Mercor’s CEO says it now spends more on AI tokens than employee salaries Mercor’s CEO, Brendan Foody, stated that the AI startup is currently spending more on AI tokens for internal agents than on employee headcount. He predicts that within five years, the average enterprise will spend more on compute than on human employees. This shift is driven by falling AI costs and improving model capabilities, leading to increased consumption of AI services.

• Mercor’s CEO, Brendan Foody, reported that the company’s spending on AI tokens for internal agents now exceeds its employee salary costs.
• Foody predicts that within five years, average enterprises will spend more on compute power than on employee headcount.
• Mercor utilizes AI agents for functions like project management, recruiting, and candidate evaluation, having conducted over 5 million AI-assisted interviews.
• The trend is attributed to decreasing AI costs and advancing model capabilities, creating a Jevons paradox effect.
• Foody anticipates that the cost of AI inference and compute will eventually surpass the cost of human labor for many tasks. Continue reading https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-startup-mercor-spends-more-on-tokens-than-payroll-2026-6