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AI automation ROI calculator
What is repetitive work costing your team? Put a number on the time AI could give back, once someone has checked its work.
Your annual opportunity 46 weeks/year
368hours a year back for your team, after checking
- Comes back368 h
- Checking184 h
- Still done by hand598 h
AI takes 552 h a year off this work. Checking its output costs 184 h. Your team gets 368 h back.
- Value of the time back / year
- €16,560
- Running costs / year
- €1,800
A build that costs less than €14,760 pays for itself within a year.
Add a setup cost to see ROI and payback.
Checking takes back 33% of what AI saves here. That is where the people in the loop become the bottleneck. Checking by rule or by sample, instead of every item, is usually the biggest lever.
This scenario recovers time. Validate it with a before-and-after measurement on real work.
Assumptions behind this result
- Share of the work AI takes on
- 60%
- Checking, hours per person / week
- 1 h
- Expected adoption
- 80%
- Monthly running cost
- €150
Opens the contact form with these numbers filled in. Nothing is sent until you press send.
A capacity estimate, not guaranteed cash savings. Default inputs are illustrative. Results include 12 months of running costs.
A scenario to test against real work.
Enter the share of the work AI takes on and the time people will spend checking it, separately. The calculator nets one against the other, adjusts for adoption and deducts your running costs. Recovered capacity does not automatically become cash savings.
Read the ROI methodology →AI automation ROI: common questions
How is AI automation ROI calculated?
Time recovered is what AI takes off the work minus the time people spend checking its output, adjusted for adoption and valued at your hourly cost. First-year ROI = (annual value of time recovered − first-year costs) ÷ first-year costs × 100, where first-year costs are setup plus 12 months of running costs. This is a capacity estimate, not a forecast of cash savings.
Why does the calculator ask for checking time?
Because it decides whether automation pays. If AI does a six-minute task in seconds but each result needs two minutes of review, you get four minutes back, not six. Checking grows with volume, and the people doing it become the bottleneck. Most calculators fold it into one time-saved figure; this one shows it, so you can see what a better design of the checks is worth.
How do I estimate time savings from an AI agent?
Measure the workflow before and after on representative work. Enter the share of the work the system takes on and the time people spend checking its output as two separate numbers: the calculator nets one against the other. Then set adoption to the share of the work where the team actually uses it.
Which AI automation costs should I include?
Setup: discovery, integration, testing, training and change management. Running costs: software subscriptions, model or API usage, hosting and maintenance. People’s time spent checking the output goes in the checking field, not in costs, so it is not counted twice.
What is a good ROI or payback period?
There is no universal target. Compare your scenario with your own cost of capital, alternative projects and risk tolerance. Without a setup cost, the calculator shows the build budget that pays back within a year, which you can hold against a quote. It uses an undiscounted, steady annual run rate; if running costs exceed the value recovered, payback is not reached.
Can I use this for reporting, support or sales automation?
Yes. Model one workflow at a time, with its own team size, time spent and costs. The examples are starting points to edit, not industry benchmarks. Avoid double-counting shared staff time or platform costs when adding projects together.
Is this calculator free, and do you store my data?
The calculator is free, with no account or email required. Your numbers are processed in your browser and are not sent to Above. A scenario link keeps them after the # sign, which browsers do not send to servers. If you send us a scenario, it goes into the contact form and leaves your browser only when you press send. Calculator events in the site’s audience measurement contain only the language and the kind of interaction. See the privacy page for details.
Does a positive ROI mean the project is ready to launch?
No. Confirm output quality, data access, approval rules and ownership of exceptions. Validate the estimated time reduction with representative work, and include the effort required to keep the system useful.