A year ago AI was one US$20 subscription on one credit card. It is now several subscriptions, a per-user licence inside the office suite, and a growing list of things billed by usage that nobody has forecast. Half of the finance leaders in a new US survey say their AI spend went over budget in the past year, and in a second survey only one in five could tie the spend to a result. Here is how the pricing works, where the money leaks, and a plain way to tell whether a tool has earned its renewal.