随著企业大量投资生成式人工智慧，管理急遽增加的人工智慧查询成本（被称为「代币经济学」，tokenomics）已成为首要任务。在 2026 年 4 月和 5 月，大约有 300 家公司在业绩电话会议中提及了代币使用量的隐忧，相较于前一年同期的 93 家公司有显著增长。Royal Bank of Canada 报告指出其代币使用量在六个月内激增了 500%，而 Cisco 则指出其三分之一的员工每日使用量「相当疯狂」。Amplitude 的部分工程师每月在代币上花费数千美元。因此，高阶主管正在开发监控系统，以追踪使用量并为特定的提示词选择价格最低的模式。

尽管成本上升，部分企业仍积极鼓励员工采用人工智慧。在软体公司 8x8，员工使用 Anthropic 的 Claude 来撰写电子邮件草稿、编写程式码和分析客户回馈。该公司估计，透过取消数十个被认为无必要的软体和教学工具订阅，每年节省了约 500 万美元的成本，而这被较低的 Claude 帐单所抵消。同样地，服饰品牌 Baseball Lifestyle 101 指示经理们每月将相当于其薪资约 20% 的资金花费在人工智慧代币上，并预期到年底每月费用将超过 10 万美元。一项由 Claude 协助的分析帮助他们争取到了一笔 100 万美元的订单，将原本需要 1.5 天的工作缩短至仅需 1 到 2 个小时。

企业正实施不同的使用架构来管理预算。当 Baseball Lifestyle 101 推广无限制使用以激发创新时，8x8 则采用了全公司范围的仪表板来监控代币消耗。8x8 的首席转型官 Joel Neeb 指出，他们的产品团队使用 Claude 最为频繁，而销售和财务团队虽然占了公司 28% 的员工，却仅占了 15% 的代币消耗。为了管理成本，8x8 正在考虑限制模型存取，例如要求在使用昂贵的 Claude Opus 4.8 时必须提出证明，该模型比 Anthropic 在二月推出的版本贵了将近 1.7 倍。然而，Joel Neeb 透过要求 Claude 进行优化，成功将其自身用于摘要 YouTube 影响者影片提示的自动化电子邮件代币使用量减少了 80%。

As companies heavily invest in generative AI, managing the surging costs of AI queries—referred to as "tokenomics"—has become a top priority. In April and May 2026, approximately 300 companies addressed token usage concerns during earnings calls, a significant increase from 93 companies in the previous year. Royal Bank of Canada reported a 500% token usage increase over six months, while Cisco noted "pretty crazy" daily usage by a third of its employees. Some engineers at Amplitude spend thousands of dollars monthly on tokens. Consequently, executives are developing monitoring systems to track usage and select the most cost-effective models.

Despite rising costs, some firms actively encourage AI adoption. At the software company 8x8, employees utilize Anthropic’s Claude to draft emails, write code, and analyze customer feedback. The company has saved approximately $5 million annually by canceling unnecessary software subscriptions, offset by a lower Claude bill. Similarly, the clothing brand Baseball Lifestyle 101 instructed managers to spend about 20% of their salary monthly on tokens, expecting costs to exceed $100,000 monthly by year-end. A Claude-assisted analysis helped them secure a $1 million order, transforming 1.5 days of work into just 1 to 2 hours.

Organizations are implementing varying usage structures to manage budgets. While Baseball Lifestyle 101 promotes unrestricted usage to inspire innovation, 8x8 employs a company-wide dashboard monitoring token consumption. Joel Neeb, 8x8’s chief transformation officer, noted that their product team uses Claude most heavily, while sales and finance represent just 15% of token consumption despite comprising 28% of staff. To manage costs, 8x8 is considering model-access restrictions, such as requiring justification to use the expensive Claude Opus 4.8, which costs 1.7 times more than the February version. However, Joel Neeb reduced his own YouTube tip summary automation's token usage by 80% by asking Claude to optimize it.