SaaS sprawl is usually blamed on procurement or vendor sales. The real cause is workflow debt. When teams cannot get work done inside existing systems, they create a new tool, a workaround, or a shadow process.
Every new tool is a signal. It tells you where the workflow is failing: approvals that take too long, data that isn’t trusted, or exceptions that never resolve. Without a workflow audit, tool consolidation becomes a cost exercise instead of an operational fix.
AI readiness depends on reducing workflow debt. If the workflow is unclear, AI will inherit the ambiguity. But if you redesign the workflow, you can reduce the tool stack and introduce AI in a controlled way.
The fix starts with inventorying decisions, not vendors. Identify where decisions are delayed, and you will find the tools that exist to bypass them.