Recently, Deloitte made headlines when it agreed to issue a partial refund to the Australian Federal Government after a $440,000 report was found to be riddled with errors. The culprit? AI-generated content that, despite its promise of efficiency, introduced mistakes significant enough to warrant a refund.

 

This incident highlights a broader question that rarely seems to make it into mainstream business discussions: how many of your suppliers are quietly leveraging AI to complete work you’re paying for as if it were done by people—and charging you at full human rates?

 

AI is transforming the way work gets done. It can accelerate analysis, generate content, and automate repetitive tasks. But when commercial arrangements are built around the assumption of human labor, there’s a risk. If a supplier is substituting AI for people without adjusting billing or disclosure, the customer is effectively paying for labor that doesn’t exist.

 

The market narrative around AI-generated content is full of warnings about inaccuracies, biases, and quality issues. Yet there’s far less discussion about a related risk: cost misalignment. Companies rarely ask, “How much of the work we’re paying for is actually being performed by AI rather than humans?”

 

This is where Sapience comes in. Our workforce intelligence platform, SapienceIQ, gives enterprises real visibility into how work is actually getting done—whether by human resources or AI. Organizations can detect when labor is being substituted by AI, quantify the associated capacity, and adjust commercial arrangements accordingly. With Sapience, companies gain the insight needed to protect budgets, ensure fair supplier billing, and maximize value from both human and AI labor.

 

The Deloitte situation is a cautionary tale. It’s easy to notice errors after the fact, but much harder to detect when AI is quietly producing deliverables that look human-created. For enterprises with extensive supplier relationships, this creates a double exposure: the risk of poor-quality work and the risk of being overcharged.

 

It’s time for procurement, finance, and operations leaders to start asking tough questions:

 

• Which suppliers are using AI to deliver services we’re paying for?
• Are we paying human rates for work AI performed?
• How do we verify the quality and accuracy of AI-generated deliverables?

 

Transparency isn’t just about ethics—it’s about protecting your budget, your operations, and your trust in the supplier ecosystem. AI can drive enormous efficiency, but without clarity in commercial arrangements, it can also quietly erode value.

 

Sapience provides the insight organizations need to answer these questions confidently. By capturing real work activity, it ensures you know exactly who—or what—is doing the work and what you’re paying for.

 

The Deloitte story isn’t just a news item—it’s a wake-up call. With Sapience, enterprises can ensure AI adoption drives efficiency without hidden costs or surprises.