AI Now Cost More Than Human Workers Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, AI rapidly replaced human labor across industries due to its low cost and high efficiency, driving mass adoption and layoffs. However, widespread enterprise usage, token-based pricing, and practices like “tokenmaxxing” have inflated demand and costs. Supply constraints in data centers and rising compute prices have further increased token costs, more than doubling since 2025. Companies like Meta and Microsoft have reported massive usage and budget strain. As AI expenses approach or exceed labor costs in some roles, enterprises are increasingly questioning return on investment and the long-term economic viability of large-scale AI deployment. CHAPTERS: 0:12 AI Adoption 0:55 Tech Job Market 1:40 Tech Jobs 2:30 AI Replacement 3:25 AI Token Pricing 4:10 AI Tokenmaxxing 5:05 AI Data Center Infrastructure 6:20 Enterprise AI Spending 8:00 Workforce Displacement 10:10 AI Agents Produced by: Samantha Harvey Edited by: Jacob Smith Animation: Charlotte Brown Additional Footage: Getty Images » Subscribe to Economy Media: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc8q4B1bj-668LMHyNXnTxQ?sub_confirmation=1 Conect With Economy Media Everywhere Follow Economy Media on Instagram: https://n9.cl/economymedia #economymedia #ai #techjobs #tech
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The answer is simple: it was never cheap, it was subsidised.
Never forget that this showed us very clearly that, given the opportunity, companies will replace you the moment they believe they can.
It seems to me that top executives are the only ones who should be replaced by AI.
AI was NOT eliminating jobs. It was the excuse used to eliminate jobs
Our company hired an Ai expert to give a six week course on copilot for the past month and half. This week we received an email saying that Microsoft is now charging based on usage and our company recommends not using copilot. You cant make this up. Such nonsense.
A guy selling shovels tells you, you're doing your job wrong, if you don't buy his shovels. It's a comedy we live in.
These companies would rather spend billions of dollars on AI than giving a proper wage to employees
As a qualified engineer, I spend quite a lot of time nowadays having to review AI-slop produced by non-engineers. The number of errors AI produce is alarming and won't normally be recognised by non-subject matter experts. I wouldn't trust AI for engineering use.
Using AI to artificially do nothing must be the most human approach to a toxic work environment I have ever heard of. 🤣
When the metric becomes the target, then it's no longer a metric.
While OpenAI and Anthropic are making money, they are far from making ANY profits.
A trained human brain and a sandwich goes further than tokens.
Do you think AI token costs will continue to rise?
AI was built to replace the CEOs. They just haven't recognized it yet
I simply won't buy McDonald's if they don't employ humans. If the companies think we, the people that need the jobs, are going to give our hard earned money to companies that don't want to hire us then they don't deserve our money.
It was never replacing entire teams, even when it was cheap. Those companies who tried found out it cannot actually replace people at scale (see Salesforce).
If they got rid of you for AI ask for double the pay and benefits to go back.
AI is yet another cancer on society. Makes you dumber, makes you dependent, all while extracting money from you and whoever you work for.
I'm so proud of you guys. You went from click-bait just a year ago without any real up-to-date research, to doing research, showing sources and speaking the actual financial truth of what's going on in today's tech market. One point of note from a software engineer who uses LLMs daily. The cost of creating code may be less expensive with LLMs, but the cost of designing a system, troubleshooting, deploying and debugging is still less expensive, and more accurate, with humans.
Still looking for the problem to solve with AI.