AI inference costs could rise more than fivefold by 2028: Gartner

AI inference costs per agentic workflow will increase more than fivefold through 2028, according to Gartner, Inc. As AI products evolve from assistive features to multistep execution, product leaders face a new margin challenge with falling model prices subsidizing more complex workflows and escalating total AI costs. As a result, inference cost management has become a top priority.