# The Subsidized Tokens Are Ending

**Author:** Alexey Krivitsky
**Date:** 2026-04-28
**Reading time:** 3 min
**Category:** Org Design
**Tags:** ai, org-design, ai-adoption, transformation
**Canonical:** https://krivitsky.com/post/subsidized-tokens-are-ending

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**TL;DR:** Cheap AI tokens masked the difference between real restructuring and AI theater. When prices rise, companies that wove AI into their delivery lifecycle will justify the budget. Companies that sprinkled it on unchanged structures will face a CFO asking what they got.

## The Subsidized Tokens Are Ending. Did You Seize It — Or Just Sprinkle AI on a Dysfunctional Org?

Two things happened this week. GitHub Copilot — used by 4 million people weekly — moved to usage-based billing and paused new signups. Separately, Anthropic tested removing Claude Code from their $20/month plan. They reversed it within hours after backlash, but the signal was loud: flat-rate AI is becoming unsustainable.

The all-you-can-eat buffet can be closing soon.

If this trend holds over the next 3–6 months, it will expose a split that cheap tokens have been masking.

Some companies used the cheap-token window to actually restructure. Not just hand out Copilot seats — but rethink product development end to end. Discovery, delivery, observability, operations. AI woven into the lifecycle. These teams learned, measured, and got faster at building the right stuff rightly. They have the numbers to prove it.

Other companies sprinkled AI on top of what was already there. Same org chart, same handoffs, same processes. A chatbot here, a coding assistant there. When leadership asks "what did we get for the AI spend?" — everyone speaks of local improvements without a clear compound effect.

Now imagine the price doubles.

The company that restructured goes to the CFO. Talk about the budget and the opportunities. Budget approved. They keep on learning and accelerating.

The company that sprinkled goes to the CFO: "We need more AI budget." The CFO asks: "What did the last one produce?" Here, AI became a cost center to be minimized. Not a value generator.

**Cheap tokens masked the difference between real transformation and AI theater. Expensive tokens will expose it.**

The gap between the best and rest will only grow.

The subsidy window was your chance to restructure. It is still there. So seize it. Spawn experiments. Allow the product engineering teams to do what they believe is right. Break some old rules here and there. Learn. Ship. Adapt.

There has never been and won't be a better time to try new things.