IBM Apptio has started testing a tool to help companies assess the business impact of their artificial intelligence investments. The company announced the initiative on Thursday.
The software, called IBM Apptio AI Value & ROI, is now in public preview following a pilot phase with selected customers. It links each AI project to specific outcomes such as cycle time, cost savings, or conversion rates and monitors those metrics over time to determine whether the investments are delivering results.
Bill Lobig, vice president of IBM Apptio, stated that while business leaders continue increasing AI spending, few can clearly measure its benefits. The new tool aims to address that gap.
Corporate AI budgets face growing pressure to demonstrate value. Rising costs and demands for measurable returns have made this challenge more urgent as initial excitement about AI adoption meets financial realities.
Uber serves as a notable case. Last spring, the company’s CTO, Praveen Neppalli Naga, disclosed that Uber had exhausted its entire 2026 AI coding budget in just four months. Widespread adoption of tools like Claude Code across engineering teams drove the spending surge.
In an August post on X, Naga explained that Uber had since cut AI costs through measures like prompt caching and real-time usage tracking. He described the shift as the end of the “tokenmaxxing” era, where companies maximized AI usage without clear returns.
Related: Warner Music loses top finance and operations chiefs
During Uber’s second-quarter earnings call, CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy noted that nearly all of the company’s engineers now use AI-based coding tools, doubling code output per user. However, he warned that measuring true impact was more complicated than it appeared. “We’re being careful about how we assess this and not moving too fast,” he said.
IBM Apptio’s tool expands on its existing technology cost management work. Earlier efforts focused on visibility—tracking spending and its drivers. The latest update adds return on investment to the equation.
The software consolidates AI initiatives and tracks metrics across revenue, cost, speed, productivity, and risk. It is currently available in public preview for customers using IBM Apptio Costing Standard or IBM Apptio AI TCO & Usage. The company will collect feedback during this phase before releasing the tool later this quarter.
Lobig stressed the need for precision. “Our software guides critical business decisions,” he said. “It must be reliable.”
The question of whether AI investments deliver real value remains unanswered for many organizations.
For now, tools like IBM Apptio’s provide the data needed to find answers.
