Internal AI Usage Cap Memo:
In response to requests for increased AI budgets, they aren’t coming. And here’s why:
We currently offer 16x token spend per employee compared to the average of tech forward companies (Based on Ramp's spend data from 70,000 businesses). I say this to establish - for those of you who request increases, it is unlikely you will get it. Unlimited budgets create unlimited waste - a luxury we do not have. So, budget and use your tokens only on projects that have a clear revenue producing or cost savings. Otherwise, it's likely to be filed under "shit that doesn't matter and not worth spending money on."
To help you, we will be offering training(s) on:
How to figure out what's worth working on (biggest miss #1)
How to use fewer tokens to get same output (think of this like AI hygiene)
How to use the time AI saves you to be more effective
AI is a tool that creates leverage. It helps you get out more from what you put in. That said, company revenue is flat (relative terms) compared to AI usage increases. This suggests that people are (largely) using it on projects that don't matter, or are using it on things that do matter, then spending the saved time working on things that don't matter.
This discrepancy (difference between money we spend and money we make from AI) hints at a skill deficiency in the team. One which I hope we will train up - just as well as we trained up on AI usage.
So now that everyone is using it - it's time to use it well.
Let's crush Q4.
Alex
PS - The more clearly you can articulate how what you do generates a return, the more likely tokens will be in your future. And the way to maximize a return is to show HOW LITTLE you can use and HOW MUCH you can get from it.