• The age of freewheeling AI spending may be coming to an end.
• Consulting firms are rethinking how much they, and their clients, spend on AI.
• Tell us how spending at your consulting firm has changed.

Companies are learning that there's such a thing as spending too much on AI.

As the cost of AI tools grows, executives are recalibrating. Amazon recently removed its employee-made leaderboard for tracking AI token usage because it encouraged excessive spending. Walmart, which developed a vibe-coding tool for employees, recently set limits on the use of tokens. Uber COO Andrew MacDonald said it's hard to justify the money his company is spending on AI.

Cisco Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel also pushed back on the cost of tokens. He said at an event recently that the price is "far higher than the actual value these tokens are generating at scale."

For the consulting industry, the rise of AI was a near-existential threat. At first glance, chatbots can do a lot of the work of consultants, particularly those early in their careers. Most firms moved quickly to attract clients who needed help integrating the technology into their own companies. And they quickly adopted it themselves.

KPMG, for example, has built a dashboard to track how often employees in its US advisory division use AI tools, part of a broader effort to move from basic adoption to more sophisticated use. McKinsey plans to go further. CEO Bob Sternfels said in January that the firm uses roughly 25,000 AI agents alongside its 40,000 human employees, and hopes one or more agents will eventually support every employee.

The surge in spending, however, has raised a question: Are companies investing in AI strategically or simply spending to avoid being left behind? It's something consulting firms are working to answer for both their clients and themselves.

Tell us how AI spending has changed at your consulting firm:

For now, the answer appears to be: keep spending, but more strategically.

In a recent report on corporate AI investment, Boston Consulting Group found that companies expect to more than double their AI spending in 2026, from roughly 0.8% of revenue to about 1.7%. For large enterprises, that shift represents billions of dollars flowing into AI strategies that remain, in many cases, experimental and difficult to measure.

Russell Fradin, CEO and cofounder of Larridin, a platform that helps companies — including major consulting firms — measure the returns on AI usage, said the spending trend will continue.

"We haven't seen anyone talking about spending less in AI next year," Fradin told Business Insider. "They're just talking about instrumenting to understand where it goes."

Companies, Fradin said, are coming to the consensus that they "can't 10x spend every year forever."

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to partner with Silicon Valley.
• Zelenskyy said the tech hub's AI skills and Ukraine's wartime drone experience could be "powerful."
• Ukraine has built a drone arsenal that's captivated the world as it fights Russia's invasion.

Ukraine has experience fighting and defending itself using drones. American tech companies have AI firepower. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the combination of the two could be world-changing.

"American technological companies have a lot of different interesting AI technologies that we don't have. And we have a lot of things that they don't have because of our experience on the battlefield," Zelenskyy said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "I think this cooperation can be huge and the most powerful in the world."

Ukraine, out of necessity, has built an arsenal of drone tech and anti-drone tech on a shoestring budget, captivating the global defense industry as it's largely held the line — despite its underdog status — since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over four years ago.

Ukraine said three types of homegrown drones allowed it to strike in the vicinity of Moscow earlier this month, and that it had developed a fixed-wing mid-range attack drone that's helped it strike in areas Russia once deemed safe. It's learned valuable lessons in the process, like the need for drone units to always be on the move and for their command centers to be buried underground to protect them.

The AI craze in the United States, meanwhile, coupled with a Defense Department eager to develop new autonomous military technology, is fueling the growth of a Silicon Valley defense tech industry. Companies like Anduril, led by Palmer Luckey, who built the Oculus virtual reality headset that Facebook bought in 2014, have raised billions to develop new uncrewed weapons systems.

Ukraine has since become an important potential proving ground for some of that new hardware.

Through a state-backed "Test in Ukraine" program launched last year, hundreds of international companies have applied to test drones, counter-drone systems, AI, electronic warfare tools, naval drones, and ground robots in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy on Sunday said he wants to deepen this symbiotic relationship further, and soon. His message to Silicon Valley: Stop talking and start building.

"We need to negotiate already," Zelenskyy said Sunday. "Not to speak about it. Just to take steps and to do it as quick as possible."

• Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has adopted a new cause: the impact of data centers.
• She said residents are especially angry about NDAs between developers and local leaders.
• That lack of transparency, she said, is fueling anger among residents who feel ignored.

Big Tech is expanding into communities across the country — and they aren't all that happy about it.

Many residents in cities and towns where tech companies are looking to build large data centers to power their AI products are mobilizing against them, concerned about a possible drain on water supplies, a surge in electricity costs, and a decline in their overall quality of life.

Now, legendary environmental activist Erin Brockovich, famously played by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film about her work, has joined the fight.

Brockovich said on a recent episode of "The Jim Acosta Show" that communities are angry because they feel shut out of the decisions being made in their own backyards — and that the projects are being "shoved down their throat in secrecy."

Brockovich said that residents learn about projects in the proposal stage, only to find that local officials are limited in what they can say because of nondisclosure agreements. In other cases, she said, projects are presented as warehouses rather than data centers.

"There's a lot of secrecy and NDAs at a very proposal stage," Brockovich said.

That lack of transparency, she said, is fueling anger among residents who believe their concerns are being ignored.

High-profile data center projects have faced backlash in recent months. A massive data center project in Utah backed by "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary has sparked statewide opposition, for example, leading Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to unveil a new "framework" for data center development on Friday that addresses many of the community's concerns.

"Utahns deserve confidence that water resources, air quality, utility rates, wildlife, and quality of life will be protected. This framework helps ensure that data center development aligns with Utah's long-term interests and reflects Utah values," Cox wrote in an X post.

Microsoft, which once relied on NDAs in the early stages of data center development, said earlier this year that it would stop requesting them after local opposition.

"We've made the decision that being transparent with the communities where we operate or seek to operate is paramount," the company said. "This shift is about strengthening public trust, enabling better dialogue, and ensuring that our growth is matched by meaningful engagement."

Microsoft has adopted its own framework for building data centers called the "Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan." It promises to pay for its own electricity, minimize water usage, and create local jobs, among other things.

Brockovich, who has spent decades working with communities on environmental fights, said residents are not opposed to hearing difficult information. What they object to, she said, is being excluded from the process.

"I've worked in communities for 30 years," she said. "They handle the truth."

• The Sunday print edition of the Times made no mention of the White House Correspondents' dinner shooting.
• Some critics online called the omission intentional.
• The Times said it sent its Sunday edition to press at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, before the shooting took place.

At 8:36 p.m. on Saturday night, shots were fired outside the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents' Dinner was well underway. It marked the third time in three years that President Donald Trump faced the threat of assassination.

That news, however, did not make The New York Times' Sunday paper.

The Times covered the shooting extensively on its website. For its Sunday print edition, however, the next day's news had already been set when the shooting occurred, setting it up for a backlash from its critics, who believed it was intentional.

"This seemed so outrageous (even for the NYT) that I wanted to verify it," Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire wrote on X alongside a photo of the Times' Sunday paper. "I went and got a physical copy and took this photo. The shooting was at 8:34pm ET on Saturday night. Is this not enough time to get the story in print?"

While some news outlets can make changes to their print editions until late at night, or even the early morning, the Times said in an X post responding to the backlash that its Sunday print edition "goes to press at 8pm Saturday."

A spokesperson told Business Insider that there are no more Sunday print editions and that the shooting will be featured on the front page of Monday's print edition.

"The print edition is an anachronism for old fogies like me who still like newsprint," one X user responded to Maguire. "If you want the latest news, you know where to go."

• Trump and other officials were safely evacuated from the annual press dinner.
• Business leaders, including UFC CEO Dana White, were in the room.
• Here's what execs are saying about the incident.

Chaos broke out at Saturday night's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, DC, after multiple gunshots were heard in the ballroom.

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and a host of protectees, including the vice president and multiple Cabinet members, were ushered to safety, the Secret Service said.

Trump said in a press conference following the incident that a Secret Service agent was shot in his bulletproof vest.

The suspect is in custody, and investigations are ongoing.

Here's what people in the big leagues of business are saying about the incident.

Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO

Musk reposted an X post from the White House, which included a statement from Trump.

"'In light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully.' - President Donald J. Trump," the tweet read.

Musk became a particularly vocal Trump backer after the July 2024 assassination attempt at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In 2025, the two hit a relationship rough patch and traded some barbs, but they have been cordial at public events since.

Dana White, UFC CEO

White was a guest at the dinner and was in the room when chaos broke out.

"It was fucking awesome. I literally took every minute of it in. It was a pretty crazy, unique experience," White was seen saying in a video posted on X by MMAJunkie, part of USA Today's sports desk.

Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide

Thompson sent a memo to all CNN staffers after the incident, according to screenshots of the memo posted to X by Brian Stelter, the network's chief media analyst.

Thompson highlighted the CNN team's real-time response and on-the-ground reporting as the shooting unfolded.

"We know this was a frightening and disruptive situation for those in the room, and for your colleagues and loved ones watching live on CNN. Moments like this can stay with you in ways that aren't necessarily immediate or obvious," Thompson wrote.

"Please take care of yourselves and one another," he added.

Luther Lowe, head of public policy at Y Combinator

Lowe is married to Weijia Jiang, the CBS journalist who chairs the White House Correspondents' Association. Jiang got her share of accolades from media peers and viewers alike for her poise under pressure — she was onstage next to Trump during the shooting, and took a front-row seat in the briefing room after.

"So proud of @weijia. She was on the stage less than an hour ago presiding over the abrupt end of the dinner and now she's in the front row of the White House briefing room waiting to for the President to speak," Lowe wrote.

Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, cofounders of Kalshi

The cofounders of the popular predictions market attended the event together.

"This was Luana and I's first White House Correspondents Dinner. The moment was scary, but the dinner until then was a great gathering of people from all sides," Mansour wrote on X.

"Grateful for law enforcement and that the President and everyone is safe," Mansour said, giving a shoutout to CBS's Jiang, too.

Lara thanked Mansour on X for pulling her under the table to keep her safe.

"If your co-founder isn't protecting you in a shooting situation, find another one," she wrote.

Bilal Zuberi, founder of VC firm Red Glass Ventures

"Pretty scary that our most important leaders of the government were at risk today. President Trump, Vice President Pence, and House Speaker Johnson were all in that room," Zuberi wrote on X.

"From multiple attacks against our president to attacks against politicians around the country, to attacks on politicians and leadership around the world - these are abhorrent, and people everywhere should vehemently oppose and condemn them!" the tech investor added.

Gary Tan, president and CEO of Y Combinator

"I mean… I was definitely under the table. In a shooter situation, you want to be as low as possible," Y Combinator president and CEO, Garry Tan, wrote on X on Sunday.

"As I was under the table with other attendees, Marco Rubio pushed my chair out of the way making a fast exit with Secret Service. I now know we were in no serious danger but in that moment I wondered how many shooters there were and what would mean for 2,000 people in that room."

• IBM's consulting arm monitors the work of AI agents using a real-time dashboard.
• IBM says AI agents have sped up security investigations, cutting task time from 45 to a few minutes.
• IBM Consulting's revenue reached $21 billion in 2025, driven by demand for AI solutions.

At IBM's consulting arm, the future isn't a slide deck or a strategy memo — it's a live dashboard where humans monitor the work of AI agents in real time.

Earlier this month, Mohamad Ali, senior vice president of IBM Consulting, walked Business Insider through the dashboard that the company both uses internally and recently released to clients.

"Every hour I can see what's going on with all the humans associated with digital workers," and vice versa, he said. "That is the new consulting model going forward."

The dashboard is known internally as "Consulting Advantage." The company unveiled it in 2024 to help its own consultants build and manage teams of AI agents. This January, it unveiled "Enterprise Advantage," a similar version of the platform for clients that allows them to build and manage AI agents at scale.

In recent years, the firm has made itself the testing ground for building and deploying digital workers as it prepares clients for a future defined by AI. Ali said the firm has digital staff working side by side with humans on more than 150 client engagements.

Take the example of a typical security operations center, he said. When an alert comes in, a human investigator would normally spend about 45 minutes combing through logs to figure out what went wrong and what to do next. At IBM, he said, that process is increasingly handled by AI.

Digital workers first "generate an investigation plan." Then they execute it in real time. Multiple agents tackle different parts of the problem simultaneously, passing tasks back and forth, he said. Then they run a risk analysis and produce a report. The process now takes just a couple of minutes. The findings are then passed back to a human — with key actions highlighted — and the human verifies it.

In January alone, IBM used this approach to complete 52,000 investigations, Ali said.

IBM has evolved dramatically from its early days as a maker of mainframe computers into a key player in the AI boom. The company said its generative AI department was valued at $12.5 billion during its fourth-quarter earnings call.

Its consulting department, especially, has seen an uptick due to demand for generative AI and services that help clients implement it. Consulting revenue for 2025 came in at over $21 billion, up from about $20.7 billion in 2024.

IBM Consulting has been around for decades. The company acquired PwC's consulting arm in 2002. PwC would later rebuild its consulting business after a five-year noncompete clause expired.

IBM Consulting now employs about 150,000 employees and says its work overlaps with the Big Four and more technology-focused firms like Accenture.

"We don't do, like, what markets you should be in," Ali said. "We do strategy around 'how do you take your corporate strategy and implement it?'"

And right now, he said, there's a big question in corporate strategy: How do you prepare for a world where humans work alongside AI agents?