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Notes on measuring the agent era.

Outcomes over activity, the cost behind the code, and how teams govern the money their AI spends.

AI FinOps

Microsoft Cut Claude Code for Thousands of Engineers. The Bill Decided It, Not the Output.

Microsoft is pulling Claude Code from thousands of engineers in its Experiences and Devices division and moving them to GitHub Copilot, after token bills reportedly hit around $2,000 per engineer per month. The decision was framed as a benchmark. A benchmark on cost alone is half a benchmark, and the half that was missing is the one that actually decides whether the switch was right.

Vukašin Kitanović·Sep 2, 2026·8 min read
Guide

Your Team Says AI Saves Them Two Hours a Day. That Is the Least Reliable Number You Have.

Ask your engineers how much time AI saves them and someone will say two hours a day. It feels like proof the spend is working. A randomized trial found developers felt 20% faster with AI while actually finishing 19% slower, a perception gap of almost 40 points. Here is why self-reported time savings cannot go in a budget, and what number to use instead.

Vukašin Kitanović·Aug 26, 2026·7 min read
AI FinOps

Uber Ranked Its Teams by Token Spend. The Leaderboard Burned the Budget.

Uber put its engineering teams on internal leaderboards ranked by how much they used Claude Code and Cursor, then burned its entire 2026 AI budget in four months. Everyone points to the missing spend cap as the lesson. The real lesson is the metric at the center of the incentive. Here is the difference, and how to rank teams by outcome instead of activity.

Vukašin Kitanović·Aug 19, 2026·8 min read
AI FinOps

Cheap Per Token, Expensive Per Task: Why the Lowest-Priced AI Coding Model Can Cost More

Engineering teams pick AI coding models on price per token. The invoice does not arrive in tokens. It arrives in finished tasks. A model that looks 60% cheaper per token can cost more per merged PR once retries, context reloading, and correction time are counted. Here is how to measure the number that actually hits your budget.

Vukašin Kitanović·Aug 12, 2026·8 min read
Guide

When AI Coding ROI Goes Negative: How to Detect It Early and What to Do

Most AI coding ROI frameworks assume the result will be positive. Some pilots end at 90 days with flat or negative numbers. Here is how to detect the signal before it costs you a full quarter, and what to do when the number does not work.

Vukašin Kitanović·Aug 5, 2026·8 min read
Guide

What the EU AI Act Means for Engineering Teams Using AI Coding Tools

The EU AI Act's full provisions apply from August 2026. Most engineering teams using AI coding tools have no documentation of which code was AI-generated, no PR-level attribution, and no audit trail. Here is what is required and how to close the gap.

Vukašin Kitanović·Jul 29, 2026·9 min read
AI FinOps

AWS just validated AI coding measurement. Here is what CloudWatch cannot do.

AWS CloudWatch Coding Agent Insights tracks token spend, PR velocity, and cost-to-output ratio. The category is now validated at the enterprise level. Here is what the product covers and what it cannot cover by design.

Vukašin Kitanović·Jul 22, 2026·9 min read
AI FinOps

AI coding spend is out of control. Here is how to govern it.

Engineering approved the seat licenses. Finance signed the line item. Nobody set a token budget. Here is the governance layer that prevents the invoice from arriving as a surprise.

Vukašin Kitanović·Jul 15, 2026·8 min read
Guide

Why your AI coding pilot looked great at 30 days and failed by 90

The 30-day checkpoint is where most AI coding pilots get their budget renewed. It is also the point most likely to show you a number that will not survive contact with reality.

Vukašin Kitanović·Jul 8, 2026·9 min read
Guide

GitHub Copilot vs Cursor vs Claude Code: which delivers the lowest cost per merged PR?

Most AI coding tool comparisons measure the wrong thing. Here is what the numbers look like when you compare GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Claude Code on cost per merged PR at 90 days.

Vukašin Kitanović·Jul 1, 2026·10 min read

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