Why ITAM practitioners must evolve for the AI and FinOps era

If you work in IT Asset Management, the last few years have probably felt like one long expansion of your job description. First came cloud, with its moving targets and consumption-based costs. Then SaaS buying spread across the business, often faster than teams could track it. Now AI is arriving with another layer of complexity: usage that is harder to see, harder to forecast, and harder to connect to business value.

Flexera’s 2026 State of ITAM Report shows how quickly the ground is shifting. 84% of organizations now cite AI adoption and tracking as a top challenge, yet only 31% have visibility into AI software. At the same time, 59% report that wasted AI spend is increasing. This is the core issue facing ITAM teams today. AI adoption is moving faster than governance. For the first time, even visibility is struggling to keep up. This means ITAM teams are being asked to govern a fast-growing area of spend that many organizations still cannot fully see.

For ITAM leaders wondering how they’re supposed to become AI economists overnight, there are practical ways to move forward while the market, pricing models, and measurement frameworks are still taking shape. But the first step is recognizing that the role must evolve from what it has traditionally been.

How cloud, SaaS, and AI are expanding the role of ITAM

The report makes it clear that ITAM responsibilities have already expanded. Three-quarters of ITAM teams now manage cloud software licenses. Sixty-four percent manage SaaS. More than half are already responsible for AI spend visibility. At the same time, nearly 80% of organizations have a dedicated FinOps function.

This creates a new reality. Traditional software licensing gave teams something relatively concrete to work with: contracts, entitlements, deployments, renewals, and audit exposure. Cloud and SaaS made that harder by introducing variable consumption and decentralized purchasing.

AI adds another shift. Costs may be tied to users, models, tokens, prompts, workloads, agents, integrations, or outcomes. In many cases, the business may be experimenting before there is a mature way to measure whether that usage is efficient or worthwhile. The challenge is that most practitioners have not been formally trained for this expanded role. Traditional ITAM frameworks alone are not enough in a world where costs are dynamic, consumption-based, and tied to real-time usage. ITAM has always been about creating control from complexity. That has not changed. What has changed is the type of complexity practitioners are being asked to manage.

Why ITAM professionals must upskill now

The most immediate priority for ITAM professionals is to expand their capabilities beyond traditional asset management. As the Flexera data cited above shows, ITAM teams are responsible for AI spend but don’t have clear visibility of what that spend is. This gap is exactly why skills in FinOps, AI cost governance, and consumption-based optimization are becoming essential.

A good place to start is FinOps.

FinOps brings a different operating model. It focuses on continuous optimization, shared accountability, and real-time decision making. These are exactly the capabilities required to manage cloud and AI environments. For ITAM practitioners, this means moving from periodic license optimization toward ongoing consumption management. Understanding core FinOps principles, and pursuing formal certification, is quickly becoming table stakes rather than optional. At the same time, practitioners should be paying close attention to emerging frameworks that address what FinOps does not fully solve today.

AI introduces a new dimension: value.

It is no longer enough to know what something costs. Organizations need to understand what that cost produces. This is where tokenomics starts to become relevant. Token-based pricing models, cost per interaction, and cost per outcome will define how AI is governed over the next several years. The work being done by the Tokenomics Foundation is an early signal of how this space is evolving, and ITAM professionals should be actively tracking those developments.

Why ITAM and FinOps should align around technology economics

One of the most practical steps organizations can take is to formalize collaboration between ITAM and FinOps. In many cases, both functions already exist. They just operate in parallel. The opportunity is to bring them together into a unified Technology Economics group. The purpose of this group should be simple: create a single model for managing cost, consumption, and value across the IT estate. In practice, this group would focus on a few critical outcomes.

• Establishing clear ownership of cost across cloud, SaaS, and AI. The report shows that responsibility for software savings in the cloud is now nearly evenly split between ITAM and FinOps. Without alignment, this creates confusion and gaps.
• Defining consistent metrics. This includes not just total spend, but unit economics such as cost per user, cost per workload, and eventually cost per AI interaction.
• Driving visibility improvements. Complete visibility has dropped to just 36% of organizations, which highlights how much work still needs to be done.
• Aligning optimization efforts. Today, optimization is often fragmented. A Technology Economics group can create a single backlog of optimization opportunities across vendors, platforms, and environments.

Quick wins for improving ITAM and FinOps alignment

This does not require a multi-year transformation to get started. There are several practical steps ITAM and FinOps teams can take immediately.

• Start by creating a joint forum between ITAM and FinOps leaders. Even a monthly working session focused on shared priorities can begin to break down silos.
• Align on a small number of shared metrics. For example, focusing on software waste, license utilization, and cloud cost efficiency creates a common language across teams.
• Target a specific vendor or spend category. Microsoft, Oracle, or SaaS applications are often good starting points. Demonstrating measurable savings in one area builds credibility quickly.
• Begin introducing AI into governance discussions now, even if visibility is incomplete. Waiting until full visibility exists will only delay progress.

How ITAM can drive executive alignment on technology spend

The final piece is executive alignment. The reason ITAM is at an inflection point is because cost pressure is no longer isolated to IT. It is now a board-level concern.

Leaders are not asking for better tooling. They are asking for better outcomes. That creates an opportunity for ITAM to reposition itself.
Instead of framing discussions around compliance and audits, the conversation should shift toward value, efficiency, and control of technology spend.

Executives respond to clear narratives:

• Where are we spending?
• Where are we wasting?
• Where can we optimize?
• How do we govern new areas like AI before they scale?

A unified Technology Economics model, backed by ITAM and FinOps, provides a direct answer to those questions.

The future of ITAM is technology economics

ITAM is not being replaced, but it is being redefined. The core discipline still matters, but the scope has expanded beyond recognition. Managing assets is no longer enough. Managing consumption is now required. Managing value is next. The organizations that succeed will be the ones that adapt early.

For practitioners, that means building new skills, embracing FinOps, tracking emerging tokenomics frameworks, and actively shaping how these disciplines come together. The opportunity is significant.

For the first time, ITAM is positioned not just as a control function, but as a central player in how organizations manage technology economics at scale.

NEXT STEPS: Speak with an SHI expert if your organization is trying to gain control of cloud, SaaS, or AI-related spend. SHI can help you bring ITAM and FinOps together into a more practical operating model.

Want to learn more on this topic? Read our blog on FinOps for AI – how to stop chasing tokens and start measuring outcomes