Education AI Budgets Hold Steady as Storage Costs Bite
Nearly all education organizations plan to maintain or increase their AI spending over the next year, but a disconnect is emerging between budget commitments and actual returns, according to a Wasabi survey of 241 education sector leaders.
Ninety-eight percent of education institutions expect their AI infrastructure budgets to either stay flat or grow. Forty-six percent plan increases. Yet only 37% of AI projects currently deployed are generating positive returns on investment.
Storage Costs Dominate Implementation Challenges
Data storage ranks as the top barrier to AI adoption in education. Half of respondents cited storage costs and data access fees as their primary challenge with AI projects.
The financial pressure is real. Institutions allocate 67% of their AI infrastructure budgets to data, storage, and compute. Fee-based charges-including data egress, API operations, and access costs-consumed 54% of cloud storage spending in 2026, up from 50% the year before.
Forty-one percent of education organizations exceeded their public cloud storage budgets last year.
Security Gaps Persist Despite Increased Investment
Education institutions are taking steps to protect data in the cloud. Sixty-three percent now use immutability to safeguard their data, up from 49% in 2025.
Confidence in recovery remains low. Only 47% of education leaders feel confident they can keep data intact and operational after a cyberattack. Forty-four percent experienced actual loss of access to public cloud data due to an attack in the past year.
ROI Expectations Outpace Current Reality
Education IT leaders expect the situation to improve. They predict that 47% of AI projects will show positive ROI within the next 12 months, up from the current 37%.
Andrew Smith, director of strategy and market intelligence at Wasabi Technologies, said education institutions must address both technical data challenges and long-term cost efficiency. "Avoiding costly, budget-breaking fees from hyperscaler infrastructure services should be a priority," he said.
The survey included 1,700 business and IT leaders globally and was conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne.
For education professionals managing AI initiatives, understanding these cost and security trade-offs is critical. Resources on AI for Education and AI Data Analysis can help frame these decisions.
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