In early 2026, Microsoft made a surprising move that sent ripples through the tech industry—the company began canceling Claude Code licenses for most of its direct employees. Just six months after granting thousands of workers access to this powerful AI coding tool, Microsoft reversed course. The reason? AI had become too expensive to sustain at scale.
This decision wasn’t just about cutting costs. It revealed a much bigger problem facing the entire technology industry: using AI is now more expensive than paying human employees.
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