Most tech companies are buyers of AI, many are also sellers of AI in their own products, and a few are also building it.

Sure. But the ones who are “tokenmaxxing” (I hate that term) are generally maximizing their usage as consumers.

“Try and discover if/what new workflows or tools could use it” is something that’s supposed to be done by the companies selling a product so they can then convince people to buy and use it — not something that the buyers are supposed to do.