Most companies have little or no clue about their AI usage cost, KPMG report says

Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS

In the past year, AI has become more than the “next big thing.” Companies around the world are now using AI tools, such as Claude Code or OpenAI’s Codex, on an everyday basis. But in recent weeks, the same companies have come to recognise a problem. Cost. At a time when companies like Uber and Walmart are capping AI use due to mounting costs, a new report has claimed that most companies may not actually understand how they are being charged.

As per a KPMG survey, companies are finding it hard to understand their AI usage cost. The report states that only 26 per cent of companies have a comprehensive view of their AI costs. On the other hand, 50 per cent of companies have some visibility or clue on how they are being charged, while 22 per cent said that they virtually have no clue or only see the numbers after they are billed.

That is, only 1 in 4 companies fully understand their AI usage bills.

“It’s a new resource that needs to be managed that didn’t exist quite that way, and we’re seeing exponential growth,” said KPMG’s global head of AI Steve Chase said, as quoted by Wall Street Journal.

India Today Tech previously reported that the AI market may be maturing as companies have started to cut back on AI usage to curb costs.

Why are AI usage costs high?

This report comes at a time when AI providers such as Anthropic and OpenAI have largely moved to token-based AI usage. Tokens serve as a basic unit of measurement for AI. The more you do with AI tools, the more tokens you consume.

While a company buys licences for its employees to use AI tools, they come with a certain token limit. Once the limit is exceeded, the company is charged extra based on per-token use.

Steve Chase said that KPMG is working with companies that have used up annual token and cloud budgets within months, while one client saw token usage rise sixfold.

For context, Uber is said to have exhausted its annual AI spending budget in just a couple of months due to high costs. The company has reportedly put a hard $1,500 (roughly Rs 1,42,000) AI use cap for all employees. While one company reportedly spent roughly $500 million on Claude in a single month.

This rising cost has become an issue, something that was acknowledged by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently. Altman said, “It’s kind of a meme now (that) my company spent my entire 2026 budget in Q1,” he added, “All of a sudden (AI costs) are a huge issue.”

Previously, companies like Amazon had pushed employees towards “tokenmaxxing.” However, the company has toned down this push after workers were reportedly using AI for any task just to show higher token usage.

The debate over AI spending comes as tech groups and AI labs continue to pour money into infrastructure, even as businesses come under pressure to show returns. Google recently announced that it was raising $80 billion in equities, the first time since 2006, largely to fund its AI investment plans. Anthropic has filed for an IPO that could see it cross a trillion dollar market cap, with OpenAI also expected to go public soon.

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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA