Flexera surveyed 512 professionals responsible for IT asset management (ITAM) for its 2026 State of ITAM report.

The throughline: software spend is under a microscope, and the buying center is moving. The AI stack is rising, and marketplaces are now part of that conversation.

78% of organizations now have a dedicated FinOps team

But in public cloud, accountability for software savings is split almost evenly - ITAM and SAM teams own it at 47%, FinOps at 46%.

A year ago that gap was 59% to 32%.

The report calls this “both opportunity and friction” as the two functions share control. For anyone co-selling through cloud commitments and marketplaces, that’s two budget owners to track, not one.

The wallet behind this is large

51% of companies spend $5M+ a year just on pay-as-you-go and bring-your-own-license software running in the cloud; 29% spend more than $15M.

But buyers are tightening

Flexera says wasted spend declined or held steady across most areas, yet what remains is still meaningful - SaaS and public cloud software waste sit around 18-20%, IaaS and PaaS around 15-20%, depending on maturity.

So procurement is getting sharper: 47% now negotiate contract terms directly with vendors, up 14 points in a year; 59% track usage and rightsize SaaS contracts; 42% hunt for shadow SaaS. Deals now meet a buyer who can see and challenge the bill.

AI is the variable everyone is watching

47% expect their focus on AI software to rise significantly, while 59% say AI waste already grew last year. Yet only 31% have real visibility into their AI software spend, even as half of ITAM teams pick up responsibility for AI spend.

Companies estimate just 10% of AI software is wasted - the lowest of any category. My read: that says as much about limited visibility as it does about efficiency.

Tracking or adopting new AI applications is now the top challenge overall, cited by 84% of respondents.

Rising spend, no clear view - that gap is where the next wave of cloud commitments and marketplace purchases will likely land.

Lessons for alliance and marketplace leaders:

1. Map budget owners - and get closer to whoever controls the commits - because no single department fully owns the cloud spend

2. Lead with measurable ROI and usage data; buyers are negotiating and rightsizing harder than last year

3. Position AI and SaaS offers against cloud commits, as marketplace focus is climbing

Source: Flexera 2026 State of ITAM