CloudZero Survey Says: 78% of Finance Execs Can't Fully Tie AI Spending to Business Outcomes

Survey reveals finance leaders face intensified pressure to deliver proof of return on AI

BOSTON, June 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CloudZero, The AI ROI Company, today released new research examining the challenges organizations face in determining the business value of their AI deployments. The report, "Finding the ROI of AI: The Finance Perspective," is based on a survey of 260 senior finance professionals, more than half of whom are chief financial officers.

As AI adoption proliferates, finance teams are gaining better insight into how much is being spent, but they're under increased pressure to demonstrate how AI expenditure directly ties to business outcomes.

While 87% of finance leaders state they need the ability to tie AI spend to business results within the next year, only 22% have it today, according to the survey. The pressure to close this gap is no longer coming from inside finance: 66% of boards now condition further AI funding on proof of return, and 43% of finance leaders are already being asked for a number they can't produce. It's putting major pressure on finance teams; 46% said managing AI spend is now the most stressful part of their job.

The result of lacking measurable outcomes is budget overruns, measurement gaps and an inability to determine what's really working and where to invest more to drive the most value for the business.

Among the key findings:

• The ROI implementation gap is massive: Not only do less than a quarter of respondents have the ability to tie AI spend to business results today, but most (64%) respondents say outcome-based ROI would fundamentally change how they invest. And 60% said they strongly agree or agree with the statement, "We're spending more on AI than we can currently justify with measurable outcomes."
• Budgets are structurally broken: As AI becomes a larger share of spending, traditional budgeting methods fail. Over-budget spikes grow from 7% to 64% as the total share of spend for AI increases, but the size of the overrun is a poor indicator of whether an initiative will be killed. The pressure is on for smart spending versus managed spend.
• Real-time data is a powerful catalyst for investment: Finance teams that receive AI spend data within a day are twice as likely to "invest aggressively" as those waiting for a monthly bill and four times as likely to plan for at least 50% growth in AI spending.
• The measurement gap carries real consequences. 75% of teams that can't measure AI outcomes have held back on AI investment; 35% have killed an initiative outright.

Download the report here: https://www.cloudzero.com/finance-needs-ai-roi-2026-survey-report/

Dan Carducci, vice president of finance, CloudZero: "Being able to tie AI spend to business outcomes is about far more than tying numbers. Finance teams that have visibility into AI ROI from Day One invest more confidently in AI initiatives, get surprised less often, and can build sustainable AI initiatives to drive the business forward. Progress is being made, but organizations need strong, accurate measurement tools now." 

About CloudZero

CloudZero is The AI ROI Company, delivering the financial control plane purpose-built for the way AI actually generates cost. Multi-dimensional allocation captures every AI interaction the moment it happens and connects it to the customer, product, and feature that drove it, giving finance, operations, and engineering leaders a shared view of cost per customer, cost per product, and cost per feature in real time. AI Hub embeds that intelligence directly into the agentic workflows engineering teams already use. Trusted by leaders like Coinbase, Klaviyo, Miro, Nubank, and Rapid7, CloudZero is how modern companies turn AI spending into business intelligence.

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Force4 Technology Communications 
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SOURCE CloudZero