Bottom line: Usage-based AI pricing models and lacking cost management structures cause 49 percent of companies to delay or redesign AI projects – staff reductions do not deliver expected savings.
The latest KPMG report “Global AI Pulse Q2 2026” shows: 29 percent of surveyed executives cannot explain the rising operating costs of their AI implementations. Almost half of all companies have already delayed or realigned AI projects because savings from staff reductions did not materialize.
KPMG surveyed 2,145 senior decision-makers worldwide across 20 countries on their experiences with AI implementations. A core problem: vendors such as Anthropic, OpenAI and GitHub have transitioned from flat-rate subscription models to usage-dependent billing – tokens and API calls are billed individually. This leads to difficult-to-plan variable costs that many organizations underestimated. One-third of surveyed managers admitted they have an insufficient understanding of the economic structures and cost models of AI agents.
The blanket replacement of workers with AI has not proven itself in practice as an immediate cost-reduction lever. 49 percent of surveyed organizations have temporarily delayed or substantively realigned AI projects – the reason being budget overruns or unclear returns on investment. KPMG diagnoses a fundamental deficit: “As usage-based pricing models become increasingly common, many organizations are still developing the capabilities required to effectively forecast, monitor and manage AI spending.”
A second structural problem lies in the lack of organizational accountability anchoring. Many companies have not established policies governing who bears responsibility for AI errors or so-called hallucinations, who controls costs and how results are verified. Steve Chase, Global Leader for AI and Digital Innovation at KPMG International, states: “We see a clear divide between organizations with executive leadership accountability at the top and those without. These companies deliver substantially better outcomes across the board – such as greater trust, higher value realization and an established ROI.”
According to KPMG, the strategic delays are not a sign of declining confidence in the technology, but rather a necessary adjustment: companies are increasingly focusing on use cases with demonstrably high ROI while simultaneously building their cost management capabilities.
Source: www.it-daily.net · Published 13 July 2026
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