AI · May 26, 2026

The Cognitive Tax: How Information Overload Inflates Your TCO

What a CMS really costs once you count training, workarounds and abandoned projects, and whether AI changes the success rate.

Blood, Sweat & Tokens S01E03: The Cognitive Tax: How Information Overload Inflates Your TCO

Total cost of ownership is the number nobody puts in the CMS pitch deck. Sean and I talk about what a CMS implementation actually costs once you count the training, the workarounds and the abandoned projects, and whether AI tooling changes the success rate.

From there it turns into a conversation about information overload: fragmented communication, too many surfaces, and what a natural-language approach to previewing and managing content could do about it. Also the first look at the prototypes we are building between recordings.

Listen to episode 3 on bloodsweatandtokens.xyz, or watch it on YouTube.


Taylor’s career started in Lexington, KY designing and developing big-name collegiate athletic sites like ukathletics.com and texassports.com. Later, while working at Creative Department in Cincinnati, he pushed his analytical side, working on brands like Tide, Macy’s and LexisNexis.

Taylor joined the Ample partnership in 2014 and in his role as our Chief Technology Officer has pushed our company and clients to the next level. As chief JAMstack evangelist, Taylor has a passion for simple, battle-tested architectural solutions that drive down costs and increase confidence for our clients.