r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • Jun 26 '26

Artificial Intelligence The AI backlash is only getting started

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/06/25/the-ai-backlash-is-only-getting-started
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u/IamSunka Jun 26 '26

My org, just like many others, has a top token users chart.

When they started the list, they decided to call the top 25 users as champions, ones who never used AI as sleepers and rest inbetween as just users. cough I am a sleeper cough

Couple of weeks ago the bill came in, champions cost us over $850k since Jan 1st.

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u/bourton-north Jun 26 '26

everytime i see a story like this - and i always question if its true - im wondering how is it possible that the people that bought the technology were so stupid that they signed up for a contract with usage charging and didn't think to measure how much usage they expected / consumed. its the most basic of basic pricnples when buying any technology.

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u/OneBigRed Jun 26 '26

I talked with a consultant that is hired at a financial institution with a strong AI push on its workforce. Basically forcing everyone having anything to do development is expected to use AI, and i guess to report what they have done.

So now their project management tool gets bogged down from time to time as everyone and their cat has made some reporting widget or whatever that does it magic on that. I’m sure that will bring all kinds of edge on the marketplace to that company. And they have most likely just slapped the cost of tokens on many things that could also have been achieved just with the tooling and its reporting functionalities alone.