Apple lowers employees’ AI spending cap

Apple, however, is reportedly planning to cut that daily cap to as low as $25 for some teams, with employees who need higher allowances required to request approval from senior leadership.

The reductions are part of Apple’s cost-cutting effort, according to Bloomberg, despite a widespread push from the organisation on AI adoption.

Firms reducing AI spending

It joins the list of firms already curbing employees’ AI usage spending, such as Microsoft, Uber, Accenture. Here is what each firm has actually done:

• Uber capped employee AI tool spending at $1,500 per engineer per month after blowing its entire AI budget within four months
• Microsoft reportedly reduced internal spending on Anthropic’s Claude by more than one-third from a projected annual bill exceeding $1 billion
• Accenture capped centrally funded spending on Claude Enterprise at $29 per employee per month

Faros AI has attributed the surging AI spending from employees to the differences in the complexity of their work.

“The difference may be the complexity of their work. It may also be repeated failed attempts, unnecessary use of expensive models, or agents consuming resources without reaching an acceptable result,” it said in a blog post.