AI FinOps: The C-Level Playbook for Funding, Charging, and Optimizing Enterprise AI

Many enterprises invest heavily in AI without a consistent approach to funding, cost attribution, or ongoing optimization. This episode gives C-level leaders a pragmatic playbook—AI FinOps—for aligning finance, engineering, and product teams around transparent budgeting, internal pricing/chargeback, and continuous cost-performance trade-offs. Mirko walks listeners through real-world governance patterns, a lightweight cost taxonomy for models and experiments, mechanisms to allocate cloud and human costs to business outcomes, and decision rules that prevent runaway experimentation spend. Listeners will learn how to create incentives that favor value per dollar, when to centralize vs. decentralize budgeting, and simple KPIs to track both technical efficiency and business impact. The focus is practical: low-friction controls, governance guardrails, and actionable steps executives can implement within 90 days to turn AI spending from a nebulous cost center into a managed investment portfolio.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/datascience-show-podcast--6817783/support.I share practical AI leadership notes on LinkedIn — the kind you can forward internally or reuse in executive discussions.Follow Mirko on LinkedIn if you want decision-ready frameworks, not hype.