Customers will increasingly measure the cost of tokens against the outcomes they produce
23 October 2026 (ETHRWorld.com). Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in his annual letter, October 2026, on AI economics and inference costs.
Microsoft working to reduce AI costs, expand ecosystem as global adoption rises: Satya Nadella
More from Satya Nadella · AI and money · 2026
Who else?
What it refers to: The "cost-to-outcome frontier," Microsoft's term for weighing AI token costs against the business results they deliver.
Other voices
- “Cost is a big deal, and we want our customers to pay us, not the AI vendors” Chuck Alpert,
- “The minimal documentable ROI and the trillions of dollars invested” Gary Marcus, Researcher,
- “The bill arrives before the meal” Beth Ann Bovino, Investor,
- “They don't show up on the P&L in a way that justifies significant infrastructure investment” Louis Landry,
- “AI loses money every time they acquire a new customer” Cory Doctorow, Writer,










