Apptio, an IBM company, has announced the public preview of IBM Apptio AI Value & ROI, giving technology and finance executives a single view of AI spend, including token costs, and its connection to measurable business outcomes.

The launch responds to a widening gap between AI investment and AI accountability across the region. IBM cites Gartner research showing 84 per cent of finance leaders have been unable to measure the ROI of their AI initiatives, with only around two in five of those who attempted it succeeding in quantifying returns.

Closing the AI accountability gap in APAC

The pressure is particularly acute in APAC, where businesses are investing across markets with very different levels of digital maturity, infrastructure costs and AI adoption. As token consumption, cloud infrastructure and implementation costs grow, CFOs and CIOs need a clearer way to determine where AI is creating measurable business impact and where spending needs to be reconsidered.

“AI is facing a cost crisis, and organisations are under growing pressure to demonstrate business value,” said Bill Lobig, Vice President, IBM Apptio. “With Apptio, clients can address waste – with one client seeing a 50% reduction in costs, allowing them to unlock funding for new AI initiatives that accelerate innovation.”

What the new capabilities track

• Proof metrics and results connecting each AI initiative to business outcomes and customer-selected proof metrics such as cycle time, cost avoided or conversion rate
• A flexible framework supporting multiple inventory and metric sources across a range of AI initiatives
• Integration with IBM Apptio AI TCO & Usage and IBM Cloudability, incorporating token spend, usage and labour cost inputs to optimise both cost and business value

IBM Apptio AI Value & ROI is available in public preview for IBM Apptio Costing Standard and IBM Apptio AI TCO & Usage customers, with general availability planned for the third quarter of 2026.

Boardroom priority as APAC shifts from experimentation

Pete Wilson, Vice President, Apptio Business and General Manager, APAC, IBM Apptio, said AI ROI is becoming a boardroom priority as APAC businesses move from experimentation to accountability, with the next phase of AI adoption in the region set to focus on measurable value rather than simply deploying more AI.

“AI is facing a cost crisis, and organisations are under growing pressure to demonstrate business value,” said Bill Lobig, Vice President, IBM Apptio.