Artificial intelligence tokens are emerging as a new form of corporate currency at China’s largest technology companies. As businesses integrate AI deeper into everyday operations, employees are increasingly managing not only their time and traditional resources but also the tokens consumed by AI systems, tells South China Morning Post.
Tokens are the basic units used to measure and bill AI services. Every prompt sent to an AI model and every response it produces consumes a certain number. In mainland China, these units are known as ciyuan. Their role resembles kilowatt-hours in electricity consumption, providing companies with a measurable way to track the resources required to run AI tools.
The scale of workplace consumption is already striking. One Beijing-based ByteDance employee reportedly uses nearly 1 billion tokens each month, yet that amount does not place the worker among the department’s largest users. AI has become involved in almost every part of the employee’s work.
ByteDance, Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, and other major Chinese technology companies are encouraging workers to incorporate AI into their daily workflows. As a result, token allowances are beginning to function like corporate budgets. Employees must consider how they spend these resources, while token consumption can also signal their willingness and ability to use AI effectively.
The rapid expansion of token use is being supported by intense competition among China’s AI developers. Falling model prices are making large-scale AI deployment increasingly affordable. In May, Hangzhou-based AI company DeepSeek reduced the price of its flagship V4-Pro model by 75%, highlighting the aggressive effort to lower the cost of artificial intelligence.
This shift suggests that AI adoption within companies is moving beyond occasional experimentation. As models become cheaper to operate, tokens are developing into a measurable workplace resource that connects AI usage, operating costs, and employee AI literacy.
