Vic Sol · Decision DeskEditable template · 15 min to use
Before you build, check what you already pay for: AI inventory
For IT, operations or finance managers with scattered licences who want to know what AI they already have before approving that someone builds another one.
When to use it
Your team wants to build a chatbot, an assistant or an automation with AI.
Every area pays for its own tool and nobody has the complete list.
A renewal is due and you suspect another licence already does the same thing.
The sheet
One row per tool the company pays for today. Many sales and customer-service systems already ship with AI, and nobody switched it on.
Illustrative example: "Sales CRM · Sales · call summaries and email drafts · No · duplicates the assistant Marketing pays for · Consolidate".
Before approving a build, three questions in this order:
Can something we already pay for do it? Check the "AI features already included" column.
If not, is there a product that already solves it? If the problem is common, buying is faster than building.
Does this process make us different from competitors? Only then is building worth it.
There is a fourth option: wait. If you do not have the data yet, waiting is also a decision.
How to fill it in 15 minutes
Ask finance for the list of software subscriptions from the last quarter. It is more complete than any manager's memory.
For each tool, open its release notes or ask the vendor which AI features your plan includes. Write them down even if nobody uses them.
Mark "Switched on?" honestly. "Not sure" is a valid answer and the most common one.
Fill "Duplicates" by reading the features column top to bottom. Two tools that summarise meetings are a duplicate.
Decide per row: keep, consolidate or cancel. If you cannot decide, write who can and by when.
The most common mistake: listing only the "AI tools". The AI you already pay for usually sits inside the sales, support or payroll system, not in a separate tool.
The line that is almost always missing
The "AI features already included" column. Software inventories list names and prices, and nobody checks what each licence ships with. Building costs more than paying for the development: afterwards it has to be maintained, fixed and you depend on whoever built it. Before taking on that cost, it is worth knowing whether the feature already sits in something the company has been paying for for years.
Vic Sol · Decision Desk · vicsol.org/resources/ · Free to use with attribution. This sheet structures a conversation; it is not legal, financial or audit advice.
Open the .docx in Word (or the .xlsx in Excel) or print it before the meeting.
Fill the fields with the team; leave the blanks visible, they are the discussion.
Close with one owner, one date and one next action. Nothing else.
Prompt
Generate this sheet for your case
Paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini together with your proposal, process or policy. It reproduces the sheet with your data and flags what is missing.
Act as an IT manager with experience in companies of 50 to 1,000 people who has consolidated software licences many times and who, before approving any build, asks what is already being paid for.
Context I am giving you:
- Company and sector: [e.g. services company, 300 people]
- What the team wants to build with AI: [e.g. a customer-service chatbot]
- List of software tools we pay for today, with the area that pays: [paste list or write one per line]
- AI features I know they already include, if I know: [ ]
- Process to be automated and whether it sets us apart from competitors: [ ]
What I need: build the AI inventory on a single page with exactly this structure:
1. A table with one row per tool and the columns Tool · Who pays · AI features already included · Switched on? · Duplicates · Decision (keep / consolidate / cancel).
2. Below it, the three questions in this order, answered with whatever is in the table: can something we already pay for do it?; if not, is there a product that already solves it?; does this process make us different from competitors?
3. A one-line recommendation among four options: use what we already have, buy, build or wait.
Output format: the table, the three questions with short answers and the recommendation. Maximum 350 words. No introduction.
Rules:
- Do not invent AI features for any tool. If you do not know what it includes, write [CHECK WITH VENDOR] in that cell.
- Flag every assumption as an assumption.
- If the "Switched on?" column ends up mostly "Not sure", tell me: it is the most frequent finding.
- If critical information is missing, ask me at most 3 questions before answering.
- Answer in plain, direct business English, with no sales adjectives.
What to check in the answer:
Does the AI features column say [CHECK WITH VENDOR] where it should, or did it fill in features the tool may not have?
Did it flag duplicates across different areas, or only within the same one?
Did the recommendation consider waiting as an option, or jump straight to buying or building?
Vic Sol