Palantir’s Privacy Bets: A Win For Customer Success
How Palantir’s privacy-by-design work (and its “Checkpoints” framework) turns governance into speed, trust, and better renewals.
Palantir shared this update on its blog. Here’s what it means for Customer Success—and how to act.
What Palantir Announced
For 20+ years, Palantir has built security, privacy, and oversight into its platforms.
One result is Checkpoints: a simple, configurable prompt that asks users to briefly justify a sensitive action (like exporting data or changing permissions).
The justification is saved for audit and review. Think of it as a smart “Are you sure?” dialog that also captures why the action happened.
Why this matters now: Checkpoints has grown into a flexible governance layer. It supports dozens of sensitive actions, plugs into identity (SSO) for re‑auth, and helps teams meet rules like GxP e‑signatures while keeping people moving.
If you’re building AI into workflows, this is also a guardrail: users can’t blindly accept an AI‑suggested action without a human sign‑off and a short rationale.
Why This Matters For Customer Success
Trust is the new feature. Customers renew when they feel safe, in control, and fast. Purpose‑justified prompts do three things for CS teams:
Faster approvals, fewer stalls. Security reviews and audits speed up when every sensitive action has context and an owner. If you’re formalizing this, see how I close the “proof gap” in Sunhat’s €9.2M: Closing The Proof Gap In Customer Success.
AI with a human in the loop. When agents suggest changes, a checkpoint captures the human decision and reasoning. For a bigger picture of AI rollouts, read AI In Customer Success: 2025 Implementation Guide.
Cleaner data, stronger trust. Clear lineage and controlled exports reduce disputes and escalations. I break down the governance angle in Dispatch Raises $18M: Powering AI‑Ready, Trustable Data.
What You Can Do In The Next 30 Days
Days 0–10 — Map Sensitive Moments
List the actions that create risk or friction: bulk exports, PII views, permission changes, AI‑suggested approvals. Tie each to a policy owner and business metric.
Days 11–20 — Add Lightweight Guardrails
Introduce justification prompts on the top 3 actions. Link to your data‑handling policy. Require re‑authentication for role changes or production data writes.
Days 21–30 — Prove The Impact
Track: time to approve access, audit response time, % AI actions with human sign‑off, and reduction in escalations.
Plug these into your QBRs alongside lifecycle wins from Why Customer Success Still Runs On Spreadsheets (And What To Steal From E‑Commerce).
If you need a structure, drop these into your plan using the resources in Templates For Customer Success Leaders.
Real‑World Plays (You Can Steal)
GxP / Life Sciences: Use re‑auth as an e‑signature when shipping code, changing pipelines, or modifying records. Save the justification as an e‑record. This keeps quality teams happy without blocking delivery.
AI + Human Teaming: Add a checkpoint to any “Submit Action” where an agent proposes a next step (approve shipment, advance a case, release a batch). Require a short risk check and a reason.
For more on agentic analytics and shared definitions, see Veezoo’s $6M: Agentic Analytics For CS Leaders.
Metrics That Move Renewals
Audit Response Time: Minutes to provide proof of who did what, when, and why.
Access Approval SLA: Time from request → approved with justification.
AI Verification Rate: % of AI‑suggested actions with human sign‑off.
Export Friction Score: % of sensitive exports that include a policy link and purpose note.
Connecting these with activation and adoption in your onboarding makes a strong story. If onboarding needs a fix, start with Why Most Onboarding Fails Before It Even Starts.
Upgrading Your Stack? Choose Tools That Prove “Why”
If you’re evaluating platforms, look for built‑in purpose justification, lineage, and fine‑grained access. My guide 2025’s Best Customer Success Platforms explains the trade‑offs to reduce churn and show value faster.
My Takeaway
Palantir’s long bet on privacy created a tool that speeds work and raises trust.
That’s the playbook for CS in 2025: add small guardrails at key moments, capture the “why,” and turn governance into faster deals and smoother renewals.
—Hakan | Founder, The Customer Success Café Weekly Newsletter