FinOps in Action | Building a Cost-Aware Culture in the Age of AI ft. Henrique Amorim, Crayon

Building a Cost-Aware Culture in the Age of AI ft. Henrique Amorim, Crayon | Ep #59

March 5, 2026 / 47:38/E59

What if the biggest mistake new FinOps teams make isn’t missing savings, but executing them too soon?

In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Henrique Amorim, Business Analyst and FinOps Specialist at Crayon. He shares an honest look at what it really takes to build a successful FinOps practice. From resisting the urge to immediately slash costs to navigating engineering relationships and preparing for the AI-driven future of cloud spend, this conversation goes far beyond surface-level optimization tips.

Henrique breaks down why FinOps isn’t about being the “cost police”. It’s about building influence, trust, and a culture of cost awareness across engineering, finance, and leadership. If you’re working in cloud cost optimization, FinOps, or AI cost management, this episode will challenge how you think about leverage, execution, and long-term impact.

Here’s what we talked about:

Why you should treat early cloud savings as strategic leverage
The difference between theoretical savings and truly actionable optimizations
How AI is reshaping the FinOps function
The importance of building dashboards, processes, and visibility before scaling savings
Why some “cost inefficiencies” are actually architectural features
The role of community in accelerating your FinOps maturity
Managing up: how to communicate FinOps impact to executives

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