Stop Token Maxing — Start Outcome Maxing
Every enterprise now runs two workforces — the human one they can see, and the AI one they mostly can’t. Lexi Reese, CEO and Co-Founder of Lanai, joins Alan Shimel on Techstrong TV to walk through Lanai’s 2026 AI Labor Report, built on a study of 200 C-level executives at companies with 1,000+ employees. The takeaway: companies are using AI like labor but budgeting for it like software, and that mismatch is becoming a real business problem. Lexi explains why “token max” was the wrong goal in the first place, why 92% of leaders think they’re measuring AI when they’re really only measuring usage, and why every one of the 200 companies surveyed said they have zero fully autonomous agents in production. She and Alan trade real-world stories about agentic workflows in small companies, AI call centers that hollowed out a fintech’s CSAT, and what it takes to swap out a token-max mindset for an outcome-max operating model that the CFO and the workforce can both get behind.
