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Next year’s generative AI budget:
decide by lines to keep and lines to cut
Put next year’s budget in as seats issued, and the teams that don’t use it stay in next year’s allocation. What the budget meeting wants isn’t a seat count but lines to keep and lines to cut. Only teams that can answer who / for what / how often go into next year’s budget line.
Separate the lines to keep from the lines to cut →In a first conversation we start by separating keep from cut. No plan document, no sales deck after the call
What the budget meeting wants isn’t a seat count
The usage rate you couldn’t write into this year’s renewal gets covered next year by seats issued. It passes. The following year, the same blank can still be there.
Cutting the target in this year’s renewal is covered in a renewal case with no usage number. This article is about not setting next year’s allocation by seat count.
Only teams that can answer who / for what / how often go into next year’s budget line — split according to your own budgeting and approval rules.
The lines you put in the budget meeting become next year’s allocation
| How next year gets entered | What tends to remain the following year |
|---|---|
| IT’s estimate entered as one line: seats × unit price | Teams that don’t use it stay in the same amount line |
| Business requests entered as “seats needed,” as submitted | Teams that can answer and teams that can’t get mixed |
| Finance keeps one company-wide account line and raises it | No unit to cut; the same account gets topped up again next year |
The third one weighs the most. With one account line, the budget meeting goes back to talking about seat counts.
Separate the lines to keep from the lines to cut →
Three lines to put in the budget meeting
| Next year’s budget line | Condition for inclusion |
|---|---|
| Keep | Teams that can answer who / for what / how often on the spot. Enter their seats needed for next year |
| Cut | Teams that can’t. Don’t mix them into the same “seats needed” |
| Measure, then decide | Keep only if the numbers will be in hand before year-end. If not, same as Cut |
Don’t roll the whole company into one line. A single company-wide allocation just defers next year’s blank.
A Keep line is written as team name / seats needed / one-line basis. Example: Sales Planning | 40 | generates proposal drafts weekly; can state the count on the spot. Add the amount at your own unit price. This article covers only how to cut the lines.
Cutting this year’s renewal target is a separate matter. The only difference here is that the result of the cut goes into next year’s amount line.
- Teams that can answer stay: who / for what / how often on the spot. They go into next year’s budget line.
- Teams that can’t are the Cut line: don’t mix them into the same “seats needed.”
- The Measure-then-decide line: keep only if the numbers will be in hand before year-end. Otherwise, same as Cut.
How to measure is in the three metrics; sending outside the scope you can’t produce in-house is in the scope of an external assessment. This article is about putting those results into next year’s budget lines.
If you bring in an external assessment, it is easier to run after the cut (our own Metamon works on the same premise). Whether it is another provider or in-house measurement, “only the teams that can’t answer” goes into a budget line more easily than “everyone at once.”
The note you can write in-house before the budget meeting — not a plan document
| Team | Keep / Cut / Measure first | One-line basis |
|---|---|---|
| Sales Planning | Keep | Generates proposal drafts weekly. Can state the count |
| Accounting | Cut | Can’t answer who / for what / how often |
| IT | Measure first | Logs expected to be available before year-end |
You don’t need a plan document to cut next year’s allocation. These three columns are what you can write in-house before the budget meeting — and the same in a first conversation with us. Attach the license unit price if you know it; if not, it can be covered verbally.
No need to hand over a company-wide sheet of impressions first. What the budget meeting wants is lines to keep and lines to cut.
Next year’s generative AI budget — sort the keep lines and cut lines together
Before it goes through as a seat count, we separate the lines for teams that can answer from those that can’t. That single line is the entry point to our Metamon diagnostic. No plan document needed. One line on the form (a team name is enough if you’re not sure).
Separate the lines to keep from the lines to cut →
References
This year’s renewal: A renewal case with no usage number
External assessment scope: Scope it to teams you can’t measure in-house
How to measure: The three generative-AI adoption metrics
Our service: Metamon (generative-AI usage diagnostic)
This article is a general framing, not legal, regulatory, or contractual advice. Decisions on renewals, budgets, and contracts follow your own internal rules.