Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI
If the winter of 2026 saw companies gorge themselves on all-you-can-eat AI, summertime is for counting calories.Prices for some of the most popular tools have risen, and companies that previously asked employees to go all out on AI code are suddenly facing hefty bills. Executives and workers told Business Insider how this new era in AI's evolution has thrown their workflows and budgets for a loop.Coinbase executive Rob Witoff is sitting front row on the roller coaster. After Anthropic's Claude launched its much-improved coding model Opus 4.6 in February, Witoff, who oversees the crypto exchange's infrastructure, said, "Our internal usage started to go parabolic across the company."Now, with prices rising, Coinbase has instituted a sophisticated system of weekly price caps ranging from $500 to $5,000 based on each employee's job level and role."Once people understand what's possible, usage takes off on its own. Then the focus shifts from 'Are people using AI?' to 'Are they using it well?' That's where we are today," he said.It's the latest whiplash on the AI frontier. Executives and developers are rethinking their rapacious demand of recent months by switching models, imposing limits, and prioritizing projects. As a result, AI juggernauts, including OpenAI and Anthropic, risk losing market share to cheaper models — at a time when they're racing toward stock-market-altering IPOs.The high stakes are prompting scrutiny. Salesforce CTO Parker Harris told Business Insider that the company has fully opened the floodgates for spending on Anthropic tools, but that likely won't last forever. They'll have to find a balance that doesn't divert too much money to the rising startup.
