FinOps shifts to AI cost management and SaaS optimization – Techzine Global
Managing AI spending has become commonplace. Two years ago, 31 percent of organizations managed AI spending; today, 98 percent do.
This is according to research by the FinOps Foundation. It shows that FinOps has definitively shifted from pure cloud management to broad technology value management. AI cost management is now a top priority, while AI value management is the most sought-after skill within teams. Many organizations are tasked with financing AI investments themselves through efficiency gains, which directly links FinOps to strategic AI implementation.
The discipline now extends far beyond just the cloud. Nine out of ten professionals are being asked to manage SaaS, an increase of 65 percent last year. Licensing (64 percent, up from 49 percent), private cloud (57 percent, up from 39 percent), and data centers (48 percent) are also increasingly falling under FinOps.
FinOps teams are increasingly reporting directly to the CTO or CIO. 78 percent of teams now report to these executives, up 18 percent. Teams with VP/SVP/EVP/C-suite involvement show more influence on technology choices: cloud service selection (53 percent versus 24 percent), cloud provider selection (47 percent versus 16 percent), and cloud versus data center placement (28 percent versus 12 percent).
The role of FinOps leaders is expanding to include strategic vendor negotiations, commitment structures, and M&A technology research. They answer questions about ROI and value realization, not just savings. 28% of respondents indicate they manage or plan to manage labor costs within the FinOps practice.
Notably, teams remain relatively small. 60 percent operate with centralized support via embedded team champions, with an additional 21 percent reporting hub-and-spoke models. Less than 10 percent report fully decentralized teams. Organizations managing more than $100 million have an average of 8 to 10 professionals and 3 to 10 contractors. They scale through enablement, AI productivity, and automation rather than headcount.
Shift left has become a top priority. Professionals are integrating financial context earlier in the engineering cycle, enabling teams to make informed decisions before deployment rather than having to remediate after the fact. Pre-deployment architecture guidance emerges as the most desired tooling capability.
Tip: CloudBolt: How to build (and use) FinOps
AI cost management / cloud cost management / FinOps / FinOps Foundation / FOCUS / SaaS optimization / technology value management
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Techzine focusses on IT professionals and business decision makers by publishing the latest IT news and background stories. The goal is to help IT professionals get acquainted with new innovative products and services, but also to offer in-depth information to help them understand products and services better.
© 2026 Dolphin Publications B.V.
All rights reserved.
source
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
This is according to research by the FinOps Foundation. It shows that FinOps has definitively shifted from pure cloud management to broad technology value management. AI cost management is now a top priority, while AI value management is the most sought-after skill within teams. Many organizations are tasked with financing AI investments themselves through efficiency gains, which directly links FinOps to strategic AI implementation.
The discipline now extends far beyond just the cloud. Nine out of ten professionals are being asked to manage SaaS, an increase of 65 percent last year. Licensing (64 percent, up from 49 percent), private cloud (57 percent, up from 39 percent), and data centers (48 percent) are also increasingly falling under FinOps.
FinOps teams are increasingly reporting directly to the CTO or CIO. 78 percent of teams now report to these executives, up 18 percent. Teams with VP/SVP/EVP/C-suite involvement show more influence on technology choices: cloud service selection (53 percent versus 24 percent), cloud provider selection (47 percent versus 16 percent), and cloud versus data center placement (28 percent versus 12 percent).
The role of FinOps leaders is expanding to include strategic vendor negotiations, commitment structures, and M&A technology research. They answer questions about ROI and value realization, not just savings. 28% of respondents indicate they manage or plan to manage labor costs within the FinOps practice.
Notably, teams remain relatively small. 60 percent operate with centralized support via embedded team champions, with an additional 21 percent reporting hub-and-spoke models. Less than 10 percent report fully decentralized teams. Organizations managing more than $100 million have an average of 8 to 10 professionals and 3 to 10 contractors. They scale through enablement, AI productivity, and automation rather than headcount.
Shift left has become a top priority. Professionals are integrating financial context earlier in the engineering cycle, enabling teams to make informed decisions before deployment rather than having to remediate after the fact. Pre-deployment architecture guidance emerges as the most desired tooling capability.
Tip: CloudBolt: How to build (and use) FinOps
AI cost management / cloud cost management / FinOps / FinOps Foundation / FOCUS / SaaS optimization / technology value management
"*" indicates required fields
We received an ASUS NUC 15 Pro, a very small mini PC that delivers su…
ServiceNow is seeing a fundamental shift in how companies implement A…
Cisco is introducing a hypervisor for running its own applications. N…
February 13 – The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has stated that supply chain security is of paramount importan…
Cisco is taking steps to fundamentally change enterprise network management with agentic AI. AgenticOps shoul…
The Netherlands has the opportunity to build a European data center with 100,000 AI chips and 20 petabytes of…
Amazon Web Services experienced two outages caused by its own AI tools. The incidents involving the Kiro AI d…
A future-proof IT infrastructure is often positioned as a universal s…
As organizations get ready to roll out AI to change their business pr…
AI tools are spreading through the enterprise ecosystem at an astonis…
When you participate in a major tech event, you naturally want to sta…
How do you ensure your company data is both secure and quickly recove…
“A Buyer’s Guide to Enterprise Linux” comprehensively analyzes the mo…
The Data Protection Guide 2025 explores the essential strategies and…
The white paper “DNS Best Practices” by Infoblox presents essential g…
Techzine focusses on IT professionals and business decision makers by publishing the latest IT news and background stories. The goal is to help IT professionals get acquainted with new innovative products and services, but also to offer in-depth information to help them understand products and services better.
© 2026 Dolphin Publications B.V.
All rights reserved.
source
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
