In this episode of The Margin, MGI Research Co-Managing Directors Igor Stenmark and Andrew Dailey are joined by Senior Research Analyst Elise Talley and Research Associate Ethan Weiss to examine the findings from the 2026 Agile Billing Buyer's Guide and discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming enterprise monetization. As organizations race to commercialize AI-enabled products and services, traditional billing systems are being pushed far beyond their original design assumptions. New pricing models built around usage, tokens, API calls, credits, and outcome-based pricing are forcing enterprises to rethink the technologies that underpin revenue generation.

Drawing on MGI Research's evaluation of 50 leading billing suppliers, the panel explores why usage billing has become a foundational capability, how market consolidation is reshaping the competitive landscape, and why agility has emerged as the defining characteristic of modern monetization platforms. The discussion also examines the widening gap between AI vendor marketing and customer adoption, the growing convergence of CPQ, billing, payments, revenue recognition, and CLM, and why buyers should evaluate vendors based on business outcomes, architectural flexibility, and long-term strategic fit rather than AI feature checklists. The conversation concludes with practical guidance for selecting billing platforms, interpreting MGI's quantitative vendor ratings, and preparing enterprise monetization stacks for the next generation of AI-driven business models.

Key Analytical Takeaways

• AI is Redefining Enterprise Monetization: Why AI is driving a new generation of pricing complexity through usage-based, tokenized, API-driven, and outcome-based commercial models that legacy billing platforms were never designed to support.
• Usage Billing Has Become Table Stakes: How usage billing has evolved from a niche capability into a core enterprise requirement as organizations seek to monetize AI-enabled products and services.
• The Monetization Stack is Consolidating: Why acquisitions across billing, CPQ, payments, CLM, and revenue recognition signal a broader shift toward unified quote-to-cash platforms, and what that means for enterprise buyers.
• Agility Now Matters More Than Efficiency: Why organizations should prioritize architectural flexibility, rapid pricing experimentation, and long-term adaptability over incremental operational improvements when evaluating billing platforms.
• Selecting Vendors for the AI Era: How buyers should balance product capability, financial stability, execution consistency, cultural fit, and ideal use case when evaluating enterprise billing suppliers, while recognizing that AI alone is not a substitute for deterministic financial systems.

Featured Experts

Igor Stenmark | Managing Director, MGI Research

Igor Stenmark is a co-founder and managing partner of MGI Research. Igor brings his 30+ years of experience in entrepreneurial, strategic advisory, investment management, and executive roles in the technology industry to his clients. He serves as a strategic adviser to technology buyers, investors, boards, and management helping them make more informed decisions, enter new markets, optimize positioning, and build lasting value.

Andrew Dailey | Managing Director, MGI Research

Andrew Dailey is a co-founder and managing partner of MGI Research. Andrew brings his 25+ years of diversified technology and financial services experience working in the enterprise software market and Fortune 500 firms to his clients.

Elise Talley | Senior Research Analyst, MGI Research

Ethan Weiss | Research Associate, MGI Research