Before adding another AI tool, take stock of what you have.
Start with one team. List the AI tools people use, what work they use them for, and who can answer for how each one is configured. Include AI features inside products you already pay for.
See a completed inventory for a fictional four-tool team → Follow the evidence gaps, owners, and keep, investigate, compare, or retire decisions.
List the workflow as well as the product
One product can serve several teams with different permissions and review steps. Give each distinct setup its own record. “Support response drafting” tells the next reviewer more than a vendor name alone.
Ask the people doing the work, then compare their answers with the tool owner and available admin or purchasing records. Mark gaps as unknown and assign someone to check them. A missing answer is still useful when it has an owner.
Follow the access and the actions
Record what information the tool can read and what it can change or send. Note whether it uses an individual’s permissions or a shared service account, where approval happens, and who can disconnect it. Add the evidence and date checked so a future reviewer knows what the record is based on.
Illustration: two tools that both draft answers
A general assistant and a helpdesk assistant may appear to overlap. But one may require staff to paste context manually, while the other reads approved help articles and prepares a draft inside a ticket. Before consolidating them, compare access, reviewer effort, and the workflow that would have to change.
Put cost beside the work it supports
Separate license charges, usage charges, setup effort, and ongoing review. Record the period and currency. If a capability comes with an existing subscription, note that rather than assigning it a made-up standalone price. Keep measured spending separate from estimates.
Flag possible overlap for investigation. Similar features alone don’t establish that a tool is redundant. Before removing one, name the workflows and integrations that depend on it and check what data or configuration needs to be retained.
Leave with a next action
For each record, choose the next step: keep and review, investigate a gap, compare alternatives, or plan retirement. Name the owner and next review date. The inventory records what you know; it doesn’t certify that a tool is safe or approved.
Compare implementation paths when a gap needs a new capability. Use the Workbench to plan a bounded pilot, then record the evaluation evidence before expanding it.