Observability Budgets Rise as AI Adds Systems and Cost Pressure
Developer Tech, Thursday, October 22nd, 2026
A Grafana Labs/ETR survey finds most firms spent more on observability as AI adds systems to watch, and favor consolidation.
Grafana Labs and ETR surveyed 300 IT and engineering leaders for the State of Observability 2026 report, which comes from an observability vendor.
More than three-quarters reported higher observability spend, driven by new AI features (61%), wider coverage as AI-accelerated development creates more systems (60%), business growth and vendor price rises.
79% rate tool consolidation very or extremely important, and 86% call their consolidation efforts successful.
52% are comfortable letting AI carry out full remediation, with trust depending on accuracy and explainability.