As AI adoption expands, enterprises are discovering that managing costs, measuring returns and scaling efficiently are becoming as important as deploying the technology.
July 31, 2026
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A new report found that one in four AI dollars is wasted, underscoring a growing reality for enterprises: The challenge is no longer just deploying AI; it's controlling the cost of running it at scale. As AI spending spreads across the enterprise, managing costs is becoming as important as adopting the technology itself.
The finding comes from AI software development platform vendor Harness' 2026 State of AI in FinOps report, based on a survey of 700 FinOps and engineering leaders. According to the report, more than half of organizations lack a dedicated owner for AI costs, making it difficult to track spending or identify waste.
