The Free AI Era Is Over

What happens when AI stops feeling free?

In this episode of The Next Thing Now, Rob and Kev unpack the growing reality behind token pricing, disappearing “all-you-can-eat” AI plans, and why the economics of AI are starting to shift dramatically.

From exploding enterprise AI bills to the sudden rise of local LLMs, they explore the next phase of the AI race: not just intelligence, but compute, infrastructure, and cost.

They cover:

• Why frontier AI companies are killing unlimited plans
• How token costs are becoming the new cloud bill
• Why Macs with huge amounts of RAM are suddenly selling out
• The rise of local LLMs and “bring your own model” architectures
• Why AI usage inside companies is growing faster than costs are falling
• The hidden operational cost of agentic AI workflows
• Why “vibe coding” breaks at enterprise scale
• The growing gap between AI experimentation and AI maturity
• Why organisations now need AI governance, policy and consultancy
• The rise of “flat is the new up” in AI-driven businesses
• Whether frontier models are becoming too expensive to democratise
• And the mystery surrounding Anthropic’s rumoured Mythos model

The future of AI may still be extraordinary.

But it is increasingly clear it will not be cheap.