AI Add-Ons Are the New Shelfware

We spent a decade teaching organisations to stop buying licenses no one uses. Then AI arrived, and the same organisations bought thousands of Copilot seats in a single quarter on the strength of a demo.

The early adoption data is sobering. Blanket rollouts produce a familiar curve: a spike of curiosity, then a long tail of dormant seats — shelfware with a neural network.

The fix is old-fashioned

Role-based rollout. Pilot, measure, expand. Reclaim dormant seats at 60 days. The AI is new; the license discipline isn't. Vendors price these add-ons at $10–$30/user precisely because they expect you not to reclaim.