For everyone being told to use AI on everything, look at what happened to the companies that actually did it 👇

For the past year the game was tokenmaxxing. Use as much AI as possible, on everything, as often as you can. Meta, Amazon and Uber built internal leaderboards ranking who burned the most. Amazon called its one KiroRank. Meta handed out a Token Legend title. Using more AI was treated as proof you were innovative
Then the invoices landed.
Uber blew through its entire 2026 AI budget in 4 months. Individual engineers were running up $500 to $2,000 a month on Claude Code alone. Salesforce is looking at a $300 million Anthropic bill for the year. One company reportedly burned half a billion dollars in a single month after setting no limits.
Microsoft cancelled Claude Code licenses across several divisions to save money, and Microsoft is an Anthropic investor.
Uber’s COO got asked if all that spending actually ship better features for riders and his answer was that the link isn’t there yet.
Only 14% of CFOs say they can see a real return on what they’re spending on AI.
The companies that went all in are the ones now pulling back.