I've played multiple games this year where the AI has called timeouts in the first half with just under 16, 12, and 8 minutes instead of waiting for the media timeout. I never see any coaches in real life burn three timeouts in the first half.

The AI is taking them most likely to stop the momentum from your team. I will have a look at the code though and see if we can make the AI judge better on whether or not they're close enough to the media timeout to burn one or if they are better off waiting it out