Why it matters
It marks the corporate mood flipping from 'use all the AI you can' to rationing it. When a consultancy Accenture's size polices token use task-by-task, rivals tend to copy the controls and tie each model call to a justified outcome.
Tokenmaxxing read
The fix isn't banning AI, it's routing. A PDF-to-slides job never needed a frontier model; a small model or a template does it for a sliver of the tokens. Right-size the model to the task and 'token rationing' becomes ordinary cost discipline, not a retreat from AI.
Source takeaway
Sharp TechCrunch reporting, but it leans on a single Accenture voice and cites no dollar figures, so read 'token rationing' as a vivid label for a real shift rather than a measured, industry-wide trend.
