https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs

Archive link https://web.archive.org/web/20260528114303/https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs

Why it matters: Companies that rushed to embrace AI are now confronting ballooning IT costs, uncertain productivity gains and growing employee skepticism.

Driving the news: Microsoft canceled most of its Claude Code licenses, in part over costs, according to The Verge, and Uber’s COO said AI costs are getting “harder to justify.”

An AI consultant tells Axios one of their clients recently spent half a billion dollars in a single month after failing to put usage limits on Claude licenses for employees.

Companies are citing AI's ability to automate jobs as a cause for layoffs, though Anuj Kapur, CEO of CloudBees, told Axios that workforce cuts may simply be "the only lever they can pull" to offset their AI bills.

Consumer sentiment around AI is also nosediving, and employees are rebelling against the use of the technology at work.

What they’re saying: The enterprise is undergoing a “healthy swing” away from AI overuse — or “tokenmaxxing,” the push to burn as many AI tokens as possible — Ali Ansari, CEO of model training firm Micro1, told Axios.

Ansari hopes this correction will push companies toward more efficient AI use.
While the market views these tools as working equally well across the enterprise, Ansari says "the reality of AI right now is that it only works for coding."
That disconnect can drive up IT bills without leading to high return on investment in agents, he said.

Friction point: Corporate AI adoption is running into four unique problems.

Use cases: "Most people default to automating tasks they dislike rather than tasks most valuable to the company," Sophia Velastegui, CEO of Velastegui Ventures and former chief AI officer at Microsoft told Axios. Instead, they should focus on using AI to drive revenue.

Costs: One CTO told Axios that employees were using AI models to check the weather. That gets expensive fast: Enterprise AI plans are not truly 'all you can eat,' and even simple chatbot queries can carry heavy token costs.
  • hello_hello [undecided, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    58·
    2 days ago

    Throwing AI licenses at the wall and seeing what sticks (or what Velastegui calls the “thousand flowers bloom” approach) isn’t leading to tangible returns, she said.

    costanza-maoist Make sure to not use chinese ai though because that would be unamerican.

    Watch western AI companies just buy chinese AI and then rebrand it as american.

    • daniyeg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      26·
      2 days ago

      they don’t even have to buy it, deepseek is free (gratis). i think it only has use based restrictions for military stuff.

        • daniyeg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          9·
          2 days ago

          first take a cold shower. second i don’t know but it is not against the license if it does not violate any other laws. the license of deepseek-V3 (based on this) states:

          attachment A

          You agree not to use the Model or Derivatives of the Model:

          • In any way that violates any applicable national or international law or regulation or infringes upon the lawful rights and interests of any third party;
          • For military use in any way;
          • For the purpose of exploiting, harming or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way;
          • To generate or disseminate verifiably false information and/or content with the purpose of harming others;
          • To generate or disseminate inappropriate content subject to applicable regulatory requirements;
          • To generate or disseminate personal identifiable information without due authorization or for unreasonable use;
          • To defame, disparage or otherwise harass others;
          • For fully automated decision making that adversely impacts an individual’s legal rights or otherwise creates or modifies a binding, enforceable obligation;
          • For any use intended to or which has the effect of discriminating against or harming individuals or groups based on online or offline social behavior or known or predicted personal or personality characteristics;
          • To exploit any of the vulnerabilities of a specific group of persons based on their age, social, physical or mental characteristics, in order to materially distort the behavior of a person pertaining to that group in a manner that causes or is likely to cause that person or another person physical or psychological harm;
          • For any use intended to or which has the effect of discriminating against individuals or groups based on legally protected characteristics or categories.
          • LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
            8·
            2 days ago

            I don’t need to want to use it for horny stuff to be surprised if they allow it, i’d be surprised if they did because of 1) all the liability of keeping it from doing illegal stuff and 2) if you can get deepseek to jerk you off for free then why would people pay $300 a month or whatever for Grok Waifu Edition

            • daniyeg [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
              3·
              2 days ago

              the version the deepseek team has hosted explicitly forbids horny stuff, but if someone else is hosting it they are subject to the licence only which doesn’t forbid it explicitly. it won’t be free but it’ll certainly be cheaper than Grok White Power gf™.

            • piccolo [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
              1·
              2 days ago

              The deepseek interface on chat.deepseek.com doesn’t allow horny stuff, but

              spoiler

              the deepseek API, even the official one, doesn’t seem to mind at all

              the API does cost money, but it’s so incredibly cheap that it’s basically free. why anyone would pay for grok waifu edition is beyond me