US Corporate AI Spending Growth Slows to 1.65%, Customer Support Share Rises to 13.3%
Ramp data shows US corporate AI spending hit a new high but growth slowed, with the top 1% of companies driving 80% of OpenAI and Anthropic revenue and customer support emerging as a key growth area.
According to the Ramp AI Index released by financial services provider Ramp, US corporate AI spending reached a new high in October 2026, but month-over-month growth slowed to just 1.65%. The index, based on payment data from more than 85,000 US companies, reflects API-level spending trends.
Spending structure remains extremely concentrated. The top 1% of companies by AI spending paid a median of $10,200 per employee per month, up 9% from the previous month. In contrast, a typical company spent only $16.32, an increase of less than $1. Ramp Chief Economist Ara Kharazian noted that this top tier—mostly venture-backed firms in tech, finance, and technical services—still drives 80% of revenue for OpenAI and Anthropic.
Departmental allocation shifted significantly. Software development teams accounted for 72% of all tracked AI spending, though their share has declined from summer highs. Meanwhile, customer support and success departments saw their share of AI spending climb from 0.8% in June to 13.3% in October, likely driven by AI chatbots in service roles. Kharazian analyzed that these use cases tend to favor cheaper, faster models over expensive flagship ones, meaning new customers may bring lower margins.
Although the average price per million processed text tokens dropped 21% last month and usage volume grew faster than spending, market concentration risks persist. Anthropic reached 44.8% adoption on the Ramp platform, while OpenAI held steady at 40.6%. It is worth noting that Ramp's data sample skews toward large, tech-savvy companies, potentially overstating overall market AI adoption rates.