Would you like AI with that?

Half way through 2026 and we’re seeing common patterns in vendor behaviour. Different vendors, one playbook. Forced AI upgrades and unwarranted price spikes abound.

Market Moves – Would you like AI with that?

• Microsoft 365 list prices rose 9 to 33% from 1 July (Microsoft Licensing, 2026 M365 packaging and pricing updates FAQ, SAMexpert). For a large Microsoft estate, the July rise does not arrive alone. Microsoft removed Enterprise Agreement volume-discount tiers from 1 November 2025, ending the 6, 9 and 12% discounts that level B, C and D customers received (The ITAM Review, 25 September 2025). Stack that on the July list rises and the effective uplift heads towards 20%, even where the headline reads 5 to 8%.

• Adobe restructured Creative Cloud into Pro and Standard tiers with effective increases of up to 27% (Licenseware).

• ServiceNow repackaged its ITSM tiers with Now Assist AI folded into every one (Featurebase, Redress Compliance).

What buyers said:

• Renewal behaviour: “20% or more increases across the board, back and forth negotiations. AI capability being sold as part of a subscription, forcing to buy”

• “they are driving a hard fight to push E7 and/ or co-pilot. Citing “expanded capability- but it screams like a repackage”

• Impact: “Time suck – artificial deadlines and false senses of urgency, fear of missing out, all the same old tactics, just in overdrive – results in wasted time and a loss of trust.”

• What pressure: “Early renewal pressure – pushing AI and Sign”

• How framed/justified: “Business Value… in my opinion, we should be consolidating Adobe footprint right sizing entitlement to user need and looking for 3rd party alternatives where we can and not add useless features my user population doesn’t need.”

• Impact: “Requires us to put product rationalization front and center, conduct additional analysis and dig extremely deep into the day to day functions of the organization all while hoping the recommendation to reduce costs and pivot from ‘trusted’ tools to less expensive alternatives will be adopted.”

• Renewal behaviour: “Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, ServiceNow, and others. Aggressive price increases with little to no embarrassment or justification and still fewer value adds. Consume consume consume, how can we drive consumption – with very little care given to the impact of that consumption.”

• What’s being pushed: “Nearly every renewal/ product purchase comes with some sort of AI add-in… we are even seeing legacy products get AI forced into them where we don’t want it. -The vendor’s response ‘but hey, it’s free!’ – Free is great, but when free offers no value its more work than it’s worth.”

 

My read:

As mentioned back in April some of the biggest software publishers are under pressure to a) Pay off big bets on AI infrastructure b) seem relevant to fickle investors and c) do this whilst having underperforming stock. 

See “20-30% Stock Drops. 30,000 Layoffs. What Enterprise Software Vendors Do Next.” 

As of today, stock is still down for Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow and Microsoft from 24/25 highs. 

This is different vendors using the same playbook, leaning hard on the renewal process. I fully appreciate this is a lot easier said than done, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE vote with your feet and choose alternative suppliers who offer AI as a value added option rather than forced adoption.

For years we’ve been fighting the removal of unused software from our estate, this forced AI bundling is just introducing a load of unwanted software bloat. How many Microsoft estates got persuaded to take Copilot as part of a deal at the end of June even though only 36% of people with Copilot access actually use it. ? In comparison, ChatGPT is now the most frequently expensed app accordingly to Zylo.

What are you seeing? Please participate in our Vendor Pressure Index: https://form.typeform.com/to/tv7LAhdW

Further details about the Vendor Pressure Index here: https://itassetmanagement.net/2026/05/07/vendor-pressure-index/