I’m sure many of you are fielding questions from your customers about AI and machine learning as they relate to IBM Apptio and Technology Business Management (TBM). These questions probably fall into two categories:
- How does IBM Apptio leverage AI-powered tools to help drive TBM outcomes?
- How can IBM Apptio help me manage AI costs more effectively?
In this blog, I’ll share answers to both these questions and point you to resources to get additional information.
But first, know that IBM Apptio is infusing AI into every stage of the TBM practitioner’s journey, enabling faster onboarding, real-time insights, smarter decision-making, and automated optimization - so organizations can focus on strategic impact, not manual work.
IBM Apptio uses AI to drive TBM outcomes
AI isn’t something we tagged on - it’s part of a growing foundation. Apptio is helping improve every workflow, insight, and recommendation to be faster, smarter, and more valuable because of our investments in the future of IT.
For TBM and IT Financial Management (ITFM) practitioners, our strategy is to use AI to:
- Automate financial data classification (available now)
- Deliver variance explanations (future release)
- Forecast IT spend (future release), and
- Surface cost optimization recommendations, enabling faster, smarter financial decision-making (future release).
Note: All roadmap and future release items are for reference only and are subject to change at any time.
Available now, IBM Apptio uses machine learning (ML)-based autoclassification to categorize GL transactions, vendors, assets and labor rosters and maps them to the TBM Taxonomy. This results in a drastic reduction in manual data mapping during customer onboarding and enables consistent classification across multiple regions and internal teams.
Apptio is building additional capabilities to improve the integrity and value of TBM data, such as:
- Large language model-based autoclassification
- Data normalization and enrichment
- Entity extraction.
For Planning, Apptio will introduce a scalable forecasting microservice leveraging IBM’s advanced time-series modeling. This will help generate forward-looking financial forecasts, detect spend anomalies to flag unusual patterns, and help deliver more accurate forecasts. Apptio is also working on AI-powered Variance Analysis and Plan Insights in the future.
Apptio users will also see a new, embedded AI Assistant that will deliver real-time, conversation support by leveraging Apptio documentation and resources to reduce manual effort and accelerate user onboarding.
AI Investment Management
Enterprises investing in AI often struggle to quantify both the costs and the business value generated by their AI initiatives. Traditional ITFM and TCO models are not always equipped to handle the unique cost structures of AI workloads, which involve dynamic cloud consumption, specialized hardware (e.g., GPUs), and unpredictable scaling needs. At the same time, organizations lack the ability to measure AI’s contributions to revenue generation, operational efficiency, customer experience, and competitive advantage.
AI TCO & Usage - now in General Availability for Commercial and US Federal - helps organizations track, forecast, and optimize AI-related costs across cloud, infrastructure, and labor to measure business impact and maximize AI ROI. This is the first step in a comprehensive AI Investment TCO solution based on four key pillars:
- AI Investment Visibility
- Financial Predictability
- Optimized AI Spending, and
- AI ROI Measurement.
Backed by IBM’s AI innovation and resources, Apptio’s proven ITFM solutions – powered by and for AI – will help your customers onboard more quickly, make smarter decisions, track and optimize AI-related costs, and identify and resolve issues proactively.
For more information, contact your Apptio Partner representative or see the Resources below.
Resources
IBM Apptio – AI TCO & Usage Customer Deck (Seismic, PPT, IBM branding)
IBM Apptio – AI TCO & Usage Configuration Guide (Seismic, PDF, IBM)
AI at Apptio: Strategy, Roadmap & Real-World Value Customer Deck (Seismic, PPT, Apptio branding; download and delete slide 1 before sharing with customers)
Apptio AI Solution Brief (Seismic, PDF)