, when exactly you can cancel, whether one clinician can start alone, what the setup fee buys, and what happens to your data if you leave. Solanto's answers are meant to be boring. The price is published on the site, so you can compare it without booking a call.

Solanto has not shipped yet. The price is on the page rather than behind a call, and early access is open: solanto.ai/pricing

Before your next renewal, find the cancellation clause and read it out loud at the staff meeting. It takes two minutes.