The AI bill nobody budgeted for: Why observability is now the CIO’s cost-control lever
The problem with enterprise AI agents is no longer just what they cost. It’s that nobody can predict the invoice.
That is the central finding of the Splunk State of Observability 2026, released today by Cisco. The sixth edition of the report surveyed 2,050 ITOps and engineering respondents across 10 countries and describes a widening gap: the urgency to deploy AI agents is rapidly outpacing the ability to monitor them. For CIOs who have spent the past two years green-lighting agent pilots, the data reads like an audit finding.
Priority without proof
Monitoring AI has become a boardroom-level expectation. According to the report, 87% of respondents say it is a priority for their organisation. Yet 54% have no clear business outcomes tied to that priority, which means a majority are funding oversight they cannot define success for.
The measurement gap is sharper still. Some 56% say they cannot measure...
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