‘AI-pilled’ firms spend $7,500 per employee each month on AI

TechCrunch AI reports ‘AI-pilled’ firms spend $7,500 per employee each month on AI. TechCrunch's Jun 11, 2026 An Nvidia executive recently said that the cost of compute is now greater than the salaries of TechCrunch's Jun 11, 2026 TechCrunch's Jun 11, 2026 report on ‘AI-pilled’ firms spend $7,500 per employee each month on AI says: An Nvidia executive recent

As enterprises blow through their token budgets, a big question is: Are companies actually spending more on AI than on humans?

And those are just the power users. The top 10% spend about $611 monthly per employee, and the median only spend about $11.38, or about the cost of a seat on an enterprise plan. 

That said, despite pressures, AI spending is still rising. Among the AI-pilled firms, spend grew 14.1% per employee last month. It’s not yet clear if that trend will continue. The top 1% of firms tend to mix and match, opting to bounce between multiple frontier models and platforms that give them access to cheaper open source models.