---
title: "AI Governance"
canonical: https://harmony.io/platform/ai-governance
---

# AI Governance

Discover every AI tool in use, see exactly what AI costs per user and per model, and put token requests and access approvals into one governed workflow.

## AI Governance

Your employees already use AI. The question is whether you can see it. Harmony discovers every AI tool in your organization, shows you exactly what it costs, and turns access and token requests into governed workflows instead of Slack messages.

## What is AI governance for IT?

AI governance, in practice, is three questions with uncomfortable answers: which AI tools are being used here, what are they costing, and who decided that. Employees adopt AI faster than procurement can process it, so the inventory is always behind and the first real signal is often an invoice.

Harmony answers all three from systems you already run. Continuous discovery correlates identity provider logins, SSO events, browser usage and installed software to surface every AI tool in use, including the second ChatGPT instance nobody registered. Spend dashboards break cost and token consumption down by user, team, tool and model, with thresholds that alert owners before a budget is gone. Access is granted and revoked through identity provider groups in Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace or JumpCloud, and requests for a new tool or a bigger token limit run through the same self-service catalog as any other IT request.

What separates this from a SaaS management tool is what happens after discovery: findings feed [policies](https://harmony.io/platform/compliance-and-policies), approvals and the [agents](https://harmony.io/agents) that act on them, instead of ending in a report.

## How AI Governance helps your teams

Shadow AI discovery: surface every AI tool in use across the organization, including locally installed apps and tools accessed through SSO. Find the second ChatGPT instance before your CFO does.

AI spend visibility: see what each AI tool costs, broken down by user, team, and model. Track token consumption over time and spot heavy users before the invoice arrives.

AI access control: grant and revoke access to AI tools through your identity provider group. Employees can request token limit upgrades or new AI tools from the service catalog, approvers get full context, and every decision is logged.

## From unmanaged sprawl to governed adoption

### Full inventory

One live inventory of every sanctioned and unsanctioned AI tool, kept current automatically instead of through periodic audits.

### Cost clarity

Per-user and per-model cost breakdowns with configurable spend thresholds and proactive alerts when usage trends out of budget.

### Governed requests

Access requests, token upgrades, and new tool approvals flow through one auditable process with clear ownership.

### Policy alignment

Keep AI usage aligned with your internal policies and data governance requirements, with detailed logs of who is using what.

## Built for the way AI actually enters your organization

- Continuous discovery: AI applications found across SSO logins, browser usage, and installed software
- Spend and token dashboards: consumption broken down by user, team, tool, and model
- Budget thresholds: alerts and notifications when teams or individuals approach their limits
- Self-service catalog: AI tool access and token upgrade requests, with routed approvals
- Access management: identity provider groups, with a full approval audit trail
- Usage logs and reporting: identify active users, idle licenses, and consolidation opportunities

## How AI governance works

**Trigger:** Someone adopts an AI tool, or asks for a higher token limit.

1. **Discover every AI tool** - Identity provider logins, SSO events, browser usage and installed software are correlated into one live inventory of sanctioned and unsanctioned AI applications, kept current automatically rather than by periodic audit.

2. **Attribute cost and consumption** - Spend dashboards break cost and token usage down by user, team, tool and model and track it over time, so heavy users are visible long before the invoice explains them.

3. **Set thresholds and get warned** - Budget thresholds per team or individual trigger alerts to owners and approvers as limits are approached or exceeded, with the usage history behind the alert.

4. **Route requests through the catalog** - Access to a new AI tool or a token upgrade is requested in the same self-service catalog employees already use for IT. The approver sees the requester’s role, current usage and cost context, and every decision is logged.

5. **Grant through identity, review later** - Approved access is applied through your identity provider groups, so AI follows the same controls as the rest of the stack, and usage logs show active users, idle licenses and tools worth consolidating.

**Outcome:** One live inventory, per-model costs you can defend, and AI access that is granted deliberately and revoked cleanly.

## Cyera runs an AI Lab desk among nine desks on Harmony

Cyera, a data security company onboarding 20 to 40 new employees a week, runs nine desks on Harmony: IT, HR, RevOps, office operations, onboarding and offboarding, alerts, and an AI Lab. Around 89% of employee requests are auto-resolved and 90-95% of access requests are fully automated, so a request for an AI tool follows the same governed path as any other access request.

> Harmony was a godsend, honestly. We were able to automate most of our workflows within a couple of weeks of putting it in place - it didn’t take us much lift at all.
>
> - Kenny Vargas, IT Manager, Cyera

## Governed AI adoption vs. the old way

Nobody set out to run shadow AI. It is what happens when adoption is faster than the approval path.

|  | Spreadsheets and a SaaS management report | Harmony AI governance |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Inventory | A list assembled for a security review | Continuous discovery across SSO, browser usage and installed software |
| Shadow AI | Found when finance queries a charge | Surfaced as it appears, including duplicate instances of the same tool |
| Cost | One vendor invoice per tool | Cost and tokens per user, team, tool and model, tracked over time |
| Limits | A line in a policy document | Thresholds with alerts to owners and approvers |
| Access requests | A message to whoever holds the admin seat | A catalog request, a routed approval and a full audit trail |
| Provisioning | Manual invites, rarely revoked | Identity provider groups, revoked like any other access |
| What happens next | A report | Requests, approvals and agents that act on the findings |

## Explore pre-built agents for AI governance:

- [Unauthorized Applications Detection](https://harmony.io/agents/unauthorized-applications-detection)

- [Discovered Applications Review](https://harmony.io/agents/discovered-applications-review)

- [Application Access Request](https://harmony.io/agents/application-access-request)

- [Unused Application Discovery](https://harmony.io/agents/unused-application-discovery)

- [License Expiration Discovery](https://harmony.io/agents/license-expiration-discovery)

- [Inactive Employees](https://harmony.io/agents/inactive-employees)

## Connects to your identity and AI stack

- Identity providers: Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, JumpCloud
- AI providers: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Cursor
- SaaS management: Zylo, Torii
- Finance & procurement: Mesh Payments, Navan, NetSuite, ZipHQ

## FAQ

### What is the best alternative to ServiceNow for AI governance?

For mid-market teams that want AI governance without a ServiceNow implementation, Harmony is the closest fit. It discovers the AI tools in use from identity provider and SSO data, breaks down AI spend by user, team and tool, alerts owners when usage thresholds are crossed, and routes requests for new AI tools through an approved, logged workflow.

### How does Harmony discover AI tools we don't know about?

Harmony correlates identity provider logins, SSO events, and application usage data to surface AI tools in use across the organization, including ones that were never centrally approved.

### Can Harmony show AI costs per user or per team?

Yes. Spend dashboards break down cost and token consumption by user, team, tool, and model, so you can see exactly where your AI budget goes.

### Can we set hard limits on token usage?

Harmony monitors consumption against the thresholds you define and alerts owners and approvers when limits are approached or exceeded. Enforcement happens through your governed request workflow: users request upgrades, and approvers decide with full usage context.

### How do employees request access to a new AI tool or a token upgrade?

Through the same self-service catalog they already use for IT requests. Requests are routed to the right approver, and every decision is logged for audit.

### Does this work with our identity provider?

Yes. Access is managed through your existing identity provider groups, such as Okta or Microsoft Entra ID, so AI access follows the same controls as the rest of your stack.

### How is this different from a SaaS management tool?

AI Governance is part of the same platform that runs your service desk, asset management, and workflows. Discovery feeds directly into request workflows, approvals, and automations instead of ending at a report.

### Can we govern AI tools that never touch our identity provider?

Yes, and that is most of the problem. Discovery does not rely on SSO alone: installed software on managed endpoints, browser usage, and finance and expense data from Mesh Payments, Navan, NetSuite and ZipHQ all feed the inventory.

A tool bought on a card and used outside SSO still shows up, attributed to the person using it, which is what makes the conversation about it possible.

### How does AI governance connect to the rest of the platform?

It runs on the same organizational context as everything else: the employee record from your HRIS, group membership from your identity provider, application and spend data from Application Management, and the eligibility rules in Compliance & Policies.

That is what lets an AI access request be decided by policy rather than by whoever happens to notice it, and lets the resulting access be reviewed and revoked alongside the rest of an employee’s.