Survey: AI takes 30% of companies’ IT budgets

Companies already using AI allocate an average of 30% of their IT budgets to the technology, while cloud services account for 48% of IT infrastructure costs. The figures come from Agentic AI matures, a report produced by research firm 451 Research for cloud provider Vultr.

The survey covered 2,000 decision-makers responsible for AI in North America and Europe. It found that spending on underlying infrastructure is growing faster than AI budgets overall: company AI budgets are increasing by 20%, compared with 30% for graphics processing units (GPUs).

Vultr chief marketing officer Kevin Cochrane said AI has become part of companies’ core business, with that shift reflected in infrastructure costs. He also said companies are looking for infrastructure that can meet demand.

The survey found that 37% of respondents prefer an alternative cloud provider that offers both infrastructure and specialist expertise when building AI and generative AI solutions. That is 15 percentage points more than the share who primarily want to work with a large technology provider or systems integrator. The report says preference for alternative providers has strengthened compared with earlier surveys.

AI maturity also affects planned investment growth. Companies at an early stage expect to increase AI investment by an average of 24% over the coming year, compared with 19% among the most AI-mature companies. Both groups devote about 30% of their IT budgets to AI.