AI-Agent Success-Fee and Outcome-Pricing

Acknowledgement: Shared by Peter Bamuhigire, techguypeter.com, +256 784 464178.

Use When

• The buyer wants the agency to share commercial risk on the agent's outcomes (gain-share, success fee, hybrid).
• The buyer's procurement team has signalled they prefer outcome pricing to time-and-materials or to fixed subscription.
• The pricing pattern selected is B (Per-Outcome), F (Success-Based), or E (Hybrid) with a success component.
• The bid is competitive and outcome pricing is a discriminator the agency wants to deploy responsibly.

Do Not Use When

• The pricing pattern is per-step or per-agent with no outcome component.
• The engagement is public sector (outcome pricing on citizen services is politically inappropriate; use Pattern D).
• The outcome cannot be attributed cleanly to the agent (attribution disputes will destroy the relationship).
• The agency's autonomy ramp and intervention rate are unproven (do the POC first; commit to outcome pricing afterwards).

Required Inputs