Burnaby Year-End Audit: Cancel the AI Seats Nobody Uses

December is when a lot of Burnaby and New Westminster offices finally look at the software bill. This year there's a new line item worth a hard look: AI seats. Copilot, Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT. Somebody asked for a licence in the spring, the owner said yes, and now nobody's sure who's actually using it.

You don't have to guess. The big vendors now ship usage reports that show, person by person, who used their AI seat and when. This post walks through where those reports live, what they really measure, and the billing rules that decide whether cutting a seat saves you money this month or only next year.

Why this is worth an afternoon

AI went from a curiosity to a normal business purchase very quickly in Canada. Statistics Canada reported that 12.2% of businesses had used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the 12 months before the second quarter of 2025, up from 6.1% a year earlier. In its third quarter 2026 release, 25.2% of businesses said they plan to use AI over the next 12 months, including 25.6% of businesses with 1 to 4 employees and 21.0% of those with 5 to 19.

Fast adoption tends to produce loose purchasing. Seats get bought for a pilot, a new hire, or a manager who was curious. Then they renew quietly.

Here's an illustrative example, not a vendor quote: if a 15 person firm pays for 10 AI seats at $40 a month and only 6 people use them, that's $1,920 a year going nowhere. Plug in your own prices from your invoice. The point is that idle seats add up the same way unused gym memberships do.

Step 1: Pull the usage report for each tool

Microsoft Copilot. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Reports, then Usage, then Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft's Copilot usage report documentation (updated August 2026) says you can view the last 7, 28, 90 or 180 days, and it shows Enabled Users, Active Users and an active users rate. The most useful part for an audit is the per user table with a "Last activity date" column and separate last activity dates for Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and other apps. You can export it to CSV.

Two details matter. First, Microsoft counts a user as active only after an "intentional action." Opening the Copilot pane in Word doesn't count; submitting a prompt does. Second, user names are hidden by default in usage reports, so you may need to turn on user details before the table is useful.

Google Gemini in Workspace. Google's Gemini usage report help page points admins to Menu, then Generative AI, then Gemini reports. The org level view shows active Gemini users as a share of eligible licences, over the last 7, 28 or 90 days. The user level view covers the past 28 days and sorts people into High, Medium, Low or Zero usage, with a count of active days. Anyone sitting at Zero is your first conversation.

Claude Team or Enterprise. Anthropic's usage analytics help article says Owners and Primary Owners on Team plans can find analytics under Settings, then Analytics, including weekly active members. It notes spend data refreshes daily with a one day delay.

Everything else. ChatGPT, transcription tools, AI writing add ons in your CRM. Most business plans have an admin page with member activity. If a tool has no usage view at all, that's useful information too.

Step 2: Sort seats into three piles

Once you have a list, don't just cancel everything with a low number. Sort it:

• Keep. People with regular activity across the period. Check how many active days, not just whether there's a recent date.
• Talk first. Low or sporadic use. Maybe they tried it, hit a wall, and gave up. Ask them what they wanted it to do.
• Cut. No activity in 90 days, people who've left, duplicate seats for someone who has the same tool through another plan, and pilot seats from a project that ended.

Microsoft's report helps with that last group. Its FAQ says the user table includes everyone licensed for Copilot at any point in the past 180 days, even if they never used it. That's exactly the list of people who got a seat and never touched it.

Step 3: Learn the billing rules before you click

This is where a lot of year end cleanups go sideways. Removing a person and reducing what you pay are not the same thing.

Claude Team. Anthropic's seat management article (updated September 2, 2026) is blunt: removing a member frees the seat for someone else but doesn't lower your bill. You have to reduce the plan's total seat count. And as of that update, reducing the seat count "takes effect at your next renewal" with "no prorated refund" when you submit the change.

Microsoft. It depends on your billing account type. Microsoft's cancellation guide (updated July 2026) says that on a Microsoft Customer Agreement account, you only get a prorated credit or refund if you cancel within seven days of the subscription starting or renewing. After that, your option is to turn off recurring billing so it doesn't renew. It also notes that if you have an annual subscription paid monthly, you're charged each month for the rest of the term. MOSA billing accounts get a prorated credit when cancelling after start or renewal.

So the practical move is to find your renewal dates now and put a calendar reminder a week or two ahead of each one. If you miss the window, you're paying for that seat until the next one.

Step 4: Clean up access, not just billing

When you cut a seat, also check what that person connected the tool to. Shared drives, email, CRM connectors. A seat you no longer pay for shouldn't leave an app with access to client files. Microsoft also warns that when a subscription is cancelled, users lose access to their data, and leftover customer data can be deleted after 30 days. Save anything you need before you pull the plug.

Where this doesn't apply

An audit like this has real limits, and it's better to know them going in.

Low usage isn't always waste. Statistics Canada found that among businesses using AI, only 38.9% reported training current staff to use it in the second quarter of 2025. If nobody showed your team how to use the tool on their actual work, a Zero usage score may be a training problem, not a licence problem. Cutting the seat fixes the bill but not the gap.

The reports aren't perfect. Microsoft says Copilot data typically lands within 48 hours and that last activity dates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook can be blank or off because of delayed client uploads. Google says its reports can take 2 to 3 days to catch up. Don't fire off cancellations based on one snapshot. Look at 90 days where you can.

Usage isn't value. A bookkeeper who uses AI twice a month to reconcile a messy statement may get more out of a seat than someone who chats with it daily about nothing. The reports count activity, not outcomes.

Seasonal and part time staff. A Vancouver retail shop may have people who only need a seat from November to January. Cutting them in December and re-adding them is often more hassle than it's worth.

Very small teams. If you've got two seats and both people use them, skip the spreadsheet. This exercise pays off when you have enough seats that you've lost track.

A simple year end checklist

Pull each tool's usage report. Export it. Mark Keep, Talk first or Cut. Check each vendor's reduction rules and renewal date. Reduce seat counts, not just members. Disconnect integrations. Set reminders for next year's renewals.

Then ask a harder question: of the seats you're keeping, are they doing real work? A seat used daily for things a well built workflow could handle on its own might be better replaced by an automation than renewed.

Sources

• Statistics Canada. "Analysis on artificial intelligence use by businesses in Canada, second quarter of 2025." 2025. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2025008-eng.htm
• Statistics Canada. "Analysis on planned use of artificial intelligence by businesses in Canada, third quarter of 2026." 2026. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2026013-eng.htm
• Microsoft Learn. "Microsoft Copilot Usage Report, Microsoft 365 admin." 2026. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/activity-reports/microsoft-365-copilot-usage
• Microsoft Learn. "Cancel your Microsoft business subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin center." 2026. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/cancel-your-subscription?view=o365-worldwide
• Google Workspace Admin Help. "Review Gemini usage in your organization." 2026. https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/gemini/review-gemini-usage-in-your-organization?hl=en
• Anthropic, Claude Help Center. "Purchase and manage seats on Team plans." 2026. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12004354-purchase-and-manage-seats-on-team-plans
• Anthropic, Claude Help Center. "View usage analytics for Team and Enterprise plans." 2026. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12883420-view-usage-analytics-for-team-and-enterprise-plans

If you'd like a second set of eyes on your AI seats, or want to see whether a few of those licences could be replaced by an AI employee that runs around the clock, book a free call with Autana. We're based in Burnaby and work with businesses across Metro Vancouver, and we'll tell you honestly if the answer is "keep what you have."