KPMG, the Big Four accounting firm, found a large share of corporate leaders are unexpectedly facing high AI bills after vendors moved from flat-rate contracts to usage-based pricing.
The survey of 2,145 senior executives across 20 countries found 29% had no idea where growing AI costs were coming from and roughly a third said their understanding of AI economics was a barrier to deploying AI successfully.
KPMG’s report links the shift to rising computational costs and a retreat from subsidised flat-fee LLM deals, a change that the firm says is pushing vendors and customers into a more defensive posture.
The report’s findings mirror reporting and workplace conversations that many organisations treated AI as a plug-and-play route to lower overheads without building the controls needed to forecast and manage running costs.
"As usage-based pricing models become more common, many organizations are still building the capabilities required to forecast, monitor, and manage AI spending effectively," the report authors write.
