In the age of machine learning and AI-driven decision-making, model accuracy is often touted as the holy grail. Teams boast of hitting 95%+ F1 scores or outshining baselines by double digits. However, high accuracy in development environments means very little if the model is fed garbage in production. That’s where data contracts come in: the unsung hero of reliable, scalable machine learning systems.
Without robust data quality, schema validation, and pipeline reliability, even the most accurate model is nothing more than a fragile sandbox experiment. In this article, we’ll explore the critical role of data contracts in ML systems, why accuracy metrics can be deceptive, and how enforcing contracts can save your models from silent failure in production.
