Enterprise spending on artificial intelligence is expected to rise in 2026, but investors say the increase will be concentrated among fewer vendors as companies move away from broad experimentation and begin consolidating their AI toolkits, according to a survey conducted by TechCrunch.
Budgets Rise As Pilot Phase Ends
TechCrunch surveyed 24 venture capital firms focused on enterprise technology. The majority said enterprises are likely to increase AI budgets next year, while narrowing the number of vendors they work with.
Andrew Ferguson, a vice president at Databricks Ventures, said enterprises are reaching a decision point after several years of testing multiple tools for the same use cases.
He said companies are currently evaluating overlapping products, particularly in areas such as go-to-market software, where differentiation can be difficult to assess during proof-of-concept trials. Ferguson said that as enterprises identify AI systems that demonstrate measurable results, they are expected to reduce experimentation budgets, eliminate redundant tools, and reallocate spending toward technologies that have proven value.
Fewer Vendors Capture More Spend
Rob Biederman, managing partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners, said the shift will not only affect individual enterprise budgets but also reshape the broader AI vendor landscape.
Biederman said enterprise spending is likely to concentrate around a small number of AI providers, while many other vendors experience stagnant or declining revenue. He said investors expect a widening gap between a limited set of suppliers that demonstrate clear outcomes and a larger group that struggles to justify continued spending.
Safety And Governance Drive New Investment
Some investors said growth in AI budgets will focus on infrastructure that makes AI systems safer and more reliable in enterprise environments.
Scott Beechuk, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, said enterprises increasingly view safeguards, oversight, and governance as the core investment required for broader AI adoption. He said as these capabilities mature and reduce operational risk, organizations are more likely to move from pilot projects to scaled deployments.
Focus Areas For 2026 Spending
Harsha Kapre, a director at Snowflake Ventures, said enterprise AI investment in 2026 is likely to concentrate in three areas: strengthening data foundations, optimizing models after training, and consolidating tools.
Kapre said chief investment officers are actively reducing software-as-a-service sprawl and moving toward unified systems that lower integration costs and deliver measurable returns. He said AI-enabled products are positioned to benefit as enterprises streamline their technology stacks.
Implications For AI Startups
Investors said the shift away from experimentation toward consolidation could create uneven outcomes for AI startups. Companies offering products that are difficult to replicate, such as vertical-specific solutions or tools built on proprietary data, are viewed as more resilient.
By contrast, startups whose offerings overlap with products from large enterprise vendors such as AWS or Salesforce may face reduced pilot activity and slower funding. Several investors said defensibility increasingly depends on whether a product can withstand competition from large technology platforms or large language model providers.
If enterprise spending patterns shift as predicted, investors said 2026 could see overall AI budgets rise while many startups fail to capture a larger share of enterprise spending.
Featured image credits: Freepik
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