Tech & Sourcing @ Morgan Lewis

We are currently witnessing a fundamental shift in the role that AI plays in enterprise operations, transitioning from a system that responds when prompted to one that plans, decides, and acts on its own. This shift has a name: agentic AI. And for business leaders and counsel advising on technology strategy, it deserves serious attention right now.

Two years ago, many technology agreements addressed artificial intelligence (AI), if at all, through a generic disclaimer or a brief acknowledgment that AI features might be included in the offering. Today, that approach is inadequate. The integration of AI into commercial products, outsourcing arrangements, and enterprise software agreements has forced a rethinking of longstanding contract frameworks.

Saudi Arabia’s cloud and data protection framework is substantive, cross-sectoral, and still maturing, creating a dynamic environment for technology companies entering the region. The threshold challenge is not merely identifying the applicable rules but truly understanding how multiple overlapping frameworks interact and where regulatory gaps require considered judgment in the absence of published guidance.

Sports sponsorship agreements were once relatively straightforward: brand visibility in exchange for fees. This is no longer the case. Today, most meaningful sponsorships involve significant data components, whether fan engagement platforms, digital activations, or, increasingly, AI-driven analytics. As a result, these agreements are starting to look much more like technology and data contracts.

Get ahead of the game by joining partner Don Shelkey and associates Charlotte Cavendish and Jesse Taylor on March 4, 2026, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm ET, for a discussion on emerging trends in sports business transactions. From artificial intelligence–driven fan engagement to innovative sponsorship models shaping the future of sports transactions, the Morgan Lewis team will explore the trends, opportunities, and challenges shaping these transactions.

In an era defined by economic volatility, supply chain disruptions, rapid technological change, and geopolitical risk, outsourcing remains an attractive strategy for businesses seeking efficiency and scalability. At the same time, uncertainty has fundamentally changed what clients expect from their outsourcing agreements. Rigid, long-term contracts that assume stable market conditions are increasingly misaligned with business reality.

ISG’s latest index highlights a technology services and software market that is increasingly defined by cloud momentum and AI-driven investment shifts. While headline growth remains strong, the underlying dynamics point to a more selective and strategic buying environment as enterprises head into 2026.

As demand for data-intensive and AI-driven workloads continues to grow, customers are increasingly encountering constraints on cloud compute resources—particularly specialized processors and region-specific capacity. These market dynamics raise a fundamental question for customers and their advisors: will the promised compute capacity actually be available when it is needed?

As the sports industry looks ahead to 2026, sponsorship agreements are becoming more complex, more strategic, and more closely scrutinized. We sat down with Doneld “Don” Shelkey, a leading sports sponsorship and commercial agreements lawyer at our firm, to discuss what he’s seeing in the market and what sponsors and rights holders should be thinking about now.

As AI continues to reshape technology transactions, deal lawyers have been compelled to revisit longstanding allocations of risk, revisit boilerplate, and develop new contracting mechanics to address novel uncertainty. While the core goals of technology deals remain the same—facilitating commercial outcomes and protecting the business—AI introduces distinctive pressure points across intellectual property, data, regulatory exposure, and liability frameworks.