There are growing concerns within the technology industry about the financial costs of artificial intelligence, which have increased more than anticipated.The mass adoption of AI by companies has led to increased expenses for many firms, with many doubting that the benefits of automation, such as improved productivity, will outweigh the costs. Fortune recently reported that costs rise when more workers use AI systems to streamline their tasks because of token-based pricing, in which companies pay for each “token,” or unit of data, processed by the AI models.
This trend has notably affected big companies, such as Microsoft and Uber, as well as smaller startups.
Microsoft reportedly began canceling its Claude Code licenses internally. The Anthropic AI coding tool had been used by the company since December, but due to the rising costs associated with the AI tool, Microsoft pulled the plug and started shifting to GitHub Copilot CLI.
In essence, the company’s action admits that using Anthropic’s technology can be more expensive than paying human employees. Microsoft has not made a public statement on the matter.
Uber is facing a similar AI-related obstacle, with the ride-hailing firm having already spent its entire 2026 budget for AI coding tools, particularly Claude Code, in the first four months of the year. Before that, the firm incentivized AI adoption through internal leaderboards ranking teams by their AI tool usage.
