You can be ambitious without the huge token bill. Here's how.

YouTube · Watch/Read · (gathered 2026-09-23)

• To use AI ambitiously and affordably, companies must rethink entire workflows from scratch, focusing on desired business outcomes rather than simply automating existing, potentially obsolete, multi-step processes with agents, which can lead to skyrocketing token costs.
• The “interoffice envelope” analogy illustrates the danger of merely digitizing old, inefficient processes; instead, start with a “blank sheet of paper” and design workflows based on core business value streams, eliminating steps that only existed due to past system limitations.
• To control costs, match the intelligence level of the AI to the task: use cheaper, open-weight, or specialized models/traditional software for deterministic, rule-based work (e.g., pricing, CRM updates), reserving expensive frontier models for complex, probabilistic, interpretive tasks.
• Involve business owners, not just engineers, in agent system design to challenge and simplify workflows across departments, ensuring the focus remains on achieving business value with minimal, necessary steps, as “zero is the best cost” for eliminated work.