I’ll admit to laughing when this Nerd Wallet article showed up in my email. Gee, who knew that AI might be really expensive.
In the Nerd Wallet article, an executive at Nvidia stated “the cost of AI computing is far beyond the cost of the employees… and Amos Bar-Joseph, CEO of Swan AI said on LinkedIn that the company’s AI bill hit $113,000 for a single month of data for a four-person team.”.
The article goes on to say “In some ways, this feels like an alternate reality. Weren’t we promised that AI could replace various human work tasks – more productively, more efficiently, and (importantly) more cheaply.”. Clearly, we’ve been misled!
First, there’s a subscription cost per employee or small group. Next, you’re paying for increased usage with a new, more expensive subscription. Let’s assume AI boosts output, according to the article, “the labor savings may not materialize, because human workers still have to supervise, verify, and coordinate the technology.”. Houston, I think we’ve been hornswoggled!
Some mid-sized companies are banning any AI use due to high cost, employee overuse or overreliance, inaccurate research results, security issues (it can be hacked and used to hack you), compliance problems, untracked vibe coding, and potential for AI service shutdowns. This is just the start of companies prohibiting or significantly limiting AI in workplaces.
Lastly, Nils Gilman, editor-in-chief of Berggruen Press at the Berggruen Institute posits “you may be getting more productivity, but not out of fewer people, as everybody is becoming a middle manager of their team of bots.”.
So, what’s the takeaway? Well, you’ve dismantled a portion of your workforce, calling it “restructuring” but it’s costing even more. Wow, how did you not know this? Was the true cost never analyzed, or did you just hide the analysis because you wanted a shiny new object called AI and didn’t want to be perceived as not “keeping up with the Jones’”.
Your quest for higher productivity, and “pretty” new technology, caused a lot of pain to a lot of people unnecessarily, and calls into question your judgment. Instead of using AI responsibly, you went wild like a frat kid during spring break. Hope it’s all worth it when you get a pink slip and your investors show up at the door with pitchforks and torches.
SOURCE: MSN/Nerd Wallet, What Happens When AI Costs More Than Employees? by Kate Ashford
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