Key Points:
- Enterprise software spending is fundamentally changing as AI moves into core budgets.
- Decisions now focus on which AI vendors to fund, rather than if AI is worth it.
- AI-native tools are growing much faster than traditional software, with budgets being reallocated.
- Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are big winners, seeing huge growth in spending.
New research confirms that how companies spend money on enterprise software is undergoing a huge change. Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just something companies experiment with; it’s now a core part of their budgets.
Over the last year, companies have stopped asking if AI tools are worth funding. Instead, they’re now deciding which AI vendors should get more money. This shows a bigger shift in how they buy software, where AI is no longer an extra feature but the main thing shaping their software budgets.
Tropic analyzed over $18 billion in managed spending and found that overall software spending is going up sharply. Mid-market and large companies increased their spending by almost 58% compared to last year.
Within this growth, software made for AI is expanding much faster than traditional software. This means companies are clearly moving their money around, not just spending more everywhere. This redistribution of spending is mostly going to a small group of vendors, with OpenAI and Anthropic being the biggest winners.
Anthropic saw its spending grow by more than 428%, while tools like Cursor had increases over 600%. This shows how quickly engineering teams are adopting these tools.
At the same time, OpenAI continues to get a lot of spending, even though their contract growth is slower. This means a few vendors are getting a bigger piece of the budget pie, making them more important in daily work and infrastructure. These numbers tell us that AI tools are no longer just trial purchases. Procurement teams are getting repeated requests for the same AI platforms from different departments.
As companies spend more on AI, traditional software providers are seeing slower growth, and sometimes even a smaller share of overall budgets. For smaller companies, spending on mainly SaaS (Software as a Service) tools has already dropped by about 8%, while AI-native and hybrid tools keep growing. This difference suggests that companies are relying less on older systems that don’t have good AI features.
At the same time, vendors are charging more for their AI features, with prices going up by 20% to 37%. This is much higher than usual and puts extra pressure on budgets. Companies have to explain these higher costs while also rethinking their current software plans.
The data clearly shows that AI isn’t just another type of software spending. It’s now the main thing that decides how money is allocated. While overall budgets are growing, most of the spending is going to a few AI vendors, and traditional SaaS is declining. This shift could completely change how enterprise software markets work.
