Seat economics
Who has access, who uses it, which plan or feature is required, and whether overlapping tools can be consolidated.
AI & API spend
AI cost is a capability question, not only a token question.
AI spend can be seat-based, usage-based, committed, decentralized, or hidden inside another workflow. The first job is to see what is being purchased and what business outcome it is supposed to deliver.
Consumption economics
Provider, model, tokens, API calls, commitments, budgets, forecast, attribution, and cost volatility.
Value economics
What task improves, what quality threshold applies, and whether human review or maintenance changes the total cost.
Common decisions
AI can end in Keep, Cut, Renegotiate, or Replace.
- Keep: the tool or model is required and the economics are sound.
- Cut: remove unused seats, duplicate subscriptions, uncontrolled keys, or obsolete commitments.
- Renegotiate: improve plan, unit price, commitment, overage, or renewal terms.
- Replace: move to an existing capability, lower-cost model, smaller tool, or workflow only after the full risk and net-cost gate.
Illustrative replacement screen
A lower model price can still create a higher operating cost.
Compare current provider cost with replacement API usage, hosting, monitoring, human review, migration, failure cost, and support ownership. If those inputs are not available, the answer is Pilot or Keep, not a confident Replace.
Current annual cost$100K
Replacement operating cost$15K
Switching cost$20K
Year-1 net savings$65K
Human review / supportNamed owner
RiskGate required
Illustrative example only. See the Replacement Economics Gate.
Make AI spend accountable.
Start by mapping subscriptions, providers, commitments, and the jobs they perform.