The CHALLENGE
AI was spreading across SaaS faster than teams could track or govern it.
AI was rapidly embedding itself into the everyday SaaS stack, but most teams lacked a clear way to track where it lived or measure how it affected their operations. CIOs and IT leaders were caught in a balancing act - accelerating AI innovation while protecting the business from data exposure.
This presented a clear opportunity for Productiv. With an established foundation in SaaS management, extending our platform to help enterprises govern their AI portfolios was a natural next step.
77%
of employees say they are using AI tools without informing IT
68%
of IT leaders admin they don’t have visibility into AI usage in their org
RESULTS
Led the design of ProductivAI, helping Productiv move beyond SaaS management into AI governance.
0 → 1
New product launched in 6 months
$760K ARR
Generated within 6 months of launch
24 customers
Include UserTesting, JPI and more
Research
Understanding real world needs
To understand the current challenges, we spoke with CIOs and IT admins responsible for managing AI across their SaaS environments. These conversations surfaced insights that helped shape the product direction.
1
Unsanctioned AI use is the new shadow IT
Employees were adopting tools like Notion AI, Claude Code, and ChatGPT without any review. IT discovered most AI tools reactively - through audits, security incidents, or finance flagging an unknown expense.
2
No clarity on which vendors train on your data
Leaders couldn't easily determine whether vendor AI models trained on company inputs. ToS were long, buried, and changed without notice. This was the single highest-anxiety issue across every interview.
3
Policy exists on paper, not in practice
Some teams had AI usage policies in Confluence or a PDF somewhere. There was no systematic way to know whether apps met the stated policy.
4
Teams wanted to say yes to AI, safely
The goal wasn't to block AI adoption. Leaders wanted a way to evaluate and approve AI tools faster, with confidence.
5
IT admin as information bottleneck
Every question about app ownership, security review, or AI risk landed with Isaac. Without a system of record, answering took hours.
Research
Two distinct users, one shared problem
Research surfaced two core personas with meaningfully different maturity levels, goals, and frustrations - but the same underlying fear: that AI was moving faster than they could control.
Strategic Sarah
CIO / Director of IT, medium to large companies
Sarah is responsible for shaping AI governance while still enabling employees to adopt new tools. She needs to understand where AI exists across the portfolio and how it impacts the company.
Understand AI risk across the application portfolio
Create and enforce governance policies
Demonstrate ROI and accountability to leadership
IT Isaac
IT Admin / Manager, small to large companies
Isaac manages a growing software stack with limited time and incomplete visibility. He needs to stay ahead of AI risk and app sprawl without adding more manual work.
Know which apps and AI tools are being used
Identify unmanaged apps, ownership gaps, and AI-risk
Reduce manual work around access, reviews and policies
Illustration credits: Open Peeps by Pablo Stanley
process
Making ProductivAI a reality
How we went from an emerging customer problem to a shipped product.
DESIGN
Designing a focused AI governance experience
We transformed the strongest parts of Productiv’s existing platform into a simpler, AI-focused experience for governing apps across the SaaS portfolio.
Dashboard surfaces immediate risks and provides full visibility into their portfolio
From portfolio overview to granular detail - users can move between both with ease
AI automatically surfaces what reviewers need to know before they even ask
