Field study / now open
AI-Native FinOps
Operating Model Study
How enterprises are staffing, operating, automating, and rethinking the technology financial-management function.
This field study supports the forthcoming book The AI Cost Playbook. It examines what work remains after enterprises purchase FinOps software, where human effort is concentrated, and whether parts of the function can be operated differently using AI while preserving financial accountability and engineering judgment.
01 / Why this study
The function itself is under pressure.
- FinOps was designed around cloud spend.
- Technology consumption is expanding into AI, SaaS, and data platforms.
- The operating cost of the function is rising.
- Current models combine software, internal labor, consulting, and managed services.
- The research explores whether the model itself must change.
02 / Research questions
Seven questions we are testing in the field.
- Q01What work remains after FinOps software is implemented?
- Q02Where is human effort concentrated?
- Q03Why do recommendations fail to become realized action?
- Q04Which responsibilities must remain internal?
- Q05Which recurring workflows could be transferred?
- Q06How might AI change the economics of delivery?
- Q07How will AI, SaaS, and data spend alter the function?
03 / Who should participate
Practitioners who run, buy, or advise on the function.
- FinOps leaders
- Cloud economics leaders
- TBM and ITFM leaders
- Cloud platform leaders
- Technology finance executives
- Former practitioners
- Managed-service leaders
04 / What participants receive
A fair exchange for a 45-minute conversation.
- Anonymized findings.
- Early access to the research brief.
- Acknowledgement as a contributor, if desired.
- Optional one-page comparison against aggregate patterns for selected participants.
- Invitation to a private findings session.
05 / Confidentiality
Ground rules for the conversation.
- Comments will be anonymized unless explicit permission is given.
- No confidential cost or company information is required.
- The conversation is not a product demonstration.
- Participants can review attributed quotations before publication.
06 / About the authors
Raja Pabba & Florence Lowe
Practitioner Press / No. 01
The AI Cost Playbook
From Tokens to P&L
Raja Pabba & Florence Lowe
Raja Pabba and Florence Lowe are executable strategists working at the intersection of AI, cloud economics, and enterprise finance. Their work with CFOs, CIOs, CTOs, and Heads of AI focuses on moving the budgeting question from system cost to cost per outcome.
The AI Cost Playbook is a forthcoming field guide published under the Practitioner Press imprint. It introduces a shared spine — Input → Consumption → Work → Outcome → Value — and the frameworks needed to make each step measurable: the Staircase and the Governance Loop.
Status/In progress. First chapter available to early readers.
Call to action
Contribute to the study.
45 minutes, on the record or off. Your experience shapes what the next generation of the function looks like.