AI Assistant
This topic describes AI assistant in Commitment Orchestrator.
Harness Cloud & AI Cost Management (CACM) includes an AI-powered assistant for Commitment Orchestrator that helps you analyze your AWS commitment landscape, understand utilization patterns, and identify optimization opportunities. The AI assistant provides intelligent insights into your Reserved Instances (RIs) and Savings Plans to maximize cost savings.
Overview
The Commitment Orchestrator AI Assistant uses natural language processing to help you:
Analyze your AWS EC2 commitment landscape – Get a comprehensive overview of your active commitments, utilization performance, and potential savings
Identify coverage gaps – Discover which instance types or families have the highest and lowest commitment coverage
Understand utilization metrics – Get AI-powered explanations of your commitment utilization percentages
Optimize spending – Receive actionable insights on how to improve your commitment strategy
Prerequisites
Before using the AI Assistant:
EULA Acceptance – You must accept the Harness AI End User License Agreement to enable AI features
Commitment Orchestrator Setup – Your AWS accounts must be connected and Commitment Orchestrator must be enabled for at least one service (EC2 or RDS)
Active Commitments – You need existing Reserved Instances or Savings Plans for the AI to analyze
Accessing the AI Assistant
Method 1: Quick Prompts Bar
When viewing the Commitment Orchestrator details page for a service (EC2 or RDS), you'll see a prompt bar at the top of the page with quick-access options:
Ask AI about Commitments – Opens the AI chat drawer for free-form questions
Analyze my AWS commitments – Instantly triggers a comprehensive EC2 commitment landscape analysis
Instance types with most/least coverage – Shows detailed coverage analysis by instance family
Method 2: Floating AI Button
Click the Ask AI (located in the bottom-right corner of the Commitment Orchestrator pages) to open the AI chat drawer at any time.
Method 3: Utilization Gauge Insights
On the Commitment Utilization section, hover over any utilization percentage to reveal an Explain option. Click it to get an AI-powered explanation of that specific utilization metric:
Overall Utilization – Explains your total commitment utilization across all commitment types
Savings Plans Utilization – Provides insights specific to your Savings Plans performance
Reserved Instances Utilization – Analyzes your Reserved Instances utilization
AI Capabilities
1. EC2 Commitment Landscape Analysis
Prompt: "Analyze my AWS EC2 commitment landscape"
The AI provides a comprehensive analysis including:
Total Active Commitments
Combined yearly value of all your commitments
Breakdown between Reserved Instances and Savings Plans
Percentage allocation of each commitment type
Utilization Performance (Last 30 Days)
Overall utilization percentage
Month-over-month trend (increase/decrease)
Breakdown by commitment type (Savings Plans vs Reserved Instances)
Impact Analysis
Current Savings – Actual savings achieved in the last 30 days
Potential Additional Savings – Annualized savings opportunity if optimization recommendations are implemented
Estimated Savings Rate (ESR) – Your current savings rate as a percentage
2. Coverage Analysis by Instance Family
Prompt: "Can you give me details of the instance types/families having the most and least coverage?"
The AI returns two detailed tables:
Instance Families with Highest Coverage
Shows the top 3 instance families with the best commitment coverage:
Family – Instance family name (e.g., t3.medium, m5.large)
Coverage – Percentage of usage covered by commitments
Monthly Usage – Total monthly spend for this family
Status – Coverage status indicator
Instance Families with Lowest Coverage
Shows the bottom 3 instance families with the least coverage:
Family – Instance family name
Coverage – Percentage of usage covered by commitments
Monthly Usage – Total monthly spend for this family
Waste – On-demand costs that could be covered by commitments (e.g., "$5,000/month in On-Demand costs")
Note: The analysis can also be grouped by Region instead of instance family, depending on your data configuration.
3. Utilization Explanations
Prompts:
"Could you explain my overall commitment utilisation of X%?"
"Could you explain my Savings Plan commitment utilisation of X%?"
"Could you explain my Reserved Instances commitment utilisation of X%?"
The AI provides contextual explanations of your utilization metrics, including:
What the percentage means for your cost optimization
Factors that may be affecting utilization
Recommendations for improvement if utilization is low
Using the AI Chat Interface
Welcome Screen
When you first open the AI drawer, you'll see:
Introduction text: "I'll help you analyze your commitment utilization and provide recommendations to optimize your cloud spend"
Prompt: "What would you like to know about your commitments? (select 1)"
Suggested queries – Pre-built prompts you can click to get started:
"Analyze my AWS EC2 commitment landscape"
"Can you give me details of the instance types/families having the most and least coverage?"
Conversation Flow
Select a suggestion or type your own question
View the response – The AI displays formatted tables and insights directly in the chat
Ask follow-up questions – Continue the conversation to drill deeper into specific areas
Close the drawer – Click outside the drawer or use the close button when finished
Response Formats
The AI assistant presents information in easy-to-read formats:
Summary cards – Key metrics with values and trends
Data tables – Sortable tables for coverage and utilization data
Bullet points – Impact analysis and recommendations
Trend indicators – Visual arrows showing month-over-month changes (↑ increase, ↓ decrease)
Data Sources
The AI assistant analyzes data from:
AWS Cost and Usage Reports (CUR) – For commitment costs and coverage data
Commitment Orchestrator APIs – For utilization metrics and savings calculations
Historical data – Last 30 days of commitment performance
Best Practices
Start with the landscape analysis – Get a complete picture before diving into specifics
Review low-coverage families – Focus optimization efforts on instance families with high on-demand waste
Monitor utilization trends – Use the month-over-month comparisons to track improvement
Act on potential savings – The "Potential Additional Savings" metric shows your optimization opportunity
Check regularly – Commitment landscapes change as your infrastructure evolves
Limitations
AWS EC2 only – The detailed landscape analysis is currently optimized for EC2 commitments
RDS support – RDS commitment analysis has limited AI features (no Savings Plans breakdown)
Historical scope – Analysis is based on the last 30 days of data
Real-time data – There may be a slight delay in data freshness (typically up to 24 hours)
Troubleshooting
AI Assistant Not Appearing
Verify you have accepted the Harness AI EULA
Ensure Commitment Orchestrator is enabled for your account
Check that you have the required permissions to access Commitment Orchestrator
No Data in Analysis
Confirm you have active Reserved Instances or Savings Plans
Verify your AWS accounts are properly connected
Check that cost data is being ingested (may take 24-48 hours for new accounts)
Utilization "Explain" Not Showing
The Explain option only appears when utilization is greater than 0%
It is not available for the "By Harness" managed utilization view
Related Features
Commitment Orchestrator Overview – View all your commitment metrics and savings
Compute Coverage – Detailed coverage analysis by cost or hours
Savings Breakdown – Understand where your savings are coming from
Inventory – Browse your active Reserved Instances and Savings Plans
Actions – Review pending and executed optimization actions
Permissions
Using the AI Assistant requires:
Access to Commitment Orchestrator
View permissions for commitment data
EULA acceptance for Harness AI features
Contact your Harness administrator if you cannot access the AI features.
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