From subscription to consumption

While this is a story that has exploded in recent weeks, it really started when we stopped using AI as a dictionary and began using it as an employee. The original Copilot was predictable: a flat monthly fee, some magical autocomplete here and there. But 2026 is the year of autonomous agents.

An agent is not a chat box. An agent receives an order, reads 50 context files, tries to run a test, fails, re-reads the context, invents a solution, discards it and starts all over again. Each iteration can burn through hundreds of thousands of tokens. Under a pay-per-use model, a single refactoring task can cost more than the server hosting the application.

We used to rely on third-party tools to make our lives easier, and we were happy to pay a monthly subscription for that service (the SaaS model). Now, however, we’ve transitioned from renting software to buying raw compute capacity. We’re paying for something else to run our processes and autonomously steer the business, simply because we assume it’s faster and more effective than doing it ‘manually’.

But is this actually true? And, more importantly, can companies afford it?