The Hidden Operating Cost of Agents Isn't Tokens — It's Humans

A pointed observation that agentic AI's real expense lies in the expensive human oversight needed to keep systems running, not the token bills everyone obsesses over.

Most cost conversations about AI agents fixate on the wrong number. @DavidLinthicum argued this week that beyond token consumption, the genuine expense of agentic systems is the ongoing human oversight required to maintain them. It's a deceptively important point. Token costs are visible, measurable, and falling. The cost of the engineer who has to babysit an agent, audit its outputs, and intervene when it drifts is none of those things — and it doesn't trend toward zero.

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