33% of companies say AI is more expensive than planned.

33% of companies say AI is more expensive than planned.

The mistake is not in the calculation. It comes before it.

Bitkom surveyed 604 companies in early 2026. 41% use AI productively, more than twice as many as the year before. And one in three finds that the budget does not hold.

The reason fits into two sentences. The pilot is budgeted. Operations are paid for.

The pilot: 20 test users, clean demo data, a capped environment. Operations: token costs at real volume, integration into existing systems, data maintenance, governance. None of that appears on a demo price list.

A pilot proves feasibility. It does not prove economic viability. Anyone building a business case from pilot data is budgeting for a different product from the one that will eventually run.

That is why the real business case belongs at the end of the pilot, rather than the start of the project. Recalculated with actual usage data from operations, before the rollout decision.

What is your AI business case based on: demo prices or operational data?

#AI #Strategy #Leadership