In many enterprises, the economics of AI are really the economics of inference: how often models are called, how efficiently they run, and what those calls enable in real workflows.
Glossary entry
Inference
The process of running a trained AI model to produce an output from a prompt, query, or input signal.
Why it matters
Inference matters because most enterprise AI cost is incurred not when a model is trained, but when it is repeatedly used in production at scale.
Where this term comes up
- How Inference Choices Change AI Cost: A Guide for Budget OwnersGuide · 15 min
- What AI Actually Costs: Reference Cost Ranges for Enterprise AIReference · 11 min
- What Cloud Taught Us About the Real Cost of AI InferenceEssay · 9 min
- Why Cheaper AI Will Cost MoreEssay · 9 min
- Programmatic Access to AI Costs: A FinOps Practitioner's Billing API GuideReference · 12 min
