Spend and vendors
Before you renew an AI tool, answer four questions
Renewal is the moment of greatest leverage over AI spend. Four questions separate the tools worth scaling from those worth fixing or stopping.
3 min read
1. What are we paying for, and who uses it?
Start with a ledger that reconciles invoices, seats and usage to named owners. Unused seats and overlapping subscriptions are common, and they are the easiest savings to defend.
Where usage data is incomplete, record the gap rather than estimating around it. A known gap is a negotiating point; a hidden one is a risk.
2. What benefit can we evidence?
Benefits claimed for AI tools often mix three different things: cash savings, cost avoidance and capacity freed for other work. Each is real, but only the first reduces spend, so they should be shown separately.
Set a baseline for cost, adoption, quality and benefit now, even an imperfect one, so the next renewal can be judged on movement rather than opinion.
| Decision | When the evidence shows | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Stop | Low use and no evidenced benefit | Exit at renewal and reclaim the budget |
| Fix | Benefit is evident where used, but adoption, fit or contract terms hold it back | Close the gap with an owner and a date before renewing |
| Scale | Strong use and evidenced benefit, with costs understood | Expand deliberately, with a baseline to measure against |
Source: AI Journey Advisory, AI Spend and Value Review service scope.
3. Should we stop, fix or scale?
With costs and evidence side by side, each tool falls into one of three decisions. Stop where value is absent, fix where adoption or fit is the problem, and scale where the evidence is strong. Record the reason, and the evidence still needed before expanding.
4. What would the alternative cost over three years?
If a replacement is on the table, compare up to three vendors on features, cost, risk and fit, and model licensing, implementation and ongoing costs over three years. First-year pricing rarely tells the full story.
End with acceptance criteria the preferred vendor must meet, so the decision can be validated before contracts are signed.
How we can help
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