How to Use AI to Audit and Improve Your Tech Stack
Most growing businesses accumulate tools faster than they evaluate them. The result is a tech stack with overlapping functions, underused subscriptions, and integration gaps that create manual work. An AI-assisted tech stack audit finds the waste and designs the improvements.
Four Dimensions
Cost vs utilisation
You are almost certainly paying for features you never use and for seats that inactive team members still occupy. A utilisation audit: for each tool in your stack, how many team members use it weekly, which features are actually used vs which were the reason you bought it, and what would you lose if you cancelled it tomorrow? Most businesses find 2 to 4 tools they can cancel immediately with no operational impact, saving $200 to $500 per month in eliminated subscriptions.
Integration coverage and gaps
The most expensive part of a poor tech stack is not the subscription fees — it is the manual work created by integration gaps. Identify every place where data is manually copied between systems (a spreadsheet updated from one tool and then manually entered into another), every approval that requires a human to relay information between tools, and every report assembled from multiple sources by hand. Each manual step is a Make.com automation waiting to be built.
Functional overlap and redundancy
It is common to find two tools doing the same job — acquired at different times by different team members without awareness of the overlap. A CRM that was replaced but not cancelled. A project management tool that the team abandoned when they adopted a new one, but that is still paid for. A communication tool used by one team while the rest of the company uses a different one. Each overlap is either a consolidation opportunity or a deliberate segmentation — make the choice explicitly rather than by default.
Scalability fitness
Some tools work well at your current size but will create problems as you grow. Signs of scalability issues: the tool’s pricing scales dramatically with usage (the per-seat cost becomes prohibitive at 20 users), the tool lacks the permissions and role-based access you will need when more people join, or the tool’s data export limitations will make it expensive to leave when you outgrow it. Better to identify these now than during a growth phase when you have no capacity to manage a system migration.
Step by Step
Build the complete tool inventory
List every tool your business pays for or uses: software subscriptions, APIs, platforms, and any other technology costs. For each: the tool name, the primary function, the monthly or annual cost, the number of seats or users, the team that uses it, and the integrations it currently has with other tools. This inventory typically reveals tools the leadership team has forgotten about — subscriptions set up years ago that have been paid automatically ever since.
Run the AI utilisation and overlap analysis
Prompt: Analyse this tech stack inventory for a [business type]. Inventory: [paste your tool list with descriptions]. Identify: (1) any functional overlaps — tools that serve the same primary function — with a recommendation on which to keep and why, (2) any tools that appear underutilised based on their stated purpose and your business needs, (3) tools that should be connected via integration but currently require manual data transfer between them, (4) any critical business functions that are not covered by any tool in the stack (gaps that create manual work), and (5) the total estimated monthly cost of tools that could be eliminated or replaced with lower-cost alternatives. Generate a prioritised cost and efficiency improvement plan.
Design the optimised stack
From the analysis: Prompt: Design an optimised tech stack for a [business type] with [team size] team members. Core requirements: [list the primary business functions the tech stack must support — CRM, project management, invoicing, communication, etc.]. Current tools to retain: [tools the audit confirmed are essential]. Generate: the recommended replacement tools for any identified for elimination, the integration architecture — how each tool connects to the others to eliminate manual data transfer, the estimated monthly cost of the optimised stack vs the current stack, and the migration sequence — in what order should changes be made to minimise disruption?
Build the integration gaps with Make.com
For each identified integration gap — a manual data transfer between systems — build a Make.com scenario that automates it. Common integration gaps and their automation: new invoice created in Xero – update client record in GoHighLevel (Make.com Xero + GHL scenario), new project created in project management tool – create client in CRM and send onboarding email (Make.com PM + CRM + Gmail scenario), team member marked as absent in HR tool – update project management capacity (Make.com HR + PM scenario). Each automated gap converts manual overhead into system throughput — reducing the human time required to keep information synchronised across tools.
📌 Run a tech stack audit every 12 months — not just when costs feel high. Tools that were the right choice 18 months ago may have been superseded by better alternatives, the market pricing may have changed, or your usage patterns may have shifted in ways that make a different tool more appropriate. A systematic annual review prevents the gradual accumulation of technical debt and unnecessary cost that is the default outcome when tech decisions are made reactively.
How do I manage a tech stack migration without disrupting the business?
Migrations are disruptive when done all at once and seamless when done incrementally. The sequence: maintain the old tool in parallel for 30 days while the team transitions to the new one, migrate historical data (AI helps map data schemas between systems), run the new tool in parallel until the team is proficient, then decommission the old one. Never cancel the old subscription until 100% of the team has confirmed the migration is complete. Budget 2 to 3 hours of team training time for any significant tool replacement — more for tools that affect client-facing workflows.
What tools does SA Solutions recommend for a 5-15 person technology services business?
For a technology services business of this size: GoHighLevel (CRM, pipeline, email marketing, and client communication — replaces multiple separate tools), Bubble.io (custom internal tools, client portals, and product builds), Make.com (integration and automation across all tools), Xero (accounting and invoicing — with strong Make.com integration), Notion or Linear (internal documentation and project management), Slack (team communication), and Google Workspace (email, calendar, and document collaboration). This stack covers all core business functions with strong integration points and scales well from 5 to 50 people.
Want Your Tech Stack Audited and Optimised?
SA Solutions conducts tech stack audits, designs optimised architecture, and builds Make.com integrations that eliminate the manual work created by disconnected systems.
