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Thursday, November 12, 2026 | 8AM PT / 4PM UK

The AI Bill Nobody Warned You About: What's Really Going On With Consumption Billing

Your $30 Copilot license is the floor, not the ceiling. Microsoft has moved Cowork, agents, and its most powerful AI features to usage-based billing. Anthropic and OpenAI work the same way. Every prompt, every agent run, and every wasted answer now has a price. Find out where hidden AI spend comes from, and how to control it before the invoice lands.

Why your Copilot license is just the starting cost

How consumption billing turns usage into unpredictable, wasted spend

How AI data governance and change management protects your ROI

How to govern AI costs while keeping up with constant change

For Microsoft 365 admins, IT leaders, and governance, adoption, and change leads.

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The problem

The license was the easy part. Usage billing is where it gets expensive.

AI costs used to be a fixed line item. Now they're a meter that runs with every prompt, and most teams can’t see it.

 

Billing has changed.

Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI are all moving to consumption-based pricing. Most organizations still don't know what gets billed where, or how to switch it off.

 

Usage is the risk, not seats.

Every prompt, agent run, and retry burns tokens. Without guardrails, there's no ceiling. One unmanaged agent can turn into a six-figure bill.

 

Tokenomics.

Poor data doesn't just waste time. It wastes tokens, and tokens cost money.

What you'll learn

Take back control of AI spend.

Microsoft's AI is changing faster than anyone can track. Find out what it'll cost before the bill tells you. In 60 minutes, you'll learn:

 

What's new in AI, what's already been retired, and why your AI strategy keeps going out of date

 

License vs. consumption: how billing works across Copilot, Cowork, and agents, and where unexpected costs appear

 

What tokenomics means for your AI ROI, and how bad data drives up token spend

 

The real story behind a $100K agent bill, and how to keep it from happening to you

 

Why AI adoption and cost control need to be one strategy, not two

 

Practical tips to govern, manage, and keep your AI costs in check

Your presenters

The people on screen

Michal Pisarek

Michal Pisarek

CEO, Orchestry

Seven-time Microsoft SharePoint MVP and serial entrepreneur. International speaker on Microsoft 365 governance and digital workplace strategy.

Tom Arbuthnot

Tom Arbuthnot

Co-Founder and CTO, Empowering.Cloud

Co-founder of Empowering.Cloud and CTO of ChangePilot. Long-standing Microsoft MVP and Certified Master who speaks at Microsoft 365 events worldwide.

Consider this your warning

The meter is already running

Bring your AI horror stories and questions. Michal and Tom will answer them live.

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