By Adam Turner
Publication Date: 2026-06-14 23:58:00
The mirage of “Tokenmaxxing”
As Australian organizations set their AI budgets for the new financial year, they are recognizing this challenge and moving to measuring success based on AI performance and impact, rather than just consumption, says Stu Scotis, chief technology officer of Deloitte Australia and leader of Deloitte Global Agentic AI.
Sometimes tokenmaxxing is entirely intentional, Scotis explains, particularly when organizations use leaderboards or gamification. In other cases, it can be more subtle, where users start using background agents to perform unnecessary tasks or provide complex prompts and context that lead to high token usage.
“The business impact extends far beyond the cost of the tokens, as mismanaged AI spending can erode value and distract teams from the wrong AI adoption efforts,” he says.
“Well-managed usage gives companies visibility into the AI value chain, i.e. where, what and how much AI is running across the organization and what the costs are. This transparency…
