Nearly half of committee-approved software deals now die at the CFO's desk.
Generative AI compressed discovery to a single prompt but relocated the deal's point of death downstream — evaluation is now the longest buying stage, IT security the biggest delay, and finance vetoes 49–54% of already-approved purchases while demanding six-month ROI and sub-12-month contract terms.
The same conclusion keeps arriving from across the workspace's research — 1 topics independently instantiate this theme. Filter the evidence by where it came from:
Post-veto buyers harden the renewal cliff with six-month ROI mandates and double-rate short contract terms.
The friction AI removed from discovery re-emerged as a security, budget, and implementation gauntlet after selection.
The deeper the enterprise commitment to AI spend, the sharper the finance gate on every individual purchase.
The finance veto is no longer a corner case — it is the near-universal fate of committee-approved deals.