As a growing share of corporate software budgets goes to AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, established software firms are rolling out various countermeasures. Moves to expand discounts and free offers for AI products have been particularly noticeable recently.

The Information reported that enterprise software companies such as Workday and HubSpot, as well as cloud companies including Microsoft and Amazon, are offering free AI product trials or discounted prices to retain customers.

Workday started a program this summer for about 20 major customers that allows unlimited free use of its AI platform, Sana Enterprise, for 1 year. Companies that join the program can use AI agents that automate HR tasks such as hiring and onboarding new employees, as well as finance work.

The move is seen as an example showing that even though 4 years have passed since AI spread, established software firms are still seeking solutions on how to compete with newcomers such as Anthropic and OpenAI.

According to procurement software company Zip, AI providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Sierra accounted for 8 percent of corporate software budgets from September last year to August this year. That was a sharp rise from 1.4 percent in the same period a year earlier. Over the period, total software budgets rose 13 percent.

These are uncomfortable figures for established software companies.

As Anthropic and OpenAI improve technology that automates work across areas including finance and design while cutting model prices, the burden on established software companies appears to be growing. The Information reported that corporate customers are cutting spending elsewhere to justify increasing budgets for products such as Anthropic Claude Code and OpenAI Codex.

There is also a view that pricing policies applied by enterprise software firms to AI could be a burden when it comes to expanding users.

Established software companies have been rushing to unveil pricing plans that charge based on AI usage or the number of tasks completed by AI. Software companies say the policies are optimized for AI, but some customers also appear concerned they will lead to higher costs.

At some companies, those concerns are already becoming reality. For software company Pegasystems, spending on Microsoft's AI coding tool GitHub Copilot surged to $260,000 per month from $20,000. That happened after Microsoft changed its pricing policy to usage-based.

Enterprise software companies' recent moves to expand discounts and free offers for AI products also appear to reflect those concerns.

The Information reported that after Microsoft began charging GitHub Copilot fees based on usage, it also applied a 1-month grace period for some companies. For one manufacturer, it provided not only a 1-month grace period but also free credits worth tens of thousands of dollars each month for 3 months after the usage-based plan took effect. But as the plan changed, the company is also considering switching coding work to Anthropic's Claude Code and SpaceX Cursor, the report said.

Design software company Figma is a case where it lowered AI pricing to expand users. Figma CEO Dylan Field (딜런 필드) said at the Goldman Sachs Tech Conference held recently in San Francisco that it cut AI product usage costs by up to half. Figma switched to a usage-based plan in March, and in late August it also announced a policy to allow users to access more credits at the same price than what was included in existing subscriptions.

Shayan Mohanty (샤얀 모한티), chief data and AI officer at tech consulting company Thoughtworks, said software companies have shown a more flexible stance on pricing over the past 6 months to keep customers whose cost burden has increased as they use more expensive AI that requires usage-based fees. He said software companies currently typically offer 30 to 35 percent discounts on software and AI products and are also extending free trial periods for new products.