The hidden AI cost driver: Harness design can make or break enterprise agent economics

A largely overlooked layer of the AI stack is emerging as a major driver of enterprise costs. New testing by AI consultancy Systima found that agent harnesses, the software that coordinates models, tools and workflows, can generate significant token overhead through their configuration alone, potentially inflating the cost of AI deployments as organizations scale agents from experimental pilots to production environments. The firm, which ran a series of tests by juxtaposing two harnesses on the