It's pretty simple: that usage in 5 min is probably at least $10 worth of API credits in that time (maybe $100).

A year has 2000 working hours, which is 24000 5-minute intervals. That means the company spending at least $240,000 on the Claude API (conservatively). So they would be better off having $100-200k you do nothing and hiring someone competent for that $240k.