Before adopting AI, there’s a step that both sharpens your plan and helps pay for it: auditing your SaaS spend. Most businesses are surprised by how much overlapping, underused software they’re paying for. Here’s how to audit it, and how dgm uses the result. (dgm implements osFoundry, a separate company’s platform — we are not osFoundry.)

Why audit SaaS spend first

A SaaS audit does two things for an AI initiative: it reveals consolidation opportunities (overlapping tools an AI layer can replace) and it builds the business case (the savings can fund the AI). Doing it first means your AI plan is grounded in what you actually run — and comes with a head start on ROI.

What to map

For every tool, capture:

  • Cost — including per-seat fees and renewals.
  • Usage — how much it’s actually used (vs paid for).
  • Purpose — what it does.
  • Overlap — what other tools do something similar.

(This pairs with an AI tooling audit, which maps what AI can replace.)

What to flag

From the map, flag:

  • Redundant tools — overlapping with others.
  • Underused tools — barely used relative to cost.
  • Data-shuffling tools — mainly moving data between systems (an orchestration layer can absorb this).

These are your consolidation candidates.

How it funds the AI

Here’s the payoff: if an AI-orchestrated layer can absorb the work of several overlapping tools, cancelling those subscriptions offsets the AI cost — sometimes making the net cost lower than what you were already spending (see how to cut SaaS costs with AI). The audit turns “AI costs money” into “AI might pay for itself.”

Keep what works

Don’t cut for its own sake — keep genuinely best-in-class, well-used tools. Target the redundant, underused, and data-shuffling ones. The goal is less sprawl and lower cost, not a smaller tool count as a vanity metric.

How dgm helps

dgm runs this audit as part of its $399 assessment — mapping your tools, costs, and overlaps — then consolidates the clear wins onto an AI-orchestrated layer in phases at $3,999/month. The audit shapes both the AI plan and its business case, and the savings often offset the cost. If you’d rather explore the platform yourself first, go straight to osFoundry; if you want your spend audited and consolidated, that’s where dgm comes in.