# The AI Stack Audit: keep one tool, cancel the rest

From tuitiv's free resources: tuitiv.ai/free/stack

## Three questions for every subscription

The audit asks each tool the same three things. Most of the cancelling happens on the second one.

1. **The job: What job does it actually do for me?** A job, not a feature. "Writes my proposals" counts. "Has an AI assistant" doesn't.
2. **The overlap: Is something else I pay for already doing that job?** Three tools that all write, summarise and answer questions is two too many.
3. **The last time: When did I last use it for real work?** Real work means something that left the building. Trying it out on a Sunday doesn't count.

## Keep, cancel, or decide

Every tool lands in one pile.

1. **Keep: It does a job nothing else does, and you use it.** Keep it, and write down the job so you know what it's for.
2. **Cancel: Another tool does the same job, or you haven't used it for real in a month.** Cancel today, while you're looking at it. Put the renewal date in the notes if you're on an annual plan.
3. **Decide: Two tools doing the same job, both used.** Pick one and give it a month. The audit tells you which one it would keep and why.
4. **The one job: Which job would give you the most time back if the tool you kept did it properly?** That's where you go deep first. One job, every day, for a week.

## Your audit in six steps

1. **List what you pay for.** Your bank or card statement for the last three months, and the subscriptions page in your phone's app store. If your email is connected to Claude, prompt 02 searches your receipts for you.
2. **Add what each one costs** and whether it's monthly or annual. Rough is fine.
3. **Run prompt 01.** Read the reason on every line. If it's got a tool wrong, tell it what you actually use it for and it will re-sort.
4. **Cancel the cancels today.** Not next week. It takes a few minutes and it's the only step that saves money.
5. **Run prompt 03 on the tool you kept.** It picks the one job to go deep on, and gives you a first step for tomorrow morning.
6. **Do that one job with it every day for a week.** Then run prompt 04 before you sign up for anything new.

## The prompts

01 is the audit. 02 finds what you forgot. 03 picks the job. 04 is the check before the next shiny thing.

### 01. Audit my AI stack

Paste your list underneath: tool, cost, monthly or annual, what you use it for, and when you last used it.

```
Here's every AI and software subscription I pay for: [paste your list: tool, cost, monthly or annual, what I use it for, when I last used it]. Today's date is [date].

For each one, answer three questions:
1. What job does it actually do for me? A job, not a feature.
2. Is something else on this list already doing that job?
3. When did I last use it for real work? If I haven't said, don't guess. Mark it "Need your answer" and carry on with the rest.

Then put every tool in one pile:
→ Keep: it does a job nothing else on the list does, or it's the one you'd keep of an overlapping pair, and I've used it in the last 30 days.
→ Cancel: I haven't used it for real work in the last 30 days, or another tool on the list does the same job and I barely use this one.
→ Decide: two tools doing the same job and I've used both in the last 30 days. Say which one you'd keep and why.
Anything marked "Need your answer" gets its own row, not a pile.

Show it as one table with a one-line reason for each tool. Then total the monthly cost of the Cancel pile, and what I'd save on top if I followed your Decide picks. Count an annual plan as a twelfth a month.

Only work with the tools on my list. Don't recommend new tools, free versions or alternatives.
```

### 02. Find my subscriptions in my inbox

In Claude with your email connected (Settings, then Connectors). No email connected? Swap the first line for "Here are three months of my bank statement" and paste it underneath.

```
Search my email for the last twelve months for receipts, invoices and renewal notices from software and AI tools. Look for words like receipt, invoice, subscription, renewal, trial and billing, and for payment companies like Stripe, Paddle, Apple and Google Play.

List every tool you find: the name, what it cost, how often it charges, and the date of the last charge. Flag any free trial that turned into a paid plan.

Don't include anything you're not sure is a subscription. Put those at the bottom under "Check these" and I'll tell you.
```

### 03. Pick the one job to go deep on

Run this once you know which tool you're keeping.

```
I'm keeping [tool] as my main AI tool. Ask me four questions, one at a time, about the work I do every week: what takes longest, what I put off, what I do the same way every time, and what I'd hand to someone else tomorrow if I could.

Then pick one job for me to do with [tool] every day for the next week. Choose the one that gives me the most time back and that I could check in five minutes. Tell me why you picked it.

Give me the exact first step for tomorrow morning, and what "good" looks like so I know when it's working.

One job, not a list.
```

### 04. Should I pay for this new tool?

Before you sign up for anything new. Keep your list from prompt 01 handy.

```
I'm thinking of paying for [new tool] at [price]. Here's what it says it does: [paste from their website].

Here's what I already pay for and use: [paste your Keep pile].

Tell me honestly: what could this do that my current tools can't? If the answer is nothing, or "slightly better", say so. If it would replace something I already pay for, say which.

Don't be swayed by the marketing. Judge it on the job I'd use it for.
```

## Why one tool

The gap between someone who's tried AI and someone who runs their business on it isn't the number of tools. It's the depth in one. The one you know well knows your business back: your voice, your clients, your folders. Every new tool starts again from zero.

## When it's not quite right

**It wants me to keep everything**
It's being polite. Add "Assume I can only keep two. Which two, and why?" and run it again.

**It recommended a new tool**
Tell it: "No new tools. Only sort what's on my list." The prompt says so, but it sometimes needs telling twice.

**It doesn't know what a tool does**
It only knows what you tell it. Add a few words on what you actually use each one for, even if the answer is "nothing, I forgot it existed".

**The inbox search missed some**
Receipts often come from the payment company rather than the tool (Stripe, Paddle, Apple, Google Play). Ask it to search for those names too, or check your card statement.

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