Armonk, N.Y. – November 10, 2026 -- Apptio, an IBM company, is rolling out native connections for leading frontier AI systems, aiming to close a visibility gap in which 85% of surveyed technology executives say they cannot see real-time AI spending in full.
The figure comes from an IBM Institute for Business Value study published in June 2026. It surveyed 2,000 senior technology executives across 33 geographies and 19 industries, in work conducted with Oxford Economics from January to April 2026. AI costs are spread across model providers, cloud infrastructure, applications and teams, which makes it hard to tell which initiatives deliver business value.
Native connectors bring AI usage data into the Apptio portfolio
The connectors feed AI cost and consumption data into the same environment as broader technology spend. IBM is also adding Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that link financial, operational, organizational and portfolio data to external AI tools. Users can ask natural-language questions of their financial, cloud and portfolio data to surface drivers, risks and opportunities.
Eugene Khvostov, Chief Product Officer at IBM Apptio, said AI investment is growing faster than many organizations can govern and evaluate.
IBM Cloudability adds token-level costing, forecasting and commitment recommendations
Cloudability now covers AI application costing, usage and token data alongside traditional cloud costs. It supports AI and cloud unit economics and recommends commitments for hyperscalers' AI services to optimize rates. Financial planning features support forecasting and budgeting for AI costs, and an AI Assistant answers plain-English questions about cloud and AI spend.
IBM Apptio introduces AI Value & ROI tools to link spend to business outcomes
The Apptio product adds AI Assistant, AI Lens and AI Data Assistant to speed analysis and automate data preparation. Expanded AI Economics capabilities give deeper visibility into AI spend, total cost and usage. New AI Value & ROI capabilities tie technology investments to measurable business outcomes, and driver-based planning is designed to improve forecasting of variable spend.
IBM Kubecost extends network cost detail to AWS NAT Gateway and cross-region traffic
Kubecost now breaks out AWS NAT Gateway ingress and egress, cross-zone and cross-region traffic. Teams can trace network charges back to the Kubernetes resources and traffic patterns behind them. The feature is available to all product tiers.
Availability spans November 2026 through the first half of 2027
AI system connectors are generally available, with connectors for additional sources planned for Q4. AI Value & ROI and the AI Economics enhancements became generally available on November 6, 2026. Cloudability AI Unit Economics and Financial Planning for AI services are generally available, and the AI Assistant, AI Lens and AI Data Assistant in Apptio are also live.
MCP servers are slated for general availability in Q4 for Cloudability, Apptio and Targetprocess, and in Q3 for Kubecost. Cloudability AI Commitments support is listed for Q3, with incremental support in Q1 and Q2 2027. Driver-Based Planning and AI Scenario Planning are due in Q4.
Tim Crawford, Founder and Principal Analyst at AVOA, said visibility into cost alone is not enough and leaders need to know who owns spending and what value it returns.