Enterprise AI spending is rising, with top firms spending $7,500 per employee monthly on AI, though still less than average engineer salaries. Research from the Ramp AI Index shows significant variation in adoption rates.
The most AI-obsessed firms are spending roughly $7,500 monthly per employee on AI, per Ramp AI Index. That's not more than an engineer's salary — yet.
# ‘AI-pilled’ firms spend $7,500 per employee each month on AI | TechCrunch
Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/10/ai-pilled-firms-spend-7500-per-employee-each-month-on-ai/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/10/ai-pilled-firms-spend-7500-per-employee-each-month-on-ai/)
In Brief
Posted:
10:07 AM PDT · June 10, 2026
**Image Credits:**Getty ImagesAn Nvidia executive recently[said](https://fortune.com/2026/04/28/nvidia-executive-cost-of-ai-is-greater-than-cost-of-employees/)that the cost of compute is now greater than the salaries of his employees\. Last week,[Mercor’s CEO said](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-startup-mercor-spends-more-on-tokens-than-payroll-2026-6)the startup is spending more on tokens for internal agents than on employee headcount\.
As enterprises[blow through their token budgets,](https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/05/the-token-bill-comes-due-inside-the-industry-scramble-to-manage-ais-runaway-costs/)a big question is: Are companies actually spending more on AI than on humans?
Not quite yet, according to[fresh research](https://econlab.substack.com/p/how-much-does-it-cost-to-be-ai-pilled)from the Ramp AI Index, which measures the adoption rate of AI among American businesses\. The top 1% of firms — which Ramp describes as “AI\-pilled” — are spending $7,500 per employee per month\. Whether you think that’s a lot or a little depends on your perspective, but it’s certainly not more than the roughly $16,000 per month the average software engineer makes\.
And those are just the power users\. The top 10% spend about $611 monthly per employee, and the median only spend about $11\.38, or about the cost of a seat on an enterprise plan\.
That said, despite pressures, AI spending is still rising\. Among the AI\-pilled firms, spend grew 14\.1% per employee last month\. It’s not yet clear if that trend will continue\. The top 1% of firms tend to mix and match, opting to bounce between multiple frontier models and platforms that give them access to cheaper open\-source models\.
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