Jamie John, Rafe Rosner-Uddin and Ryan McMorrowJun 22, 2026 – 5.55pmLondon/San Francisco | Companies that raced to put AI tools in the hands of their workers are starting to rein in their use, as the cost of deploying the technology at scale begins to test corporate budgets.Amazon, Walmart, Cisco, Uber and Meta are among early adopters that have introduced caps, discouraged wasteful use or pushed employees to cheaper models in a bid to keep AI spending under control.Financial TimesSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles
‘We created a monster’: companies rein in AI as costs strain budgets
Amazon, Walmart and Uber are among early adopters that have introduced caps or discouraged wasteful activity amid mounting computing costs.
TL;DRAI
Amazon, Walmart, Cisco, Uber, Meta have introduced AI caps and pushed employees to cheaper models as deployment costs exceed budgets. The shift signals firms moving from mass adoption to cost-governance, forcing IT leaders to align AI spending with business ROI.
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