Frontier AI just got cheap enough for the busywork
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd · · Updated
August brought a wave of new models — and a price war. The bottleneck for midsize businesses is no longer the AI. It's the wiring.
The short version
- August brought more than a dozen new or updated AI models in a few weeks, and a price war alongside them.
- Google's Gemini 3.7 Flash launched at around 75 cents per million input tokens, and Anthropic pitched near-flagship performance at half the cost.
- For midsize businesses, model cost is now usually the smallest part of an automation project, so the work is connecting and trusting it.
August was one of the busiest months for AI model releases in a long time, and the headline isn't any single model. It's the pricing.
What happened with AI model prices in August?
August brought more than a dozen new or updated models in a few weeks, from Google, Anthropic and a crowd of challengers. Google's new Gemini 3.7 Flash launched with introductory pricing around 75 cents per million input tokens, aimed squarely at document work and business automation.
Anthropic's latest Claude update pitched near-flagship performance at half the cost. Across the board, the price of 'good enough to trust with real work' keeps falling.
What does cheaper AI mean for a midsize business?
Cheaper AI models change the maths for a midsize business. A year ago, automating something like invoice follow-ups or inbox triage with a capable model was a line item worth debating. Today the model cost is usually the smallest part of the project.
What is the real bottleneck for AI in your business now?
The bottleneck is no longer 'can we afford the AI?'. It's connecting it to the systems your business already runs on, making it reliable, and making sure your team actually uses it. The model is the easy part now.
If there's a repetitive job you've been meaning to get off someone's plate, the economics have probably never been better.
Wondering what this means for your business?
That's exactly what the discovery call is for.