As big tech pushes AI spending to max, you may be helping pay for it

As tech industry giants race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure — Microsoft Spent $34.9 billion in just one quarter Meta plans to spend up to $72 billion this year; They may not be the only ones responsible for the hundred billion dollar bill.

Consumers are increasingly faced with AI-inundated subscription tiers as tech firms try to monetize their big investments and package their software offerings with hard-to-detach AI tools that can make it harder for customers to leave and more expensive if they don’t.

An example of this is Microsoft 365, which now includes Copilot AI features at many of its layers. The company recently launched Microsoft 365 Premium, which combines Copilot Pro features with Microsoft 365 for $19.99 per month. Previously, Copilot Pro cost $20 per month on top of existing subscriptions, and to use it in desktop Office apps, customers also needed a separate Microsoft 365 Personal ($6.99/month) or Family ($9.99/month) plan; this brought the total to approximately $27 to $30 per month. The basic Microsoft 365 subscription itself has become increasingly important as Microsoft de-emphasizes standalone Office purchases and makes cloud integration more central to document workflows.

Similar packaging of AI tools is now becoming the norm Alphabet with Adobe.

For example, in March 2025, Google Workspace added the Gemini AI assistant to Business and Enterprise plans with price increases of around $2 to $4 per user per month (roughly a 16% to 33% increase depending on level) and AI features that cannot be removed or disabled in most cases. For a 50-person company on Business Plus, this means an additional $2,400 per year.

Adobe rebranded Creative Cloud All Apps as Creative Cloud Pro starting mid-2025; prices increased from $59.99 to $69.99 per month (or $659.88 to $779.99 per year); that’s a $10 per month increase tied to expanded generative AI capabilities such as unlimited standard image and vector rendering.

According to experts, it does not matter whether the customer wants artificial intelligence or not; The main thing is cache.

“AI is all the rage right now, and this buzz is fueling what marketers call perceived value bias,” said Elizabeth Parkins, professor of practice at Roanoke College. “When something is labeled ‘AI-powered,’ people assume it must be smarter or more useful, even if it changes their experience only slightly. This sense of progress makes the extra subscription feel justified—until consumers start asking whether they’re paying for innovation or just illusion,” he added.

Microsoft, Adobe and Google did not respond to requests for comment.

Fred Hicks, Adelphi University vice president and chief information officer, said companies are adding extra fees to help pay for multibillion-dollar data centers and their insatiable appetite for energy.

“The cost of running GPU clusters and power consumption is so high that turning that into subscriptions is a way to offset the costs. We’ve seen software licensing evolve into subscription models,” Hicks said, citing Microsoft and Adobe Creative Cloud as examples of the approach taken before the AI ​​boom. he said. “This creates a financing model that provides fixed revenue through a single-cost perpetual license. AI subscriptions follow the same philosophy,” he said.

Personalized AI may pay off over time

Hicks says that artificial intelligence will become ubiquitous in the near future because companies without artificial intelligence will lose their advantages in the market. For consumers, if it’s a regular presence in your life, paying the price may pay off over time because of the personalization that can be fine-tuned by AI.

“Using the same AI model, personalization is based on your habits and preferences. Personalizing the user’s needs will become more accurate. This requires long-term engagement and subscription,” Hicks said.

But oversubscription will become a problem, as it already is with streaming services, prompting consumers to reconsider what they really need and delete at least some subscriptions to save costs. This may be easier said than done when it comes to software.

“It will be nearly impossible to separate AI subscriptions from other services. Google and Microsoft now include basic AI in many of their app subscriptions. Deeper integration requires higher layers, which increases costs,” Hicks said.

Chris Sorensen, CEO of US-based SaaS company PhoneBurner, says a quiet but important change is on the way.

“AI itself is not only improving products, it’s also redefining the way pricing structures work. Companies like Adobe, Microsoft, and Google are using AI ‘enhancements’ to justify recurring revenue where one-time licenses are sufficient.” Sorensen added that subscription models make sense because they create predictable revenue but hide increasing costs.

Consumer reaction emerges

“Many consumers are starting to notice this shift. After a while, you start to realize that you’re paying $10 here and $20 there for features that aren’t being used and aren’t actively included,” Sorensen said, and this extra revenue that may benefit companies for now could set them back more in the future.

“Some backlash is emerging, especially in creative and productive communities, but I believe this pattern will only grow,” Sorensen said. What’s likely to happen, he thinks, is for companies to build layers of “AI superior intelligence” that will eventually turn software ownership into permanent leases.

Tien Tzuo, founder and CEO of enterprise software company Zuora, which provides a platform for businesses to launch, manage and monetize subscription-based services, says AI-powered products and price increases are becoming an increasingly vexing problem for consumers.

“All companies are incorporating AI into their products, but the largest companies like Adobe, Microsoft, and Google often raise prices without clear justification. Other companies, like Zendesk, are taking a more transparent and customer-friendly approach by linking AI pricing to results, so you only pay when the AI ​​resolves a ticket,” Tzuo said.

Tzuo said there will be a pay-as-you-go future for AI if consumers are persistent enough to pay more, especially if the use cases fall short for many.

“We are seeing an explosion of interest in usage-based pricing for AI, where customers have control over what they pay based on what they consume,” he said. “AI is changing the meaning of this ‘value,’ and paying based on usage helps companies prove it. How often you use a product or see a result should speak for itself,” Tzuo added.

The growing suite of artificial intelligence is an extension of what has been happening on the internet for years, according to Ananya Sen, an assistant professor of information technology and management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. “The problem is how you can subscribe with one click, but you have to make a phone call to cancel your subscription. In a sense, what we’re seeing with AI products is a continuation of that, but maybe on a larger scale,” Sen said.

Since many people do not understand AI products and available software tools, they may not know what they prefer, but the irony is that subscriptions today may be more secure than in the best interest of consumers. He says this is a result of behavioral psychology.

“Once you get involved, there’s an inertia; it’s harder to give up, you have to make an active choice. Companies rely on that and exploit that,” Sen said. “And when it comes to AI products, this is a rapidly evolving field. It’s hard for a normal online consumer to keep up with these different tools; it becomes a bandwidth issue, your mental bandwidth and attention,” he added.

Sen says consumers need to be active in their own subscription ecosystems. “There needs to be some responsibility on the consumer side. But it’s a two-way street. These small dollar values ​​add up,” Sen said.

Many consumers still have an advantage: They continue to use the free basic versions of the software. But companies will do their best to push more towards subscription products. “Even when you consider the big players, the majority of users are using the basic free version. Even for the most prominent players, it’s difficult to convert people to subscriptions,” Sen said.