Companies Reel In AI Usage as Costs Strain Budgets

The Financial Times covers a trend where businesses are scaling back AI investments after discovering that operational costs (e.g., API fees, GPU rentals, data storage) significantly exceed budgets. A survey of Fortune 500 companies found that 60% reported AI costs running 30% higher than planned. Many pilot projects failed to show measurable productivity gains. Companies are now demanding concrete ROI before expanding AI use. Some are moving to open-source models to reduce costs, while others are curtailing experimental projects. The pullback suggests that the AI boom may be facing a 'reality check' as the economics of compute-intensive models become clearer.