How to Budget for AI Without Breaking Your 2026 SaaS Strategy

AI is shifting SaaS from predictable seat-based licenses to volatile, consumption-driven models. For Finance and Procurement leaders, this creates a significant forecasting risk: "AI-washing" is inflating contract costs while usage-based billing makes overages common.

This session provides a practical framework for managing this transition. We move past the marketing hype to address the operational reality of AI spend- how to verify value before you buy, how to forecast token-based costs, and how to maintain budget discipline when vendor pricing is in constant flux. Learn how to support your company’s AI roadmap without losing control of your software margins.

What attendees will learn

• The AI-Washing Filter: How to identify which vendor features provide genuine value and which are simply price-inflation tactics.
• Consumption-Based Forecasting: Practical models for predicting spend on token-based and usage-heavy AI contracts to avoid end-of-quarter surprises.
• Contract Safeguards: Specific clauses every CFO should demand to protect against hidden costs and vendor lock-in during the AI transition.
• ROI Measurement: A framework for quantifying the impact of AI when traditional "seat-based" productivity metrics no longer apply.

Who should attend

• CFOs & VPs of Finance: To stabilize margins and ensure AI investments translate into measurable bottom-line growth.
• Heads of Procurement: To gain the leverage needed to negotiate transparent, outcome-aligned contracts with AI-first vendors.
• Finance Ops & FP&A Managers: To build more accurate forecast models that account for the shift from fixed to variable software costs.