AI is reshaping AI cost management, forcing organizations to rethink how they create and measure value. As AI spending accelerates, enterprises are seeking new ways to connect AI investments with measurable business outcomes.
AI has made cost management far more complex than traditional cloud and SaaS spending, which was largely driven by users and systems within an organization’s control. With AI, organizations must now manage costs influenced by external factors, including how customers interact with AI-powered applications, according to Marco Meinardi (pictured), vice president analyst at Gartner Inc.
“We’re also dealing with end users, our customers,” Meinardi said. “Customers and how they use our AI application, how they prompt them, is going to influence our costs. We’re dealing with different problems that will require different solutions.”
Meinardi spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier and Paul Nashawaty at the FinOps X 2026, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the evolution of AI cost management and the need to connect technology spending to measurable business outcomes. (* Disclosure below.)
AI cost management beyond cloud costs
Traditional cloud cost management relied on tools such as tagging and shared-resource allocation to track and attribute spending. AI is disrupting those approaches, forcing organizations to develop new methods for tracking and managing costs, according to Meinardi.
“The metadata is not there. We have to build it into the application,” he said. “We have to use instrumentation and telemetry to really manage that metadata and then use it to connect cost with business outcomes.”
After years of cloud being viewed as the ultimate destination for enterprise workloads, AI is driving renewed interest in on-premises infrastructure and hybrid environments. AI has changed the equation as organizations prioritize protecting sensitive data, meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining trust in AI providers, according to Meinardi.
“I actually do not trust certain AI providers. They’re going to make me sign a contract, but especially if I’m a foreign entity, my crown jewel is going to stay in my data center,” Meinardi said. “Regulation, not cost, is what’s causing a lot of AI to remain on-prem.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the FinOps X 2026:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the FinOps X event. Neither the FinOps Foundation, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Photo: SiliconANGLE
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