Why it matters
The same task can burn up to 30x the tokens, and 20–30% of AI spend is simply unaccounted for. Only 20–25% of firms have mature AI FinOps, so most are flying blind—while a majority expect spend to climb another 25%+ over the next year.
Tokenmaxxing read
McKinsey names the vibe shift: ‘tokenmaxxing’ is now a dirty word, and some firms are pulling down their AI user leaderboards. Disciplined teams bank 20–30% across ~40 levers—prompt caching alone cuts repeat input costs up to ~90%. Govern the outcome, not the token.
Source takeaway
It reframes buy-vs-build as a live ‘buy, build, host, route, switch’ mix and pushes a central AI control plane as the single source of truth. Chargeback ties spend to the unit that caused it; forecasting maturity is worth ~10% more savings.
