Companies that rushed to put artificial intelligence tools in the hands of employees are beginning to restrict their use as the cost of deploying the technology at scale strains corporate budgets.
Amazon, Walmart, Cisco, Uber and Meta have introduced spending caps, discouraged wasteful use or pushed workers toward cheaper models as they seek to control rising AI costs.
The shift comes as employees move beyond basic chatbots toward AI agents capable of carrying out complex tasks autonomously. These systems require significantly more computing power and can continue consuming resources without direct human oversight.
The pressure has increased as AI providers including Anthropic and OpenAI move some customers from flat subscriptions to token based billing, exposing companies directly to the cost of each prompt and automated workflow.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said this month that cost had become a major issue for customers after receiving little attention last year.
