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The AI Buffet Is Over: How to Control Token Costs
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Video transcript
The all-you-can-eat AI buffet is over. For the last two years, AI was practically free. You paid a flat rate, say $20 a month, and you got unlimited prompts. But that's not what prompting really cost. In reality, the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI were subsidizing your AI use. If you paid $20 a month, they paid maybe $100 a month. In other words, they took a loss. Why? Because they wanted to get you hooked on their products. Then when the time was right, they could stop subsidizing and start profiting. That time is now.
The buffet is over. Now you're paying per token. Every prompt, query, and report you create adds up. And it really adds up. One AI consultant told Axios recently that their client blew $500 million on Claude in a single month.
CFOs are asking some very uncomfortable questions. We doubled our AI spend; where's the double in output? The honest answer is this: a lot of that spend was just motion. It wasn't progress.
So what now? We all have to get smarter. And that means picking the right model for the right task—knowing when a cheaper open-source model is good enough, knowing how and when to set token limits, and using tools like Domo to deliver data, insights, and analysis to the people who need it without burning tokens every time.
At Domo, we've made it easy to use AI where it matters and choose the most efficient model to do it. And we have battle-tested toolkits for delivering the work that doesn't burn a single token. The buffet is over. Turns out though, that's a good thing.
Speakers
Chris Willis
Chief Design Officer
Chris Willis
Domo
Chief Design Officer
As Domo's chief design officer and futurist, Chris' hyper focus on combining data, technology and emerging trends in innovative ways helps to make Domo an indispensable platform for its customers. He has nearly three decades of design leadership experience in web, mobile and data visualization. And as one of Domo's earliest employees, he's involved in every aspect – from initial design, strategy and execution – of building and developing solutions that solve even the most complex problems faced by customers.
Prior to Domo, Chris co-founded HOUR Detroit magazine and Footnote.com (now Fold3.com), which was acquired by Ancestry.com for $27 million. Before moving into technology, he was an award-winning illustrator, journalist and author with multiple published works to his name.
The all-you-can-eat AI buffet is over.
As AI usage moves toward token-based pricing, every prompt, query, report, and agentic workflow can add cost. That is forcing CFOs and technology leaders to ask a harder question: is higher AI spend creating higher output?
Chris Willis explains why companies need smarter AI cost management, including model selection, usage limits, and governed tools that deliver insights without wasting tokens.
Domo transforms the way these companies manage business.
