CFOs Are Discovering AI Costs More Than the People They Fired
CFOs are discovering an embarrassing problem. AI tokens cost more than the salaries of the people they fired to put AI in their place. Here in the States a well-known investor said it out loud: 300 dollars a day for a single AI agent, that’s 100,000 dollars a year. And that agent was running at 10 or 20% of what a human would do.
When does the cost of tokens overtake the salary of the employee? Boardrooms, meetings and work dinners here in New York keep asking the same question. We’re already past that line. Other founders I talk to say the same thing: an AI agent has to be at least twice as productive as a human to pay for itself, otherwise the cash burns out.
Per-token prices have collapsed, total bills have exploded. 73% of companies blow through their AI budget. Average budgets jumped from 1.2 million to 7 million dollars in two years. Some Fortune 500 firms pay tens of millions a month just in inference.
In 2026 around 500,000 layoffs in the US are attributed to AI, nine times last year. But over 80% of those same companies admit AI hasn’t yet produced measurable productivity gains. Many firms are blaming AI for layoffs that have nothing to do with AI. They call it AI washing. Do you remember greenwashing?
CFOs are starting to see the numbers on the screen. And they’re starting to understand. What do you think?
#ArtificialDecisions #MCC
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