With their customers worn down by pricing shifts, software/cloud companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Figma are reportedly offering artificial intelligence (AI) discounts.
That’s according to a report Tuesday (Sept. 22) by The Information, which said these markdowns are happening as customers are growing more selective about the AI tools they purchased after increasing spending on products like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex and slashing other costs to justify the expanded budgets.
The report added that companies are also unhappy with shifts by software providers to charge them for AI based on usage or how many tasks it finishes, which can ramp up costs.
The Information argued the trend demonstrates that traditional software companies are still figuring out how to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic, which continue to upgrade their tech to automate work in fields like finance and design. At the same time, OpenAI has been offering its own discounts, placing added pressure on traditional software providers.
Mike Trkay, chief information officer at credit scoring company FICO, told The Information his firm is benefiting from attempts by many traditional software providers to keep customers like him from moving to OpenAI or Anthropic.
Dozens of FICO’s software providers have offered new AI capabilities at no added cost during recent contract renewals, said Trkay, though he declined to identify the providers.
“If a vendor doesn’t heavily discount or bundle it [AI capabilities] into their core license … it’s a contract we really wouldn’t sign anymore,” he added, because he doesn’t think the AI tools are worth paying the additional fee.
The news follows a report Monday (Sept. 21) from Bloomberg News that an increasing number of software companies are turning to open-weight artificial intelligence models, including Chinese ones, because of the cost of proprietary models from American AI developers.
Open-weight models are normally cheaper and let firms create their own models with their own data, thus reducing the risk of outsourcing their tech to another company.
PYMNTS reported in July that for chief financial officers of middle market companies, the question is whether the savings, flexibility and control provided by open models are enough to justify taking on more responsibility for the infrastructure underpinning them.
“Self-hosting requires computing capacity, storage, cybersecurity controls, monitoring tools and skilled employees, while a proprietary, closed platform typically bundles many of those responsibilities into its price,” PYMNTS wrote.
