After 200% growth in LLM spending in 2025, enterprises expect another 75% increase next year (a16z). As one CIO noted, "what I spent in 2023 I now spend in a week."

These are not pilots anymore—it's permanent budget lines flowing through centralized IT departments with enterprise-grade procurement requirements.

The "Buy vs Build" Inflection Point

Perhaps the most actionable insight: enterprises are shifting from "build" to "buy" as the AI application ecosystem takes shape. In customer support alone, "over 90% of survey respondents noted that they were testing third-party apps".

3 out of 4 companies in non-regulated industries testing 3rd party AI apps, not LLMs. This number is 40% in regulated industries.

The implications are profound.

Companies are discovering that "internally developed tools are difficult to maintain and frequently don't give them a business advantage" in a space moving this rapidly.

While dedicated solutions can optimize across multiple models and deliver superior outcomes.

The Multi-Model Reality is Here

37% of enterprises now use 5 or more models, up from 29% last year. Organizations are matching specific models to use cases – Anthropic for coding, Google for system design, OpenAI for complex Q&A.

Cloud Infrastructure Takes Center Stage

The hosting data reveals a split strategy: 44% host on CSPs, including on CSP model endpoints (28%) or CSP GPUs.

37% go directly with model providers. Why direct? Leaders want "direct access to the latest model with the best performance as soon as it's available."

Enterprise Procurement Takes Over

Companies now approach AI model selection with disciplined evaluation frameworks, with reliability, security and cost gaining ground on raw performance.

AI buying now mirrors traditional software procurement – complete with checklists, compliance requirements, and price sensitivity.

What This Means for Alliance Leaders:

Move Fast on Apps:

The buy-over-build shift creates a massive opportunity window that won't stay open forever.

Marketplace-First Strategy:

With budgets in core IT and procurement standardizing, cloud marketplaces are set to become the natural transaction layer to manage hundreds of new apps.

Security & Compliance:

These are now table stakes – leverage cloud providers' existing certifications.

The research confirms what many suspected: AI is crossing the chasm from experimentation to production.

For ISVs, the implication is clear – your cloud marketplace and partnership strategies aren't just nice-to-have channels anymore. They're becoming the primary path to capturing this explosive growth.

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