After encouraging free experimentation, several enterprises hit their annual AI budgets in just 3 months, seeing bills double or triple
US corporations are facing sticker shock with their employees’ AI usage. Some have shelled out as much as $500,000 a month because they forgot to set usage limits on the bots.
After encouraging workers to experiment freely with AI, several enterprises exhausted their annual AI budgets in just three months, with costs doubling or even tripling.
Executives say much of the financial strain comes from inefficient use, such as employees relying on expensive premium AI models for simple tasks that could be handled by cheaper alternatives.
In response, technical executives at giants like Uber, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and DoorDash are rationing AI tools and steering workers toward cheaper, internal options.
Microsoft canceled most of its Claude Code licenses and steered workers to use an internal coding assistant. Uber’s COO noted that soaring costs are becoming harder to justify.
A study of over 2,000 companies by EntelligenceAI revealed that only 18% of spending on advanced AI coding tokens actually translates into shipped products.