Achieving return on investment is impossible without knowing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an initiative — and when it comes to AI, CIOs are finding cost calculations anything but straightforward. Subscription and token costs are a big part of the calculus, but several other factors go into the cost of AI projects, says Ben Schein, chief AI and analytics officer at AI data platform provider Domo. Chief among those are cloud infrastructure costs and the human time involved in guiding or correcting AI outputs, he notes. In addition, many organizations have multiple divisions using different AI tools for vastly different purposes.

Full report : A variety of pricing models and different use cases across organizations make it difficult to determine the true cost of AI. Visibility, usage mapping, and orchestration auditing can help.