The Compensation Statement

The compensation statement of the near future may look pretty familiar: Base Salary, Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), PTO

And then, tucked right under the normal benefits:

• Monthly AI token allowance.

Not joking. Well, mostly not joking.

For teams actually using AI tools in daily work, model access is starting to look less like a software expense and more like a productivity benefit.

For teams actually using AI tools in daily work, model access is starting to look less like a software expense and more like a productivity benefit.

Engineers need it. PMs need it. Designers need it. Analysts need it. Leaders need it too, especially if they are expected to understand how these tools are changing the way work gets done.

At some point, “we give employees access to frontier AI tools” will sound less like a perk and more like “we give employees a laptop.”

And yes, someone in HR is eventually going to have to decide whether unused tokens roll over.

Unlimited PTO was the warmup. Unlimited tokens is where the real corporate policy debates begin.