Episode notes
Most people paying for AI spend around $25 a month and use it the same way every day. They ask it questions and have a chat. Meanwhile the top 1% are spending around $900 a month, up 80% in just 18 months. That’s from new card-spending data published by Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz, and it shows how early most of us still are.
What we land on is that the difference is asking versus building. Most people pay for one AI and stop there, like a gym membership. The people spending more have set up scheduled triggers and workflows that wake the AI up to check a report, do a job and come back with an answer, all while they’re away from the desk. That’s when it stops feeling like a chatbot and starts feeling like help. It’s also when the tokens add up, which is why the spend climbs.
So why move up? Because that’s where the value is. Most people stall because they don’t know what’s possible yet, and the deeper workflows will increasingly sit on higher plans. Once an assistant is sorting your calendar, writing your emails and booking your travel, the higher price starts to make sense.
One thing to watch as agents start spending money for you. Researchers ran 325,000 experiments and found AI agents nudge people toward pricier options, even when asked for the cheapest. Staying price aware pays off.
Jez and Cam on why most people are still just asking AI questions while others have it doing the work, what it takes to make that jump, plus a cheeky tip for knocking a few dollars off your next Uber.
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