Why Commercial & Contract Management must be reimagined?
The McKinsey–World Economic Forum analysis on Latin America in the Intelligent Age1 highlights AI as a catalyst for productivity-led growth. This aligns with recent research activity led by World Commerce & Contracting and the CCMI (Commerce & Contract Management Institute). However, the real test is not digital investment itself, but whether AI, capital, and ambition can be translated into infrastructure that actually works, without repeating the contractual and commercial failures seen in other regions.
In Latin America, infrastructure is not just an enabler of growth, it is the growth agenda. Transport, energy, water, digital networks, health systems, and logistics platforms form the backbone of productivity, and globally it is in infrastructure where poor commercial design has destroyed the most value.
Learning from others’ mistakes
Across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, large infrastructure programs have been plagued by:
- Adversarial buyer–supplier relationships
- Contracts that transfer risk and undermine innovation
- A claims-driven culture replacing effective performance management
- Fragmented accountability between policy, contracting, delivery, and operations
These failures were not primarily technical. They were commercial and contractual and should not be replicated.
Latin America has a rare opportunity to leapfrog legacy contracting models.
Infrastructure in the intelligent age is an ecosystem problem
AI-enabled infrastructure will depend on:
- Long-term capital commitments
- Multi-party delivery models
- Technology and data integration over decades
- Continuous change, not static scope
This reality breaks the logic of traditional “buyer specifies, supplier complies” contracting.
Infrastructure performance now depends on how well both sides align incentives, share risk intelligently, and adapt together over time. Good contracting practices and skills lie at the heart of each of these.
This point is critical not only for Latin America as a region, but also globally and particularly for another country with a similar level of contract management maturity: Spain. Recently, World Commerce & Contracting hosted an event (WorldCC Connect Madrid), during which a panel of infrastructure experts addressed this topic and reached the same conclusions regarding risk transfer in the sector.
Why this is a two-sided CCM challenge
Commercial and Contract Management has too often been framed as a buyer control function. That framing is no longer fit for purpose, especially in infrastructure. This conclusion had long been anticipated by Tim Cummins, our President and Founder and it is now reinforced by this McKinsey–World Economic Forum analysis.
From the buyer / public authority perspective
CCM capability determines whether governments:
- Attract serious, capable suppliers, or drive ‘a race to the bottom’
- Enable innovation, or lock projects into outdated assumptions
- Manage fiscal exposure, or create hidden long-term liabilities
Smarter contracts do not mean weaker control. On the contrary, they mean increased transparency and better alignment between public outcomes and supplier economics.
From the supplier perspective
For infrastructure developers, operators, and technology providers:
- Contracts define whether investment risk is bankable
- Commercial models determine whether performance is rewarded
- Governance structures dictate whether problems are solved or escalated into disputes
Suppliers must not act as passive recipients of terms; they are co-architects of delivery systems. Poor contracts drive defensive behavior, good ones unlock capability.
Where CCM becomes strategic
In this context, Commercial and Contract Management plays four critical roles:
1. Designing investable, adaptable commercial models Infrastructure contracts must allow for evolution - technological, regulatory, and demand-driven without constant renegotiation ((WorldCC’s ‘Adaptive Contracting Guide’ addresses this).
2. Aligning incentives across the lifecycle Productivity gains come from performance over the project’s duration, not lowest-cost entry bids. CCM shapes incentive structures that reward delivery, resilience, and innovation.
3. Governing data, AI, and digital twins Intelligent infrastructure depends on shared data, AI-driven insights and continuous optimization. These are contractual and commercial questions as much as technical ones.
4. Enabling trust at scale Large programs fail when trust collapses and contracts become weapons. CCM defines escalation paths, authority, and decision rights that keep issues solvable.
A regional opportunity, not just a capability gap
Latin America’s infrastructure push coincides with:
- AI-enabled delivery and monitoring
- New financing and public–private models
- A growing recognition that adversarial contracting destroys value
This creates an opening to reset expectations of what contracts are for: not static risk transfer, but dynamic coordination mechanisms.
The message for CCM practitioners and leaders
This moment is not about digitising old templates or automating bad processes.
It is about repositioning Commercial and Contract Management as the discipline that connects strategy, investment, technology, and delivery, across both sides of the contract.
If Latin America succeeds, it will not be because it adopted AI faster than others. It will be because it designed smarter commercial relationships, avoided inherited mistakes, and
treated contracts as engines of performance rather than administrative paperwork or legal weapons.
That is the challenge and the opportunity for CCM in the Intelligent Age.