Operator-level research reading how executives who hold AI budgets are buying and funding AI, lane by lane.
The Enterprise AI Buying & Budget Index is an Open Future Forum research program. It does not size the AI market from above. It reads from inside the room: the executives who actually hold AI budgets, answering in their own words, across the communities Open Future Forum convenes. Each edition reads one function in depth. Tracked together over time, the lanes become the Index.
Every figure states its response base. No headline is published below 40 responses. Early reads are labeled as directional. A smaller claim, fully backed, beats a larger one that invites the obvious critique.
The center of gravity in enterprise AI buying is shifting to finance. This report reads that shift from inside the room. The flagship metric is the CFO AI Leverage Index: the share of finance leaders who say AI now lets them grow output without growing the team. Edition 1 covers event data from 200+ registrations across 20+ events in 2026, early instrument reads with bases shown, and the full evidence base behind five theses.
Future editions will read the security and growth lanes. Each carries a stable URL under /research/ and a dated edition number. Prior editions remain published so the Index line can be tracked over time.