Rising AI bills push Singapore companies to chase ROI over ‘tokenmaxxing’

Firms are becoming more careful in matching models to workloads

Young Zhan Heng
Published Mon, Jul 20, 2026 · 07:00 AM
    • The shift comes even as Singapore’s AI integration into work is low, but adoption remains high.
    • The shift comes even as Singapore’s AI integration into work is low, but adoption remains high. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT

    [SINGAPORE] Companies in Singapore are moving beyond the artificial intelligence experimentation phase and becoming increasingly selective about how they deploy the technology. This is as rising AI spending pushes them to demand clearer returns on investment (ROI).

    While the cost of using AI models has fallen, overall AI bills continue to jump as businesses use the technology far more extensively.

    Consultancy Bain & Co estimated that the price of tokens had halved between 2024 and 2025.