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Software License Audits Will Surge in 2026 – Prepare Now
Enterprise software audits are entering a new phase of intensity. In a recent survey, 62% of companies were audited by a major software vendor in the last year, a dramatic increase from just 40% year over year. Flexera reports 45% of companies have spent over $1M in audit expenses over the last three years.
Is this trend easing? Not even close. Vendors are doubling down and 2026 is on track to be even more aggressive.
Across our client base, NPI is observing a significant rise in audit activity from several top-tier suppliers. The drivers are clear: slowing license growth, large-scale AI and infrastructure investments, shifting revenue models, and mounting pressure to meet Wall Street expectations.
For many vendors, audits have become one of the most reliable (and lucrative) paths to revenue recovery. As customers adopt subscription and cloud-based models (which are harder for vendors to monitor), audit programs are scaling in both frequency and aggressiveness.
Which Vendors Are Most Likely to Audit?
Based on NPI’s visibility across hundreds of enterprise IT estates, the vendors showing the most pronounced increases in audit activity include:
- Microsoft
- IBM
- SAP
- Oracle (Java)
- Red Hat
- VMware (Broadcom)
Each of these vendors are tightening audit controls, increasing compliance checkpoints, and expanding the triggers used to initiate reviews.
Why Audit Pressure Is Growing
Three macro forces are shaping vendor behavior:
Cloud and Subscription Complexity: Usage is harder to track, and vendors are leaning on audits to validate consumption, entitlements, and deployment accuracy.
Financing AI and Infrastructure Investments: The buildout of AI platforms, compute infrastructure, and new product lines requires capital. Audits help fill the gap.
External Market Pressure: Public vendors in particular must maintain revenue momentum. Compliance findings often translate directly into incremental bookings.
As a result, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most active compliance years we’ve seen in the last decade.
What Enterprises Should Do Now
Audit readiness is no longer optional. It’s a strategic necessity. To reduce risk and maintain control over audit outcomes, NPI recommends enterprises take the following steps immediately:
1. Review Compliance Positions Across Key Estates
Identify deployment or entitlement gaps, especially ahead of major renewals. Vendors often initiate “soft audits” or informal checkpoints well before a contract cycles up.
2. Validate Entitlements and Usage
Ensure deployment data is accurate, up to date, and properly documented. Over-licensing inflates spend and under-licensing invites audits. Both make negotiations more difficult.
3. Monitor Audit Triggers
Changes in environment, M&A activity, renewal proximity, shifts to new platforms, and SKU realignments can all prompt a vendor to initiate a review.
4. Establish an Audit Response Plan
Define team ownership, escalation paths, and response protocols before an audit letter arrives. Vendors move fast once a notice is issued, and internal confusion often leads to missteps.
Where NPI Helps
If you haven’t reviewed your license positions for major software estates in the past 18 months, now is the time. A license position assessment helps you:
- Identify compliance gaps before they become findings
- Quantify and mitigate risk exposure
- Define remediation strategies
- Predict which suppliers are most likely to initiate an audit next
- Strengthen negotiation leverage around renewals and true-ups
Remember: IT procurement plays an important role in audit risk mitigation. With proactive visibility and remediation runway, you can ensure every vendor interaction is approached from a position of strength as well as avoid the unnecessary financial and operational disruption that audits can cause.
If you’re looking to proactively reduce software audit risk, NPI can help. Contact us.
