Could AI agents be causing surprise bills at your business? You're not alone

Date:
Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:13:30 +0000

Description:
Unexpected AI bill spikes are worse for companies than a high but flat baseline, but observability is improving.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Splunk finds 60% of firms say
AI bill spikes cause more strain financially than just paying a higher but flatter baseline Observability and security teams are coming together, which is a huge positive 91% of observability leaders say they can attribute costs to a model/agent level Splunk's State of Observability 2026 report has
claimed AI costs are actually becoming less predictable for businesses as vendors shift toward consumption-based models.

All of this comes against a backdrop of rising agentic AI adoption, where agents can work independently and consume huge variances in tokens depending on the task, complexity and model choice. More than half (55%) of the organizations surveyed say they can't effectively control their AI costs,
with as many (57%) now worried their telemetry costs are higher than the actual infrastructure they're monitoring. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: Agentic AI is making AI cost prediction even harder But
while there are clear challenges surrounding cost observability, artificial intelligence has led to one clear benefit four in five (81%) now say monitoring AI workloads has increased collaboration between observability and security teams, and 73% can accurately trace problems to their underlying security causes (up from 65% last year).

Companies are also seeing more data sharing between the two teams. "This report shows that observability and security data are converging, and that teams need to collaborate more than ever," Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel explained. You may like Cloud and AI bills looking a bit high? Your AI agents may have been let loose and run up huge spending costs Don't count the savings until you know what the AI actually costs Why AI is upending traditional technology pricing

The report also highlights the relevance of observability teams within the broader AI strategy an overwhelming 91% of observability leaders say they
can accurately attribute AI costs to particular agents, models and workloads (compared with 69% of non-leaders), making this an important consideration
for AI ROI concerns.

Still, shifts to pricing models and in how agents consume tokens continue to cause a headache for the finance department, with three in five saying that unexpected spikes in their AI bills cause more strain than a consistently
high baseline cost, implying they'd much prefer to budget for flatter seat-based models over consumption models. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/could-ai-agents-be-causing-surprise-bills-at-you r-business-youre-not-alone


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