The State of FinOps 2026: An Overview

FinOps was once all about reducing cloud costs and has now grown into something much bigger - helping companies get real value out of all their technology spend. That’s the big takeaway from the latest State of FinOps 2026 report from the FinOps Foundation.

This year’s survey pulls input from nearly 1,200 FinOps practitioner working with over $83 billion in annual cloud spend so let’s get into it!

1 https://data.finops.org/

AI is the ‘in thing’ for 2026

FinOps is now as much about AI as it is about cloud bills. Nearly 98% of teams now manage AI spend, up from just 31% two years ago. And it’s not just about FinOps for AI but also AI for FinOps. Teams are also trying to use AI to improve how they carry out FinOps tasks - automating reporting, spotting savings opportunities, etc. It has been reported that organisations are being asked to use savings made from optimisations to fund AI investments.

FinOps Has Expanded Beyond Cloud

Cloud cost management used to be the focus for FinOps Practitioners, the report now shows different. Today, most teams are managing:

• SaaS spend - nearly 90% (up 25%)
• Licensing spend - 64% (up 15%)
• Private cloud - 57% (up 18%)
• Data centre - 48% (up 12%)
• Even labour costs are starting to come into the mix for some teams

This means FinOps is being used to make sense of all technology costs, not just cloud costs. As FinOps expands into more areas of technology spend, teams are adopting the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS) to bring one standardised way to look at cost and usage data across cloud, SaaS, AI, data centres, and beyond. 

This, of course, relies on genuine, concerted adoption of FOCUS from a wide range of SaaS publishers; without that, FOCUS will never be a true standard. The question must be “What is in it for the software publishers?” – how do they benefit from increased adoption of FOCUS?

Cost Optimisation vs Value 

Reducing waste and optimising workloads are still a focus, however, teams say they’re hitting diminishing returns as they have achieved the ‘chunk’ of ‘easy’ savings and the remaining optimisation opportunities require more effort and less cost reduction. FinOps teams are now focused on things like:

• Forecasting
• Governance and policy
• Scopes expansion

It’s less about “how do we save money?” and more about “how do we increase value?”

FinOps Is Moving Up the Org Chart

FinOps is integrating into more of a strategic role, 78% of teams report into the CTO or CIO, which tells you a lot about how important the role has become. Most FinOps teams sit within the Technology org, usually with a dotted line back to Finance. When FinOps leaders are actively engaged with executive leadership, their impact grows significantly. Teams with VP, SVP, EVP, or C-suite involvement have 2-4x more influence over major technology decisions including:

• Cloud service selection (53% vs 12%)
• Cloud provider selection (47% vs 8%)
• Cloud vs. data centre strategy (28% vs 6%)

FinOps leaders are also playing a bigger role in strategic provider negotiations, multi-year investment planning and in some cases, they are helping decision making around labour vs AI investments. A clear sign that FinOps is becoming a true strategic partner, not just a cost management function.

FinOps Is Shifting Left but Proving the Impact Is Still Tough

FinOps is trying to Shift Left – that is, to get involved earlier in the product and engineering lifecycle. Teams want to cost things before they’re built which sounds great, but measuring impact is still hard. Once a developer avoids a cost, how do you credit them? 

FinOps & Other Disciplines

FinOps teams are working more closely with other disciplines. The strongest collaboration is happening with ITFM to align on shared cost data, followed by ITAM/SAM to manage asset governance and compliance. Teams are also partnering with ITSM around policies and processes, and with ESG groups to support sustainability goals. Platform Engineering is joining the conversation too, especially as more organisations drive for cost awareness into earlier stages of development. In bigger companies these groups often operate as separate but closely aligned teams, while smaller organisations tend to combine them.

2 https://data.finops.org/

Conclusion

FinOps in 2026 is no longer confined to the cloud. It now spans AI, SaaS, licensing, private cloud, and data centre costs and value - demanding a broader commercial and operational skill set. The findings from the latest State of FinOps 2026report suggest that practitioners are expected to influence forecasting, governance, architectural decisions and even strategic vendor direction, not simply optimise deployed workloads.

For FinOps and ITAM professionals, this has practical implications:

• Visibility alone is no longer sufficient. You must translate cost data into commercial insight.
• Expansion into SaaS, AI and on-premises environments requires closer integration between FinOps, ITAM, licensing and architecture functions.
• Moving earlier in the lifecycle demands capability in cost modelling, unit economics and contract awareness, not just reporting.
• Executive engagement increases influence but also raises expectations around measurable business value.

The opportunity is significant, but so is the complexity. Expanding scope without a clear operating model, defined ownership, or aligned incentives risks creating data and over-lapping responsibilities without oversight & control.

We will be exploring these themes in more depth in our upcoming webinar, including what the survey data really means in practice, where organisations may be overestimating maturity, and how FinOps and ITAM teams can position themselves as strategic partners rather than cost observers.

Register for the webinar here - Webinar: State of FinOps 2026: Our View On What the 2026 Data Means for Practitioners