Afrexai Ai Spend Audit

# AI Spend Audit

Audit your company's AI spending — find waste, measure ROI, and right-size your tool stack.

## When to Use
- Quarterly AI budget reviews
- Before renewing AI tool subscriptions
- When AI spend exceeds 3% of revenue without clear ROI
- Evaluating build vs buy decisions for AI capabilities

## The Framework

### Step 1: Inventory Every AI Line Item
Map all AI spending across these categories:

| Category | Examples | Typical Waste |
|----------|----------|---------------|
| **Foundation Models** | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google API keys | 40-60% (unused capacity, wrong model tier) |
| **SaaS with AI** | Salesforce Einstein, HubSpot AI, Notion AI | 30-50% (features enabled but unused) |
| **Custom Development** | Internal ML teams, fine-tuning, RAG pipelines | 25-45% (duplicate efforts, over-engineering) |
| **Infrastructure** | GPU instances, vector DBs, embedding compute | 35-55% (over-provisioned, always-on dev instances) |
| **Data & Training** | Labeling services, training data, synthetic data | 20-40% (one-time costs recurring unnecessarily) |

### Step 2: Score Each Tool (0-100)

**Usage Score (0-30)**
- 0: Nobody uses it
- 10: <25% of licensed users active
- 20: 25-75% active
- 30: >75% active, daily use

**ROI Score (0-40)**
- 0: No measurable business impact
- 10: Saves time but no revenue/cost link
- 20: Measurable cost reduction (<2x spend)
- 30: Clear ROI (2-5x spend)
- 40: High ROI (>5x spend)

**Replaceability Score (0-30)**
- 0: Commodity (10+ alternatives at lower cost)
- 10: Some alternatives exist
- 20: Few alternatives, moderate switching cost
- 30: Irreplaceable, deep integration

**Action Thresholds:**
- Score 0-30: **CUT** — cancel immediately
- Score 31-50: **REVIEW** — renegotiate or find alternative
- Score 51-70: **OPTIMIZE** — right-size tier/usage
- Score 71-100: **KEEP** — monitor quarterly

### Step 3: Model Cost Optimization

For every API-based AI tool, check:

1. **Model Selection**: Are you using GPT-4 where GPT-3.5 suff...

# AI Spend Audit

Score every AI tool in your stack (0-100), identify waste, right-size model tiers, and consolidate vendors. Includes 2026 benchmarks by company size, 90-day action plan template, and red flag checklist.

52% of companies now run AI as a core business strategy. Most of them are overspending by 25-50%.

## What's Inside
- 5-category spend inventory framework
- Scoring system (Usage + ROI + Replaceability)
- Model cost optimization checklist (caching, batching, tier downgrades)
- Vendor consolidation mapping
- Company size benchmarks ($2K-$1M+/month)
- Industry-specific adjustments for 6 verticals
- Board-ready audit report template

## Quick Start
Install this skill, then ask your agent: "Run an AI spend audit on our current tool stack"

## Links
- [AI Revenue Calculator](https://afrexai-cto.github.io/ai-revenue-calculator/) — Find your biggest automation ROI
- [Context Packs](https://afrexai-cto.github.io/context-packs/) — Industry-specific AI operations packs ($47)
- [Agent Setup Wizard](https://afrexai-cto.github.io/agent-setup/) — Configure your AI agent stack in minutes