Free kit
AI Cost Control Kit
A free playbook kit for small and mid-size businesses. Get control of AI costs before they get out of control.
CarbeneAI | Cyber Defense Tactics
Test the plan before an AI agent tests it for you.
CarbeneAI does the governance, the cost control, and the leadership. Cyber Defense Tactics, the same company, runs security, incident response, and tabletops.
AI cost control is part of the strategy. We set budgets, usage limits, and model choices for every AI deployment, so token spend does not outrun the value it delivers.
Problems we solve
Nobody owns the risk, and the board has no answer in business terms.
- -AI initiatives are moving forward, and nobody owns the risk they carry.
- -The board asks about AI risk and gets no answer in business terms.
- -The technology roadmap and the security plan were written separately and do not connect.
- -AI costs climb with every deployment: token spend, model sprawl, and tools nobody budgeted for.
Who we serve
Founders, CEOs, COOs, and boards.
Founders, CEOs, COOs, and boards at companies putting AI to work.
We answer in business terms: what to fund, what to fix, what to accept, and what to retire.
The map
One AI and security systems map.
A deeper Ongoing AI Advisory engagement produces the AI Systems Map. Value, cost, and deployment risk sit beside adoption. Privilege and autonomy (A0 to A4) are lanes. The map is the source for the roadmap and for board reporting.
AI and security systems map
Redacted treatment
| System | Value | Cost | Risk | Adoption | Lane |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| records-sync | Med | Med | Low | Production | Privilege: read |
| priorauth-04 | High | High | High | Piloting | Autonomy A2 |
| dispatch-07 | Low | Low | Med | Planning | Autonomy A1 |
| invoice-code | Med | Med | Low | Production | Privilege: write |
Sample layout. Not a client artifact.
- 01
Value, cost, and deployment risk
Every system and every agent on the value it creates, what it costs to run, and the risk of running it. Risk covers talent, technical fit, and cybersecurity.
- 02
Adoption
Planning, piloting, deploying, or already in production. The tag says whether the thing is a bet or a live system.
- 03
Privilege
The security lane. What a system can touch, what it cannot, whose credentials it runs on, and who is on the hook.
- 04
Autonomy A0 to A4
The AI lane. How far an agent can act without a human, and where a person must sign off. The test a reviewer runs, not a model-quality score.
Questions to ask
Who owns security and AI risk here, and where is that written down?
- 01Who owns security and AI risk here, and where is that written down?
- 02Which systems may an AI agent act on, and at what autonomy level?
- 03What should we fund first, and what will our AI cost at scale?
- 04Build, buy, or wait: how do we decide on the next AI vendor?
- 05What will we show the board about AI risk next quarter?
AI governance
AI Governance Framework
Risk classification, lifecycle, data governance, vendor evaluation, and metrics, grounded in NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001. Open, CC BY 4.0. No sign-up.
Engagements
Governance, cost control, and leadership.
Full-Day AI Strategy Workshop, Half-Day AI Strategy Workshop, or Ongoing AI Advisory.
Single engagement
Full-Day AI Strategy Workshop
A four-hour working session after 7 to 14 days of discovery prep. Punch list, blind spots, and the technology and AI work for the next 1 to 6 months.
Single engagement
Half-Day AI Strategy Workshop
A shorter form of the Full-Day AI Strategy Workshop. Same kind of working session, scaled down.
Long-term
Ongoing AI Advisory
A deeper engagement for the roadmap, AI governance, AI cost control, build-versus-buy calls, and board reporting. It produces the AI Systems Map. Lighter ongoing continuity follows a workshop, or that deeper engagement, once the map exists.
Security, incident response, and tabletops
Cyber Defense Tactics
Cyber Defense Tactics, a practice of CarbeneAI, LLC, runs security, incident response, and tabletops.
Insights
Latest notes
Notes on AI governance, cost control, leadership, and security.
Public Safety
An AI call taker needs an error log, not just a hotline to the programmer
Jonesboro's AI non-emergency call taker once told accident callers to file a report online, and its errors still travel to the programmer through informal reports. A one-page error log with fields, an owner, and a review cadence turns those catches into a record.
AI Governance
When a health system runs AI intake on a platform, vendors fill in fields
Trustible says Mass General Brigham has begun using its platform to structure AI use-case intake, risk tiering, review routing, and a central inventory. Here are the fields I expect a platform-driven intake to ask a vendor for, and how to have them ready.
AI Governance
Epic's AI bill is now variable, so every AI feature needs a value gate
Part of what Epic charges for AI now moves with usage and the model underneath it. A per-feature worksheet with a cost line, a success measure, a minimum threshold, and a 90-day decision gives a health system a way to fund what works and switch off what does not.
Leadership
Clint Garrison
Clint Garrison leads CarbeneAI and its Cyber Defense Tactics practice. He has led cyber defense, compliance, and risk programs for 20+ years across 6 countries, and has led major incident response for over 10 years, including tabletops and war games delivered at Booz Allen Hamilton, EY and AT&T DFIR.
- MBA in Information Assurance, University of Dallas
- Strategic AI Graduate Program, Our Lady of the Lake University
- Chief Technology Officer Graduate Program, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business
- Advisory Board Member, Strategic AI Graduate Program, Our Lady of the Lake University
Contact
contact@carbene.ai · +1 (512) 270-0061
5900 Balcones Dr #29361, Austin, TX 78731
Partner licenses, contracts, and invoices run through CarbeneAI, LLC.