After Its AI Bill Hit 40% of R&D Budget, Rippling Built a Spend Console to Track ROI

My take: Rippling built this product because its own AI spending got out of hand: in early 2026, the company was on track to spend 40% of its entire R&D payroll on AI tokens, growing at 80% per month. One engineer alone was running up $50,000 a month. That is not efficiency; that is usage without direction.

What AI Spend Console does is what every business should be able to do today: see exactly who is using which AI tools, what they cost, and whether that spend translates into real results. After implementing controls, Rippling cut its token spend from 40% to 15% of its R&D budget. The savings did not require cutting headcount or abandoning AI; they required understanding how it was being used.

For anyone running a team or a business, the question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but whether you have visibility into what you are spending on it and the return you are getting. Does your company know exactly how much it invests in AI tools per person, and whether that investment is producing measurable results?