[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-splunk-survey-finds-55-of-firms-cant-control-ai-costs":10,"sections":54},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":42,"persona_id":42,"persona_name":42,"section":43,"tags":44,"sources":49,"feedback":53,"feedback_at":42,"cost_usd":53,"total_tokens":53},12124,"splunk-survey-finds-55-of-firms-cant-control-ai-costs","Splunk Survey Finds 55% of Firms Can't Control AI Costs","Splunk's survey links unpredictable AI bills to usage-based pricing and agents, even as AI monitoring pulls security and observability teams closer.","More than half of organizations (55%) say they can't effectively control their AI costs, according to Splunk's State of Observability 2026 report.\n\nObservability is the practice of monitoring the health of software systems, and telemetry is the logs, metrics and traces that monitoring produces. Splunk said AI costs are becoming less predictable as vendors move to consumption-based pricing, where customers pay per use rather than per user. Agents add to the problem. They work independently and can burn very different numbers of tokens, the chunks of text that models bill by, depending on the task, its complexity and the model chosen. Another 57% of respondents worry their telemetry costs now exceed the infrastructure being monitored.\n\nFinance teams feel it most. Three in five said unexpected spikes in AI bills cause more strain than a consistently high baseline cost. That points toward a preference for flat, seat-based pricing, though it is an inference from that answer, not something respondents were reported to have said outright.\n\nThere is a bright spot. Some 81% said monitoring AI workloads has increased collaboration between observability and security teams, and 73% can trace problems to their underlying security causes, up from 65% last year. \"This report shows that observability and security data are converging,\" said Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel, who added that teams need to collaborate more than ever.\n\nCost attribution splits along maturity lines. Among respondents Splunk classed as observability leaders, 91% can accurately attribute AI costs to particular agents, models and workloads, versus 69% of non-leaders. Splunk sells monitoring tools, so it has a stake in that finding looking important.\n\nCloud computing went through a similar round of bill shock, and the fix was a dedicated discipline of cost tracking. The 22-point gap between leaders and non-leaders suggests AI spending is early on that same path, and unevenly so.","[\"ai-agents\",\"observability\",\"ai-costs\",\"splunk\"]","2026-10-22T10:13:30.000Z","2026-10-22T11:21:18.438Z","2026-11-08T00:21:15.508Z","published","The seat-based pricing line still doesn't name TechRadar as the outlet drawing that inference (e.g., 'TechRadar's coverage reads this as a preference for flat seat-based pricing, but the survey as described doesn't measure it'), and it still reads like a hedge about what respondents said; also drop the unsupported 'Finance teams feel it most' superlative, since the source only says the shift is a headache for finance.",[24,30,35,39],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"The dek states as a survey finding that three in five finance teams 'would take a higher flat rate over volatile consumption bills', but the source only says spikes cause more strain than a high baseline and TechRadar merely implies a preference, so reword it to the actual finding and say 'respondents' rather than 'finance teams' or 'firms'; also stop framing the 91% (observability leaders) versus 55% (all organizations) comparison as an oddity, since they are different groups.","resolved",{"id":31,"reviewer":26,"round":32,"reason":33,"status":34},"editor-r2",2,"Remove the unsupported claim that leaders are 'teams that have invested in tracing', since the source never says what makes someone an observability leader, and rewrite the line 'The source implies a preference for seat-based pricing, but the survey results as described do not measure it' so it names TechRadar as the outlet inferring that preference and no longer reads like a note about source conflicts.","open",{"id":36,"reviewer":26,"round":37,"reason":38,"status":34},"editor-r3",3,"The unsupported 'invested in tracing' claim is gone, but the seat-based pricing line still says 'The coverage of it also infers' instead of naming TechRadar as the outlet drawing that inference; also tighten the closing, which compares the 91% (observability leaders only) with the 55% (all respondents) as if they were separate groups, and the speculative 'one runaway task... no human watching' line.",{"id":40,"reviewer":26,"round":41,"reason":22,"status":34},"editor-r4",4,null,"ai",[45,46,47,48],"ai-agents","observability","ai-costs","splunk",[50],{"name":51,"url":52},"TechRadar","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.techradar.com\u002Fpro\u002Fcould-ai-agents-be-causing-surprise-bills-at-your-business-youre-not-alone",0,{"sections":55},[56,60,65,70,75,80,85,90,95,100,105,110,115,120],{"name":57,"slug":43,"count":58,"latest_published_at":59},"AI",7110,"2026-11-08T14:34:09.000Z",{"name":61,"slug":62,"count":63,"latest_published_at":64},"Security","security",1099,"2026-11-08T15:24:01.000Z",{"name":66,"slug":67,"count":68,"latest_published_at":69},"Deals","deals",620,"2026-11-08T08:00:00.000Z",{"name":71,"slug":72,"count":73,"latest_published_at":74},"Policy","policy",604,"2026-11-07T15:48:26.000Z",{"name":76,"slug":77,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",336,"2026-11-08T21:00:00.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Hardware","hardware",316,"2026-11-08T14:36:39.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"Science","science",222,"2026-11-07T16:19:17.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"Software","software",154,"2026-11-08T15:42:52.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"Startups","startups",150,"2026-11-06T16:50:01.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",125,"2026-11-06T22:15:59.000Z",{"name":106,"slug":107,"count":108,"latest_published_at":109},"General","general",111,"2026-11-08T21:27:29.000Z",{"name":111,"slug":112,"count":113,"latest_published_at":114},"Gaming","gaming",94,"2026-11-08T20:52:05.000Z",{"name":116,"slug":117,"count":118,"latest_published_at":119},"Reviews","reviews",38,"2026-10-20T12:00:00.000Z",{"name":121,"slug":122,"count":123,"latest_published_at":124},"How-To","how-to",8,"2026-10-05T09:00:00.000Z"]