--- title: "The AI bill soars, yet companies are still looking for a way to measure ROI — Marsanne Studio AI watch" description: "Global AI spending will reach $2,670 billion in 2026, but 73% of companies do not know how to measure the return." url: "https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch/the-ai-bill-soars-yet-companies-are-still-looking-for-a-way-to-measure-2f9ebf/" lang: "en" --- [Marsanne Studio](https://marsanne.studio/en/) [← Back to home](https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch) [← The AI watch](https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch) Analysis · 1 October 2026 # The AI bill soars, yet companies are still looking for a way to measure ROI Original title, in French: “La facture IA explose mais les entreprises cherchent encore le mode d’emploi du ROI” **Publication** IT for Business (France) **Author** Laurent Delattre **Published on** 1 October 2026 · read in the page structured data ## Summary According to Gartner, global AI spending is set to grow by 49.5% in 2026, reaching $2,670 billion, most of it devoted to infrastructure. A Tokenomics Foundation study of 472 respondents from large companies shows that 73% of organisations struggle to link their AI spending to a business outcome that is measurable for their finance leadership, and only 9% say they are very capable of doing so. The Najar study, also cited, notes that AI is becoming a factor in software contract renewals, with price increases of 8 to 25%, while activation rates rarely exceed 10%. In light of this, a new discipline called "Tokenomics" is emerging to measure and attribute AI costs by workload, much like FinOps applied to the cloud. Summary based on the full text of the article. [Read the article on IT for Business →](https://www.itforbusiness.fr/la-facture-ia-explose-mais-les-entreprises-cherchent-encore-le-mode-demploi-du-roi-107913) ## Figures cited - 2,670 USD billion global AI spending in 2026 global, 2026 > « Les dépenses mondiales consacrées à l’intelligence artificielle devraient progresser de 49,5 % en 2026, après avoir déjà atteint 1 787 milliards de dollars l’an dernier. » Source: Gartner - 3,637 USD billion global AI spending in 2027 global, 2027 > « Et l’addition pourrait grimper à 3 637 milliards dès 2027. » Source: Gartner - 1,484 USD billion AI infrastructure spending in 2026 global, 2026 > « L’infrastructure IA absorbera à elle seule 1 484 milliards de dollars cette année, soit plus de la moitié de la dépense totale. » Source: Gartner - 462 USD billion AI software spending in 2026 global, 2026 > « Gartner prévoit 462 milliards de dollars de dépenses en logiciels IA en 2026, contre 288 milliards l’année précédente. » Source: Gartner - 73 % organisations unable to link AI spending to a measurable business outcome 472 respondents, large companies, 11 industries > « elle montre que 73 % des organisations se disent peu ou pas capables de relier leurs dépenses IA à un résultat métier mesurable que leur directeur financier jugerait recevable » Source: Tokenomics Foundation, State of Tokenomics - 9 % organisations very capable of demonstrating AI ROI 472 respondents, large companies, 11 industries > « Seules 9 % s’en déclarent très capables. » Source: Tokenomics Foundation, State of Tokenomics - 43 % respondents citing demonstrating value and ROI as a challenge 472 respondents > « 43 % citent la démonstration de la valeur et du ROI parmi leurs difficultés, de loin la plus fréquente » Source: Tokenomics Foundation, State of Tokenomics - 86 % respondents evaluating or using a model router 472 respondents > « Selon l’étude, 86 % des répondants évaluent ou utilisent déjà un tel dispositif » Source: Tokenomics Foundation, State of Tokenomics - — % annual AI-related price increase on software contracts Europe, Salesforce, HubSpot and Zendesk contracts > « avec des hausses annuelles de 8 à 25 % que le cabinet lui attribue » Source: Najar - 93 % use of specialised AI tools outside the contract > « 93 % de l’usage des outils d’IA spécialisés échappe à tout contrat » ## Classification **Country** Worldwide scope **Company size** Large companies **Industries** All industries, or industry not specified · Software vendors, IT services companies, telecoms **Companies** Gartner (study author), Najar (study author), Salesforce (cited), HubSpot (cited), Zendesk (cited), Tokenomics Foundation (study author) **Keywords** AI ROI, tokenomics, FinOps, AI spending, Gartner, AI infrastructure Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to IT for Business and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.