Editorial illustration for Tech Leaders Boost AI Spending: 68% Plan Budget Increases, 39% See Growth Potential
AI Spending Surges: 68% of Tech Leaders Boost Budgets
68% of tech leaders plan AI budget hikes; 39% see AI as top growth driver
Tech leaders are throwing cash at AI. The vast majority plan to increase their budgets for it. But a huge chunk of that cash is currently just buying confusion.
A new study shows 68% of tech leaders expect to boost AI spending. Thirty-nine percent believe it will be their department’s single biggest budget driver. That’s a lot of faith, and a lot of money.
Faith might be all it is. The average company is spending about $1.9 million on generative AI projects this year. According to Gartner, fewer than 30% of AI leaders say their CEOs are happy with the return on that investment.
This is the AI gold rush in a spreadsheet. Everyone is buying shovels. Not everyone is finding gold.
According to Apptio research, 68% of technology leaders surveyed expect to increase their AI budgets, and 39% believe AI will be their departments’ biggest driver of future budget growth. But bigger budgets don’t guarantee better outcomes. Gartner® also reveals that “despite an average spend of $1.9 million on GenAI initiatives in 2024, fewer than 30% of AI leaders say their CEOs are satisfied with the return on investment.” If there’s no clear link between cost and outcome, organizations risk scaling investments without scaling the value they’re meant to create.
To move forward with well-founded confidence, business leaders in finance, IT, and tech must collaborate to gain visibility into AI’s financial blind spot. The hidden financial risks of AI The runaway costs of AI can give IT leaders flashbacks to the early days of public cloud. When it’s easy for DevOps teams and business units to procure their own resources on an OpEx basis, costs and inefficiencies can quickly spiral.
In fact, AI projects are avid consumers of cloud infrastructure — while incurring additional costs for data platforms and engineering resources.
The parallel to the early cloud days is apt. Then, it was easy for a developer to spin up a server and forget about it, letting costs bleed. Now, it’s easy for a team to start an AI model training job and watch the cloud bill multiply.
The technology is different. The financial opacity is the same.
This creates a bizarre tension. Leaders are compelled to spend, driven by competitive fear and genuine potential. Yet the mechanism for turning that spend into measurable value is still being built, often in the dark. It’s a strategic bet where the odds are unknown.
The budget increases are a signal, but not of success. They signal a costly, necessary experiment is underway across the entire industry. Some companies will eventually wire this spending directly to growth. Many more will write it off as the price of learning what not to do next time.
Further Reading
- VCs predict enterprises will spend more on AI in 2026 - TechCrunch
- Survey: How Executives Are Thinking About AI in 2026 - Harvard Business Review
- Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2026 - MIT Sloan Management Review
- CEOs to double down on AI spending in 2026 - AI Data Analytics
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Common Questions Answered
What percentage of technology leaders are planning to increase their AI budgets in 2024?
According to the Apptio research, 68% of technology leaders surveyed expect to increase their AI budgets this year. This significant majority demonstrates the strong confidence and investment momentum in artificial intelligence across corporate technology strategies.
How much are companies typically spending on generative AI initiatives, and what challenges are they experiencing?
Gartner reports that companies are spending an average of $1.9 million on generative AI initiatives in 2024. Despite this substantial investment, fewer than 30% of AI leaders report that their CEOs are satisfied with the return on investment, highlighting a critical disconnect between spending and tangible outcomes.
What percentage of tech leaders see AI as a potential driver of future budget growth?
The Apptio research indicates that 39% of technology leaders believe AI will be their departments' biggest driver of future budget growth. This suggests a strong strategic belief in AI's transformative potential across various industries and technological domains.
