Why it matters
Agent spend is becoming its own budget line with its own cardholder. The guardrail against a runaway loop stops being a code review and becomes a decline at checkout, which is a control finance teams can actually enforce.
Tokenmaxxing read
Two meters are converging. Ramp's July release, AI Token Spend Management, meters what a company burns on model subscriptions and API calls, while its scoped Visa cards govern what an agent buys. Most teams instrument neither side.
Source takeaway
Mercury reports 300,000+ entrepreneurs and $650M+ annualized revenue. Ramp says out-of-policy spend fell 62% and policy flags 60% across 50,000 businesses over two years; an American Express Trendex survey puts 52% of businesses already using AI in expenses.
