- CIOsurge
- Posts
- đź’¸ Cloud inferencing costs stall enterprise AI adoption
đź’¸ Cloud inferencing costs stall enterprise AI adoption
AI Inferencing Costs Cloud ROI, Salesforce Raises Prices, New CIO and CISO at Westgate and TreviPay
Zack Tembi
June 24, 2025
Powered by Single Fin
Welcome to this week’s edition of CIOsurge!
This week:
Rising cloud inferencing costs are stalling enterprise AI deployments as usage-based pricing hampers cost predictability.
Salesforce announces price hikes across core products as it doubles down on AI, prompting CIOs to reassess licensing value.
Westgate Resorts and TreviPay name new IT leaders to drive innovation, security, and AI-enabled transformation.
Let’s make this week a game-changer.
Stay sharp. Stay ahead.
đź’¸ Cloud inferencing costs stall enterprise AI adoption
Enterprises scaling AI face unexpected barriers as unpredictable inferencing costs cloud ROI, according to Canalys. While global cloud spending surged 21% in Q1, uncertain recurring costs for AI inferencing—charged per API call or token—leave many companies hesitant. Some businesses now restrict deployments, simplify models, or shift to colocation to manage expenses.
The inferencing cost problem hits close to home for CIOs. We’ve embraced AI enthusiastically, only to find that the real challenge isn't just building powerful models—it's forecasting and controlling the operational expenses that come afterward. Usage-based pricing makes budgeting feel like a gamble, not a strategy.
Enterprises need better cost predictability or risk AI stagnation. It’s critical to evaluate model efficiency and explore hybrid infrastructures or specialized providers beyond traditional public clouds. If we don’t address inferencing costs upfront, the promise of AI will remain just that—a promise.
- Zack Tembi
🤖 Salesforce hikes prices amid aggressive AI rollout
Salesforce announced it will increase prices by an average of 6% across core enterprise products, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Slack—whose enterprise plan rises 20%. The price jump coincides with Salesforce’s AI-focused product expansion, including the recent $8 billion acquisition of Informatica, reflecting broader market trends as software vendors recalibrate pricing models amid growing AI adoption and costs.
We’ve all been bracing for this—software vendors reshaping their price models as they integrate AI. Salesforce’s latest move confirms that enhanced AI capabilities will come at a premium. CIOs need to proactively measure how much incremental value these AI features actually deliver, especially given tight budgets and rising software expenses.
It’s critical to reassess and potentially renegotiate licensing agreements now, before the hikes fully hit. Evaluate your current usage and consider alternative platforms if Salesforce’s added AI capabilities don’t clearly translate into measurable business outcomes. Be deliberate: higher cost should mean demonstrably higher value.
- Zack Tembi
đź’¬ Zack's Take
đź“Š Rewarding Engineers for Infrastructure Efficiency
There's a fundamental misalignment I've noticed: engineers are measured almost exclusively on their delivery, rarely on infrastructure efficiency or cost savings. Why would your teams prioritize efficiency if they're not rewarded for it? If you’re serious about cutting costs, bake efficiency metrics directly into performance reviews and bonus structures.
Rewarding cost awareness isn’t just logical—it’s smart business. If an engineer finds a clever way to reduce your infrastructure spend by 15%, why not share some of those savings as a bonus? This practice builds an ownership mentality across the organization and incentivizes the kind of resourcefulness that can significantly reduce operational costs.
Incentivizing cost savings might seem novel, but it makes financial sense. Your engineers become active participants in financial health, not passive observers. It changes your cost-saving initiatives from top-down mandates into bottom-up innovations—and that’s powerful.
🗞️ At A Glance
đź’ˇ CIO Spotlights
Westgate Resorts promotes Angel Miranda to CIO after tech transformation success
Westgate Resorts named Angel Miranda CIO, after serving as interim CIO since early 2025, and rapidly advancing from engineer to executive since 2013.
Miranda now leads IT strategy, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and AI-driven guest experience initiatives.
COO Mitch Less praised Miranda’s strategic vision and technical expertise in driving operational innovation and guest personalization.
TreviPay taps Matt Dewell as CISO to boost security advantage
TreviPay appoints Matt Dewell as Chief Information Security Officer, bringing cybersecurity leadership from Global Payments.
Dewell will focus on turning security into a strategic differentiator within TreviPay’s B2B payments and invoicing solutions.
His appointment follows TreviPay’s partnership with HSBC to digitally enhance corporate trade credit processes.