McKinsey & Company has issued a warning to businesses regarding the potential for skyrocketing costs associated with artificial intelligence. According to a recent report, not all AI agents operate efficiently in terms of budget consumption. The consulting firm found that cost variance can be as high as 30 times between different runs of the same task. This volatility presents a significant challenge for companies attempting to integrate autonomous systems into their workflows.
The Hidden Costs of Agentic AI
While McKinsey acknowledges that agents can cut human time on tasks by up to 70%, the financial reality is more complex compared to standard text-based tools. Agents often complete multistep processes, meaning there are various ways to achieve a single goal, each with a different price tag. Lari Hämäläinen, a senior partner at McKinsey, illustrated this unpredictability by comparing it to running an operation where daily costs fluctuate wildly.
The issue is particularly acute for software-development teams using agents to automate coding processes. These systems are described as "token hungry," leading to higher operational expenses. As companies spend more of the past year encouraging workers to use AI, bills are rising accordingly. Some organizations, including Coinbase and Salesforce, have begun putting limits on AI usage in response to these increasing costs.
Budget Constraints and Future Spending
The financial impact is becoming visible across many sectors. In its 2026 State of AI survey, McKinsey found that about a third of organizations spend more than 10% of their technology and communications budgets on AI. Furthermore, 60% of survey respondents plan to increase their AI spending next year. However, this expansion is not without risk; approximately one in five companies reported that AI spending was beginning to create constraints in their operating costs, as this newspaper reported in China's AI Price War Enters New Phase Amidst Aggressive Cuts.
Tanguy Catlin, a senior partner and director of the McKinsey Global Institute, noted that spend is now becoming quite material and visible for many firms. The consulting giant argues that companies need to measure whether their agents are producing enough value to justify these rising expenses. "A lot of this we are only now learning," Hämäläinen said, emphasizing that measuring efficiency versus cost will become very relevant in the next 12 months.
