Walmart’s AI costs are spiraling, so it’s rationing employee tokens

walmart capped internal use of 'code puppy' after employees, previously encouraged to experiment freely, generated unexpectedly high costs through heavy usage and 'token maxxing'. the retailer now allocates fixed token amounts to staff, aiming to curb spending on expensive models for routine tasks like spreadsheet analysis. this reflects a wider trend as providers shift from flat subscriptions to pay-per-use billing, a financial shock that recently caused uber to exhaust its 2026 ai budget in just four months. the change forces large enterprises to treat ai inference as a variable cost rather than a fixed utility, prioritizing roi over unfettered access.