How will big companies deal with the cost of AI?
A lot of large companies (not just tech giants) are laying off employees at scale because AI can already do parts of their work faster, in higher volume, and at a comparable level of quality, sometimes even better.
At the same time, companies are starting to openly admit something important: AI is expensive.
Not just in terms of infrastructure, but also energy consumption and operational costs.
For example:
→ Uber reportedly deployed AI across its 5,000 engineers, and within 4 months, they exhausted their entire annual budget. Their COO admitted they can’t justify the expense.
→ Microsoft has revoked AI licenses from its own developers to control costs.
→ Starbucks scrapped its AI inventory system after 9 months because it performed worse than human employees.
→ NVIDIA’s VP recently said that “AI is costing more than human workers.”
So the question is (are):
Will companies eventually find a way to significantly reduce the cost of AI?
Or will we see a partial return to “old-school” human labour because it’s still more reliable and cost-efficient in certain cases?
What’s your take on this?
Replies
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@jiaqi_lu Do you have any tracking system that estimates what is cheaper? (human vs. AI)
I think it will eventually settle into a middle ground, where AI is used as a tool, enabling small(er) teams of humans to perform better. I'm not sure the cost will be driven down too soon, given how resource hungry AI infrastructure is proving to be
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@adela_c Time will show us :)
There is no denying the use of AI, however its a steep hill if not managed properly.
I think once the hype dies down, companies will figure out how to reduce the cost and go old school as well.
A balance that will often tip either way.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@fatima_shehzad I sometimes have in my mind that Terminator movie that the only way to fight AI and robots is in the war against them (humans vs machines)
@busmark_w_nika That thougth has often crossed my mind. What if we were pre warned about AI through these movies. I, Robot, Robo Cop, A.I and so many more point towards something.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@fatima_shehzad yeah, those 90s movies too :D
I don’t think companies will fully go back, but I do think the “AI everywhere” phase will cool down. Once the bill shows up, the companies will start asking where AI actually saves money and where it just adds another expensive layer. Some work is still cheaper and cleaner with humans.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@farrukh_butt1 But it still feels like people are burning money on those AI startups and VCs are still okay to fund them.
I don't think it will be a simple AI vs human decision. Companies will probably use AI more selectively, smaller models, limits, routing and humans for the parts where judgment still matters. The hard part is measuring real ROI, not just usage. A tool can look productive and still be expensive in the wrong workflow.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@bailknur Okay, so in which areas or when AI will NOT be used? :)
Vokal
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@zhen_han What solution are you coding with it? Volak or any other too?
Vokal
@busmark_w_nika Vokal is pretty new. I first built my own multi-agent setup in the terminal, and my teammate built theirs separately. We eventually converged on the same pattern and started building Vokal about 3 months ago. Since then, our team has been doing most of our work on Vokal.
It does not have to be Vokal if you are doing single-player multi-agent coding and staying very hands-on. But for multi-agent teams, Vokal is definitely a productivity boost because it keeps the collaboration, handoffs, approvals, and history traceable in one place.