Companies Are Tracking How Employees Use AI Tools to Measure Productivity and Cost

Companies are beginning to track how employees use artificial intelligence tools, turning what was once an invisible productivity boost into a measurable — and increasingly scrutinised — workplace metric. 

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, firms including automation platform Zapier are now monitoring “token” usage — the units that measure how much computing power is consumed when employees interact with AI systems. 

The shift reflects a broader change in how businesses evaluate AI: not just as a productivity tool, but as a cost centre that can be tracked, optimised, and, in some cases, controlled. 

“We have this new kind of line item,” Brandon Sammut, Zapier’s chief AI transformation officer, told The Wall Street Journal, referring to the cost of AI-assisted work. 

Every prompt, response, or automated task performed by AI consumes tokens, effectively allowing companies to quantify how much AI employees are using.