Corporate leaders across the United States are increasingly questioning whether their massive spending on AI is producing meaningful returns. The debate comes as companies face rising AI-related costs, uncertain productivity gains and pressure to show results from billions of dollars invested in the technology. Against this backdrop, Ali Ansari, chief executive of AI training company Micro1, has argued that businesses may be overestimating what AI can currently achieve. Speaking to Axios, Ansari said companies are moving away from what he called AI overuse, or “tokenmaxxing,” where employees focus on consuming large amounts of AI resources.“The reality of AI right now is that it only works for coding,” Ansari said.He argued that many businesses assume AI tools work equally well across all departments, but that expectation often does not match reality. According to Ansari, the gap between expectations and actual performance can drive up IT spending without generating strong returns on investment. Ansari told the publication that the current shift away from excessive AI usage could help companies focus on using the technology more efficiently.
Rising AI costs draw attention
Ansari’s comments come as several companies review their AI spending. Earlier this month, Microsoft reportedly cancelled most internal licenses for Anthropic’s Claude Code AI coding tool, to move developers to its own Copilot CLI tool. While Microsoft told employees the move is aimed at standardising engineering tools, the report said cost considerations were also part of the decision.Similarly, Amazon has also reportedly shut down an internal AI leaderboard known as Kirorank after some employees used AI tools to generate unnecessary activity in an effort to improve their rankings. According to a Financial Times report, the additional AI usage increased computing costs. Amazon senior vice-president Dave Treadwell reportedly told employees: “Please don’t use AI just for the sake of using AI.”The concerns are not limited to technology companies. Axios reported that one business spent about $500 million in a single month after failing to place limits on employee use of Anthropic’s Claude AI tools.
Companies cutting jobs to offset AI bills
Major companies including Meta, Amazon and others have cut thousands of jobs in 2026. Most of them are attributed to AI. However, the Axios report quoted Anuj Kapur, CEO of CloudBees who said that workforce cuts may simply be “the only lever they (companies) can pull” to offset their AI bills.
