Enterprises have been exploring and testing AI tools in recent years to determine the best application strategies. Now, investors believe this experimental phase is about to end, and by 2026, enterprise AI budgets will significantly increase, but will be more concentrated on a few effective suppliers.

Several venture capitalists focused on enterprise risks said that 2026 will be the year enterprises begin to consolidate their investments and choose the winners. Andrew Ferguson, Vice President of Databricks Ventures, pointed out that companies are currently testing multiple tools in single use cases. As AI technology proves its value through practical applications, companies will cut experimental budgets, streamline overlapping tools, and invest the saved funds into AI technologies that truly work effectively.

In line with this view, Rob Biederman, Managing Partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners, stated that enterprises not only will concentrate their spending, but the entire enterprise AI market will also tend to have only a few suppliers receiving budgets. Biederman predicted that budgets for specific AI products that can deliver significant results will increase, while budgets for less effective products will decrease significantly.

Scott Beechuk, Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, added that enterprises will invest more in tools that ensure the security of AI usage. He noted that as these capabilities mature, enterprises will gain more confidence when moving from pilot projects to large-scale deployment, and budgets will follow accordingly.

Additionally, Harsha Kapre, Director at Snowflake Ventures, believes that enterprise AI investments in 2026 will focus on three main areas: strengthening data foundations, post-training optimization of models, and tool integration. He mentioned that CIOs are actively reducing the fragmentation of software-as-a-service (SaaS), moving towards unified and intelligent systems to reduce integration costs and achieve measurable investment returns.

As enterprises gradually move toward centralization and efficiency, this will impact startups. Companies with hard-to-copy products or unique data may still continue to grow, while startups offering similar products to large enterprise suppliers such as AWS or Salesforce may face challenges such as reduced pilot projects and funding.

Key Points:

🌟 Enterprises will significantly increase AI budgets in 2026, but will be concentrated on a few effective suppliers.  

💼 Investors expect successful AI products to receive higher funding support, while other products will see significant budget reductions.  

🔍 Enterprises will focus on data infrastructure and security in AI investments to achieve efficient operations.