<figure><img src="https://i.insider.com/6ab2d2d6265e3f8e338f5c05?format=jpeg" height="4500" width="8000" alt="AI agent"><figcaption>McKinsey says that AI agents take different routes on the same task.<p class="copyright">AI</p></figcaption></figure><ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-recruiting-embracing-wider-pool-talent-ai-age-2026-9" data-autoaffiliated="false">McKinsey & Company</a> warns that not all AI agents operate the same way — and could rack up costs.</li><li>McKinsey found that cost "variance can be up to 30x between different runs."</li><li>In a recent report, the firm said agents can cut human time on tasks by 70%.</li></ul><p>McKinsey & Company warns companies that AI spending may rise even further as agents become more common.</p><p>Compared to text-based AI tools, agents can cost much more to run because they are actually completing tasks. Such tasks are often multistep processes, so the same goal can be accomplished in a variety of ways, and costs vary widely. According to a McKinsey study, the cost of completion for <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-bcg-pwc-ey-ai-agents-adoption-value-consulting-industry-2026-2">different agents</a> could differ by as much as 30 times.</p><p>"Imagine like you're running an operation," said Lari Hämäläinen, a McKinsey senior partner, "but every day there's a 30x difference in the cost."</p><p>The <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mbb-leaders-consulting-firms-advising-leaders-and-ceos-2025-7">consulting giant</a> found that about a third of organizations spend more than 10% of their technology and communications budgets on AI in its 2026 State of AI survey. McKinsey said 60% of survey<strong> </strong>respondents planned to increase their AI spending next year. And about one in five said that AI spending was beginning to create constraints in their operating costs.</p><p>"So the spend is now becoming quite material and visible," said Tanguy Catlin, a McKinsey senior partner and director of the McKinsey Global Institute, on Tuesday.</p><p>The issue is particularly acute for software-development teams using agents to automate coding, "which obviously is very token hungry," McKinsey said.</p><p>The warning comes after companies spent much of the past year encouraging workers to use more AI. Amazon shut down an employee-created leaderboard tracking <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-token-economy-spending-workplace-budgets-usage-caps-software-engineer-2026-6">AI token use</a> after some workers performed tasks solely to climb the rankings. Companies, including Coinbase and Salesforce, have also begun putting limits on AI use as bills rise.</p><p>In a report published earlier this month, McKinsey said <a target="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-agents-change-how-web-internet-works-2026-9">agentic AI</a> can cut the amount of time humans spend on certain transformation-office tasks by 35% to 40%, and sometimes by 70% or more.<strong> </strong>It argued, however, that companies need to measure whether their agents are producing enough value to justify the cost.</p><p>"A lot of this we are only now learning," Hämäläinen said. "In the next 12 months, it will become very relevant."</p><div class="read-original">Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-ai-agent-costs-variable-expensive-2026-9">Business Insider</a></div>
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