The Unexpected AI Food Bill
Could the new technology be the cause of the uptick in office food orders?
AI is certainly adding additional costs to most organizations’ technology budgets. But it may also be leaving a noticeable, if not jarring, mark on corporate meal and entertainment expenses.
That’s how one corporate-benefits firm is interpreting the recent massive jump in food orders delivered to offices. The number of client-related food orders placed on Saturdays more than doubled in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to Sharebite. Orders placed after 6 PM on weekdays and weekends rose 57% over that time, while overall user growth increased 36%. The firm’s CEO says that people are staying later at offices in order to learn or use AI, and as a result they’re expensing more meals to their employers.
AI’s rollout has produced time savings for numerous tasks, but it’s also led to some longer workdays, at least in some industries. In tech, employees are working around the clock to augment intelligence models in a multibillion-dollar race against competing firms. There’s also some evidence suggesting that AI is adding hours to the workday outside tech. “No one is working shorter hours, because it takes even longer to educate oneself on how to use AI,” says Chad Astmann, Korn Ferry’s co-head of global investment management. Indeed, work hours at a firm typically increase in the 6 months following AI adoption, according to an ActivTrak study of more than 10,000 workers. Another study, published earlier this year, found that employees who use AI take on a broader range of tasks and put in longer hours.
Of course, any AI-related meal expenses will likely be dwarfed by the costs of the hardware and software needed to implement the technology. Companies are expected to spend nearly 2% of their revenues on AI investments in 2026, up from less than 1% in 2025. The average revenue for an S&P 500 company is $350 billion. Most companies allow employees to expense up to $25 for a meal, often only for meals that fall outside traditional work hours.
However, while it might be trendy to attribute every new work-related development to AI, experts suggest that the surge in office food orders may be due to two mundane factors. For one, certain niches known for long hours have had big pickups, even amid an economy that’s plodding overall. Take finance, a sector that has traditionally covered employees’ late-night and weekend food expenses. The M&A market has been on fire of late: In the first quarter of 2026, worldwide M&A activity exceeded $1.2 trillion, a five-year high, according to market data provider LSEG. Money might be the currency of mergers, but they’re often fueled by bankers working long hours for weeks. “You usually have big groups involved, and it’s lots and lots of work on nights and weekends,” says Jeff Constable, leader of Korn Ferry’s Financial Officers practice in North America and office managing partner for the firm’s New York office.
Experts also point out that more people are working in the office than a year ago. Nearly two in five, 37%, of companies are mandating at least some office attendance in 2026, up from 17% in 2024, according to office-real-estate company CBRE. Inevitably, that has led to some group meetings or late-night meals for which the company picks up the tab. “If they were working from home, they’d potentially cook,” says Lisa Harrison, an associate client partner in Korn Ferry’s Healthcare advisory practice.
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