Brandon Card, founder and CEO of Terzo, published an op-ed in RealClearPolicy on August 3, 2026, arguing that federal agencies should manage contracts as financial assets rather than as legal or administrative paperwork. The piece, titled "Government Contracts Are a Financial Asset," highlights that the Department of Defense obligates approximately $445 billion annually across roughly 226,000 active contracts, yet has failed eight consecutive audits. Card contends this record demonstrates a lack of real-time visibility into what agencies are actually committing to.
"No team, regardless of experience or size, can manually understand millions of contracts on a continuous basis," Card wrote. His solution centers on AI-assisted contract analysis, which he says could provide federal agencies with the same financial visibility that Terzo's platform delivers to enterprise customers. By extracting and analyzing contractual obligations, agencies could improve accountability and audit readiness.
In the private sector, that visibility is achieved through Document AI, which extracts obligations, pricing, and terms from contracts and purchase orders, and Contract Analytics, which converts that data into dashboards for spend, compliance, and risk. Card's op-ed points to these tools as a model for how agencies could track obligations across large contract portfolios.
The implications extend beyond government accounting. If agencies adopt contract intelligence, it could reshape how public funds are monitored, reduce waste, and restore trust in federal financial management. For the private sector, Terzo's argument reinforces the growing importance of AI-driven contract oversight as a standard business practice. The op-ed also signals a potential shift in the public-sector market, where vendors offering similar solutions may see increased demand.
Terzo, founded in 2020, operates in the United States, Canada, and India. Its platform is designed to find money enterprises lose across third-party and supplier spend ecosystems, including contracts, invoices, purchase orders, and renewals. Card's op-ed extends that mission into the public sector, suggesting that the same financial intelligence applied to corporate supply chains could help resolve long-standing government audit failures.
