AI and Token Waste: Making Technology Costs Visible with Ben DeBow
Episode Description
In this episode of Data Planet, host Emma Davis interviews Ben DeBow, Founder and CEO of Fortified.
Ben shares how his background in accounting and technology led him to identify a major blind spot in modern businesses: the difficulty of understanding the true cost of technology at the code, workload, and data level.
They explore FinOps for data, technology cost attribution, and the hidden waste created by legacy systems, technical debt, and inefficient workloads. Ben explains why traditional cloud cost optimization only addresses the surface-level bill and how organizations can look deeper into their applications and data to identify meaningful savings.
They also discuss the rising cost of AI infrastructure, token usage, and the need for greater efficiency as businesses adopt increasingly resource-intensive technologies.
Ben shares insights from his book, End of Abundance in Tech, and explains how financial visibility can help technology and finance leaders make better decisions about what to optimize, archive, or eliminate while continuing to innovate.
Fortified website: https://fortified.com
