Microsoft cracks down on employee AI use after one worker spent $28,000 in 28 days

Microsoft has implemented stricter controls on employee use of AI after one individual caused $28,000 worth of AI token spend in just 28 days. Internal spreadsheets, used by workers to voluntarily report compensation data, revealed some employees were spending $10,000 to $28,000 on AI tokens each month, with a median of $300 per employee.

The $28,000 figure was an outlier, shared by a single worker from the Customer and Partner Solutions business. Approximately 600 US workers contributed data to the spreadsheet, though Microsoft's workforce exceeds 223,000 globally and participation was voluntary. The median AI usage was lower at around $300 per employee. The data also showed departmental variations, with CoreAI spending the highest median at $975, followed by Security at $526, Microsoft AI at $490, Cloud and AI at $325, Experiences and Devices at $250, and Azure at $241.

The company is actively monitoring token consumption to identify excessive usage, following years of encouraging AI adoption. This comes amid a trend known as "tokenmaxxing," where users deliberately consume large amounts of tokens for visibility on tracking dashboards. Microsoft emphasized that tokenmaxxing is not a goal, aiming instead to maximize outcomes that benefit customers and the business.