In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ break down why AI spend is starting to look like the new cloud bill. They cover token usage, runaway experimentation, budget controls, and how finance teams can manage AI adoption without slowing everyone down.

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SPONSORS:

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LINKS: 

Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

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RELATED EPISODES:

How Zapier's CFO Automated His Entire Finance Team

https://youtu.be/XDaiLDfBob8

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Car crash in the Hamptons

5:04 Topic intro: the token maxing era is over

5:51 Investors caused the problem

7:00 CFO data: cloud costs up 45% MoM

8:03 Pylon's $1.4M token bill

9:28 Sponsors — beehiiv | Tabs | Lightfield

12:29 Tip 1: don't go all-in on one provider

13:28 Play them against each other

14:54 OpenAI is throwing free trials at people

17:00 Use the price cut rumors as leverage

18:34 Tip 2: audit by team and user

19:51 Budget AI like a benefits load

21:05 Tip 3: budget envelope over headcount

22:47 Carve out an experimentation budget

23:40 Tip 4: default teams to cheaper models

25:07 AI routing and model brokers

25:56 Tip 5: celebrate when people skip AI

27:25 Deterministic beats AI where it works

28:09 Quantify wins before scaling

29:36 Cloud cost management as the precedent

30:12 Should there be a Chief AI Officer?

31:21 Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #AIStrategy #SaaS #ProductMonetization #FinanceLeadership