Verify before you trust. In this order.
Almost every AI governance failure was signed into existence at procurement — the moment of maximum leverage over a vendor is the moment before purchase. This is the verification path, each step free and sourced.
Step 1 — Check the public record (30 seconds)
The Transparency Registry holds 558 FDA clearances under AI-associated product codes, searchable by company and category, refreshed weekly. Every vendor claim about clearance is verifiable here against the government source — and every company has its own page listing everything they hold.
Step 2 — Demand the evidence that matters
The due-diligence checklist is the question set: validation studies, subgroup performance, monitoring commitments, the complete technical action list for anything agentic — and what each refusal tells you. The evidence landscapes cover what vendors in each category have published, and have not.
Step 3 — Model the economics, then contract the controls
Run the numbers on the free calculators before the vendor's deck does it for you. Then contract governance in: update notification, evidence rights, halt rights, and your data on exit. The governance guide covers the handoff from signature into your registry and monitoring cadence.