Krux
February 27, 2026
AT&T Cuts AI Costs 90% as Token Use Triples
Published: February 27, 2026 at 12:36 AM
Updated: February 27, 2026 at 12:36 AM
100-word summary
AT&T's internal AI assistant went from 8 billion to 27 billion tokens per day in just months, and instead of watching costs explode, the company slashed them by 90%. The trick? Rebuilding its system so a coordinator AI assigns tasks to smaller, cheaper models instead of running everything through one expensive model. Over 100,000 employees now use the drag-and-drop tool daily, with some reporting 90% productivity gains. The irony: handling three times the volume for a tenth of the cost required rethinking the plumbing, not buying better AI.
What happened
AT&T's internal AI assistant went from 8 billion to 27 billion tokens per day in just months, and instead of watching costs explode, the company slashed them by 90%. The trick? Rebuilding its system so a coordinator AI assigns tasks to smaller, cheaper models instead of running everything through one expensive model. Over 100,000 employees now use the drag-and-drop tool daily, with some reporting 90% productivity gains.
Why it matters
The irony: handling three times the volume for a tenth of the cost required rethinking the plumbing, not buying better AI.