Why your AI bill explodes — and the right policy answer when it does
The open bar analogy.
A company sets up an open bar at the party — no drink tickets, no cap, just "have what you need." Bill is $40K. The right answer wasn't "no bar." It was bar, tab cap, bartender watching the glasses. AI tokens are an open bar. Don't ration. Instrument.
one company, one month, no per-seat cap
— the AI-spend horror story Polymarket surfaced May 28, 2026. The consultant declined to name the company. The number stayed the same regardless.
AI tokens are an open bar. The fix isn't no bar. It's a bartender watching the glasses.
Three pieces from the last 30 days that reinforce this analogy. Forward to the executive who's still calling it hype.
The headline horror story of the month. One company. One month. Half a billion dollars. No per-seat cap. The exact failure mode this analogy is built to prevent.
Read the original →Configuration governance is real. The right policy isn't a cap — it's a per-seat cap plus an exception process plus a weekly utilization report.
Read the original →$300M is the bar tab when the bar is properly governed. $500M is the bar tab when it isn't. The difference is the bartender — not whether you opened the bar.
Read the original →The catalog is free. The live session is where The Open Bar gets applied to your specific stuck conversation — built for boards, ELTs, and founder-CEO 1:1s. Half-day, $7,500.