Tokens Are the Cheap Part — Steve Jamison, Jellyfish
AI Engineer — Oct 13, 2026 — talk
Why watch
Steve Jamison presents Jellyfish's research analyzing the relationship between AI spending and developer productivity. The data shows a 60x increase in AI spending correlated with 43% more merged PRs per engineer and 26% lower combined cost per merged PR. This talk helps engineering managers and technical leaders understand how to evaluate AI tool adoption by looking at total engineering costs (salary plus tokens) rather than just token costs. It emphasizes the need for consistent metrics across cost, output, and quality before making AI adoption decisions.