The Fix For AI’s Spending Problem Is Not Good For OpenAI And Anthropic

For two years, companies bought AI one way: pick the most powerful model and run everything through it. That era is ending.

A new discipline called model routing is taking hold, sending hard tasks to expensive frontier models and easy ones to cheaper, faster alternatives. It can cut AI bills dramatically. But it also means OpenAI and Anthropic stop getting paid for every task, which complicates the IPO story both are built on.

Deirdre Bosa talks to Scott Wu, co-founder and CEO of Cognition (maker of the coding agent Devin), about his new engineering value guarantee, why Devin routes across models automatically, and what it actually takes to measure AI’s return. Then Cisco President and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel on the cost shock hitting the enterprise, why his own company blew through its AI budget, and whether the frontier labs can hold their pricing power.

Anchor and columnist: Deirdre Bosa
Produced by: Jasmine Wu
Editing by: Erin Black
Technical Associate: Sami Savona
Senior Director of Video: Jeniece Pettitt

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Why The Fix For AI’s Spending Problem Is Not Good For OpenAI And Anthropic
Why The Fix For AI’s Spending Problem Is Not Good For OpenAI And Anthropic

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