Cloud cost concerns rise as AI adoption accelerates, study shows

By Puja Sharma

Around 85% of organisations say cloud costs are now their top challenge as AI spending grows

Flexera research shows cloud budgets are already being missed, with GenAI making technology spend harder for finance leaders to predict and control

Research from Flexera suggests AI is beginning to reshape enterprise cost structures, as organisations struggle to control increasingly volatile cloud and AI spending.  Flexera’s 2026 State of the Cloud Report found that cloud budgets are already under pressure, with 85% of organisations citing cost management as their top cloud challenge and 17% exceeding public cloud budgets in the past year. Estimated wasted cloud spend has also increased to 29%, reversing a five-year decline.

Chris Andersen, CFO at Flexera, said: “Investor pressure around AI spending is growing fast, and enterprises are now facing the same scrutiny internally. The challenge is that AI costs behave very differently from traditional technology spend. Usage can scale quickly across cloud environments, making costs far harder to predict and control.”

Flexera’s research indicates similar concerns are now emerging inside enterprise IT and finance teams as AI adoption accelerates. Every organisation surveyed reported using GenAI public cloud services in some capacity, while 45% said they are using them extensively. At the same time, 30% identified cost unpredictability as a key challenge when scaling AI workloads.

Andersen, added, “People costs have traditionally been the biggest line on the P&L for technology companies. If AI develops the way many expect, technology spend will easily overtake that. Most organisations are nowhere near as disciplined at managing technology costs as they are people costs.

“Companies know exactly who works for them and what those people cost. Very few can say the same about every cloud workload, SaaS agreement or AI tool moving through the business. That becomes a serious financial problem once AI usage starts scaling.

“Finance leaders need to get ahead of that shift now, because once AI costs become embedded across the organisation, they become much harder to unwind.”

Key findings

• Around 85% of organisations say managing cloud costs is their top cloud challenge
• Over 17% exceeded public cloud budgets in the past year
• Estimated wasted cloud spend has risen to 29%, reversing a five-year decline
• Every organisation surveyed uses GenAI public cloud services in some capacity, with 45% using them extensively
• About 30%cite cost unpredictability as a top challenge when scaling AI workloads