Microsoft at ASCII

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫: 𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐬 $𝟐𝟒𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐚 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫. 😳 Jason Lemkin of SaaStr asked the question. His revenue agent alone makes between 35,000 and 40,000 API calls a day, and a price per call that looks trivial turns into a large number by month end. This week on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧: 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭. Your agent is a new kind of customer, and vendors have noticed. The next line in your software budget may be one nobody has written yet. Inside the episode: 🔴 That $240,000 against the $5 Postgres instance the agent itself suggested, and why the contract and the security review come before the saving

𝟖𝟐% 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. 👀 This week Kree and Varun sit down in studio with Mehnaz Tabassum, social entrepreneur and one of the founders of CogniCo AI Consulting, which exists to help nonprofits, lean teams and changemakers adopt AI on tight budgets. This week on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧: 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭. Named Atlantic Canada's most inspiring immigrant, she has built four purpose driven ventures from the ground up, and was once one of the youngest senior IT project managers in the Government of Canada. She knows the technology, the mission, and the reality of doing a great deal with very little. Inside the conversation: 🔴 The adoption gap between small and large businesses shrank from 1.8x in 2024 to about 1.2x in 2025, and 91% of small businesses using AI say it lifted revenue

𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭. 𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 👀 Ramp's latest reading shows token spend down 5.2% while the number of tokens used went up. The explanation on offer is price competition between the big labs, which means the saving arrived from outside the business entirely. This week on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧: 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭. A discount you did not plan for is a discount you will not keep, unless somebody is watching the bill. KPMG surveyed more than 2,100 senior leaders across 20 countries and found which habits separate the organisations with an established return from the ones still experimenting. Inside the episode: 🔴 77% of the established group track AI costs on a dashboard, against 43% of the experimenters

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬. $𝟐𝟑𝟎 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡. 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤. 😳 Which is a team of fourteen where ten have never turned up. Most owners have never added that column up, because every line was small enough to ignore and they arrived one at a time. This week on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧, we open a theme that runs all seven days: 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭. Output stopped being tied to headcount. For most of business history, doing more meant hiring more. That equation has quietly come apart, and the gap between what a lean team can attempt and what it can afford narrowed sharply in about eighteen months. Inside the episode: 🔴 Solo founded US startups rose from 23.7% in 2019 to 36.3% by the first half of 2025

𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝟕𝟒% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐨𝐛𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟎.𝟑% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦. 😳 Both numbers come out of the same research. The distance between what a machine can do and what it makes sense to employ it for is enormous, and almost every argument about this ignores the second figure. This week on 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧, we close the theme: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐌𝐁 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐈, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭? Which ends where it had to end. When the thing you employed gets something badly wrong, whose name is on it. Inside the episode: 🔴 A finished model scrapped on safety grounds, for not quite meeting the bar on staying within scope and authorisation