“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way,” said Mark Twain. Discovering hard truths through hands-on experience is how everyone is learning AI. That includes this CTO of a Fortune 500 solutions integrator. So take it from me: You’re likely repeating the sins of our past.

How do I know? Confession time. We didn’t used to have a global contract with the frontier model providers. We do now, but back then, we had a bunch of well-meaning teammates swiping their corporate credit cards. For $20 a month, they got to do whatever they wanted. But once we looked closely at it, the realization came. We were spending a lot of money, and $20 a month for some turned into $100 to $200 for others. One agreement with all the model providers turned countless expense reports into a single line item that someone owns. 

We fell into the next trap, not understanding the true cost of tokens. We had developers who built tools and workflows, not thinking beyond the point of innovation to the cost. Three words no CTO wants to see in print sum it up: Mistakes were made.

And how could it have been otherwise? Everyone in the C-suite has the same thought: Let’s go build AI teams everywhere! It’s a healthy instinct, and we’ve acted on it as much as anybody else. We have AI teams in partner management; we have AI teams in finance; you name the functional part of our business, we have AI teams.

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