Governing AI in the Cloud: The Convergence of FinOps and ITAM
Technology spend has become the second-largest expense line item for enterprises — surpassed only by people. Yet as artificial intelligence rapidly proliferates across cloud environments, organizations face a critical gap: traditional FinOps teams optimize cost, while ITAM teams ensure compliance and visibility. These disciplines operate in silos, leaving shadow AI systems untracked and uncontrolled. The shift is inevitable: FinOps and ITAM must converge into a unified function that delivers both financial rigor and governance discipline.
One-third of IT decision-makers have placed AI integration at the top of their strategic agenda, with 94% actively embedding AI into their technology stacks. Yet 36% of organizations believe they are overspending on AI — a gap that reveals the cost of fragmentation. Departments deploy generative AI tools, machine learning pipelines, and agentic AI systems without registering them in ITAM inventories or routing them through FinOps cost controls.
As agentic AI moves from concept to production, organizations will need a unified discipline that combines asset governance with cost optimization — precisely where FinOps and ITAM intersect.
