Palantir CEO Alex Karp says most companies are 'token maxing' on AI without solving real business problems

On Thursday on the TBPN podcast, Palantir Technologies Inc. CEO Alex Karp compared corporate AI deployments to compulsive behavior, arguing that most companies use AI the way someone scrolls an adult site at 2 a.m. rather than to solve actual business problems.

Karp said Palantir developed an internal product designed to break enterprises of 'token maxing' — the overconsumption of AI tokens that looks like work but delivers nothing — with examples including employees checking the weather or rearranging presentation slides.

Karp argued that large language model frontier companies are 'super charismatic with investors' but 'super not charismatic with enterprises,' and said his sales strategy is to tell prospects to spend time with frontier players first and call him afterward.