I recently joined The Business Briefing on SiriusXM to discuss findings from the EY US AI Pulse Survey, which reflects the perspectives of more than 500 senior leaders in the US, nearly all of whose organizations are investing in AI.

The message is clear: leaders are optimistic about AI, but they are scrutinizing its economics more closely.

• 82% say their organization is concerned about AI token usage and related costs
• 98% of those whose organization uses tools that require AI tokens say that their organization’s AI token usage and related costs have caused them to reconsider their approach
• 35% expected to invest $10 million or more in AI by this point – but only 23% have done so

Token costs, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. Organizations need to understand AI’s total cost of ownership – including orchestration, runtime, governance, change management and failure recovery – to measure business value.

That means matching each task with the right model and level of capability, instead of defaulting to the most powerful and expensive option.

Overall, the next chapter of AI is for organizations that are moving beyond isolated pilots. They will be redesigning processes end-to-end, building trusted data foundations, establishing clear accountability, and bringing their people along through thoughtful upskilling.