This CEO was out to dinner when he caught his AI agent wasting $1,000 in tokens. He says ‘insecurity’ is a bigger problem

Maxio CEO Branden Jenkins accidentally triggered a $1,000 auto-refill while debugging an AI agent from his phone — a small, relatable example of how easily token costs can sneak up on companies.
Agentic AI can burn far more tokens than a standard chatbot (Gartner estimates 5×–30×), driving big budget overruns at firms and spawning DIY cost-saving hacks like model-routing and “Caveman/Grunt” modes.
Jenkins says the bigger issue is human: employees feel insecure and unequal as powerful AI tools spread, so his company built hybrid org charts and DevOps governance for “vibe‑coded” automations to manage risk.