AI Costs Push Enterprise IT Toward Efficient Inference

As artificial intelligence rewires enterprise IT, the industry is quickly pivoting from speculative hype to cold, hard economic realities. In this episode of the Tech Field Day Podcast, host Tom Hollingsworth is joined by Alastair Cooke and Stephen Foskett to unpack the major drivers shaping technology moving through 2026 and into 2027. The panel explores the transition from massive model training to practical business inference, while breaking down a looming hardware supply crisis that is spiking the cost of RAM, SSDs, and core data center infrastructure. From token pricing opacity and enterprise cost transparency to market power dynamics between hyperscalers, legacy server giants, and agile software startups, Tom, Alastair, and Stephen frame how these macro shifts will dictate the next wave of enterprise networking, cloud, and security. This and more on the Tech Field Day Podcast featuring Tom Hollingsworth, Alastair Cooke, and Stephen Foskett.