ServiceNow's customer chief called tokenmaxxing an AI hype cycle in the Observer last week. Not some startup founder flexing contrarian creds — the guy who runs their customer org telling everyone the wrong meter is running the show.
Salesforce announced $2 per resolved issue last Wednesday. Same direction, different side of the negotiating table.
Stop measuring how much work you did. Start measuring what actually got done.
I've sat in enough procurement calls to know why nobody moves on this faster. Every vendor's revenue formula depends on keeping token counting in play — it's the most flattering metric possible because more tokens always looks like more progress, even when nothing changed for the end user.
The tell is in the pivot. If billing by token volume was really about measuring value, Salesforce wouldn't have had to cross the street to per-resolution pricing. They did it because the old number stopped passing the CFO test.
$2 per resolved issue. No adjectives. No multipliers. No usage tiers.
That's what a metric looks like when it has to survive contact with the actual outcome.
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