Homepage draft for review · not live · figures illustrative · hero photo AI-generated, confirm rights

AI spend, made accountable

Your AI bill, explained on one page.

Who spent it, what it was for, and what it should have cost. A monthly AI statement your finance team can read, question and act on, without a single acronym.

A finance executive reviewing a printed report at her desk
AI statement · OctoberSample
Engineering$41,200 +12%
Customer support$18,650 +31%
HR$4,380 new
Unassigned keys$6,110 new
Total$70,340
$21,600 could run on lower-cost models
Mike Hiltz speaking on The Cyber Business Podcast Founder story Mike Hiltz on The Cyber Business Podcast, Ep 225Starts at 24:50 · about 3 min

Why we built RouteMeld

Organizations [are] burning through their AI token budgets much faster than expected.

Mike HiltzFounder, RouteMeld · CISO · former Army Ranger

Mike wanted to see exactly how his own people were using AI, so he bought a laptop and did the work himself. He hit usage limits, upgraded, hit them again, and upgraded again. Then he asked the question every executive should: if one person can spend like this, what happens when thousands do, and where is all that data going?

The budget
Use the flagship models for the tasks that genuinely require them.
What it means for youRoutine work stops paying premium prices.
The data
If a member of the HR team uploads a document for analysis that contains employee information... the data stays inside your perimeter.
What it means for youSensitive work goes only where you've approved it.
The accountability
If you imagine thousands of developers at a Fortune 500 company all doing what I was doing on my own, where is that data going?
What it means for youEvery AI dollar, and every data flow, has an owner.

Quotes from Mike Hiltz on The Cyber Business Podcast, Ep 225 (CyberLynx, July 2026), lightly trimmed.

Where the savings come from

Same work. Smaller bill. Every cut itemized.

Most AI spend goes to sending too much, to a bigger model than the job needs, at full price. Every saving comes with a receipt finance can check.

1
Right model for the jobA summary doesn't need the most expensive model.
2
Send lessFiles go as text, repeats bill at the cached rate.
3
Nothing hiddenEvery line ties back to your provider's invoice.
ReceiptSample
Summarize this 40-page PDF contract.
Sent as-is$0.9440 scanned pages sent as images to a top-tier model
Convert files to text−$0.55Scanned pages become text before they're sent
Right model for the task−$0.22A summary doesn't need the top tier
Right-size the answer−$0.05One-page summary with a set length
You pay$0.12

Illustrative prices. Your receipts use your providers' rates.

Your AI bill, decoded

Four things every executive should know about what they're paying for

No computer science required. Each one explains a line on your bill.

Tokens the unit you're billed in

A token is a word meter, and it runs both ways.

You pay for every word sent to the AI and every word it writes back. Ask six follow-up questions about a 40-page contract, and the whole contract can be billed six times.

You read
40 pp
You're billed
280 pp
On your billLong documents and long conversations are where costs hide.
Models who does the work

You wouldn't have a senior partner proofread a memo.

AI providers sell several models at very different prices. The top models often cost ten times or more per word than smaller ones, and most everyday work doesn't need them.

Small
$
Mid-tier
$$
Top tier
$$$$
On your billIf everything goes to the top tier, you're overpaying for routine work.
Agents AI that works on its own

Why the bill can jump overnight.

AI agents don't answer one question. They read whole folders, call tools and check their own work in loops. One engineer with an agent can spend in an afternoon what a team spends in a month.

Daily AI spend, one teamAgent days
On your billSpikes with no owner are the first thing to look for.
Seats vs. usage two ways you pay

Some AI is a subscription. Some is a meter.

Copilot and ChatGPT seats are a fixed monthly cost, whether people use them or not. API usage is a meter that keeps running. Most companies pay for both, and few track either against what it delivers.

Seats
fixed
Usage
rising
On your billUnused seats and unmetered keys are both money with no owner.

Free guide

The CFO's Guide to the AI Bill

A short, plain-English guide to what your company is spending on AI, where the money goes, and how to bring it under control. Written for finance and operations leaders, not engineers.

  • How to read an AI invoice, line by line
  • The five places AI spend hides, and how to find them
  • Ten questions to ask your teams this quarter
  • A one-page AI statement template you can use Monday

We'll email the guide and nothing else unless you ask. No spam, no sharing.

In plain English

We have the technology. You don't need the jargon.

Multi-provider token attributionMeansEvery AI dollar has a name and a team next to it.
Sensitivity-aware model routingMeansRoutine work costs less, and private data stays private.
Signed per-call audit ledgerMeansWhen auditors ask, the answer is already written down.

Who's behind it

Built by security and technology executives who've had to answer for the budget.

Mike Hiltz
Founder

Mike Hiltz

CISO and CIO in healthcare AI, including carrying a medical device through FDA 510(k) clearance. Army Ranger before that.

CISSP · CISM · CIPM · AIGP
Chris Conry
Co-founder

Chris Conry

Two-time CISO and four-time CIO, building and scaling security and technology programs across regulated industries.

SOC 1 · SOC 2 · ISO 27001 · HITRUST

See your own AI statement in 30 days.

We read the bills and usage your providers already report, inside your environment, and hand you one page: who spent what, on what, and what it should have cost.

Review notes · not part of the page

Mike, a few things to settle before this goes live

The video

It plays right on the page from your 24:50 segment and stops around 28:00. On the live site we'd load the player only when someone presses play, from YouTube's privacy-enhanced domain. Embedding the public video is fine; cutting our own clip would need CyberLynx's OK.

Your quotes

They come from CyberLynx's published transcript, which is lightly edited. Can you check them against what you said and approve the trims?

Your role at nference

The page doesn't name nference, so it won't read as a customer or an endorsement. Let's confirm you're comfortable being featured this way.

Message fit

In July you described catching prompts before they leave the network. The site today says we read the bills. The quotes work for both, but the data quote implies routing. Let's agree how much to promise.

Another line we could use

You said: "We have to get better at tying security investment to business outcomes." That's the business-first idea in your words, and could open the founders section.

The guide

The form is a placeholder on this draft and doesn't send anything. We'd need to write the guide (4 to 6 pages, both our names on it) and connect the form to the same backend as the early-access form, with a short privacy line.

Images

  • The hero photo is AI-generated; we'd confirm rights or regenerate it with a blank page.
  • A larger original of each headshot would sharpen the founders section.
  • All dollar figures are illustrative.