ROI Calculator for AI Automation

Before calculating ROI, understand the cost components:

Initial Investment • Discovery and design: Understanding your workflows • Development: Building the AI agent and integrations • Testing: Validating accuracy and handling edge cases • Training: Getting your team up to speed

Ongoing Costs • API/compute costs: Usually based on usage • Maintenance: Updates, fixes, improvements • Monitoring: Ensuring the agent performs correctly

Time savings is usually the largest ROI component.

Formula: Monthly Time Saved = (Tasks per month) × (Minutes saved per task)

Example: Support Ticket Triage • 500 tickets per month • 8 minutes saved per ticket (reading, categorizing, routing) • = 4,000 minutes = 67 hours saved monthly

Convert to dollar value: At $35/hour = $2,345/month in time savings

AI agents are consistent—they don't have bad days.

Formula: Error Reduction Value = (Current errors per month) × (Cost per error) × (Reduction rate)

Example: Data Entry • 50 errors per month in manual data entry • Each error costs $100 to find and fix • AI agent reduces errors by 80% • = 50 × $100 × 0.80 = $4,000/month saved

AI agents scale without proportional cost increases.

Human scaling: Double the volume = Double the headcount = Double the cost

AI scaling: Double the volume = Marginal API cost increase = Maybe 20% more

Growth ROI multiplier: If you expect 2× growth, your AI investment ROI doubles while human-only costs double.

Scenario: Lead Qualification Agent

Current state: • 200 inbound leads per month • Sales rep spends 15 min per lead on initial qualification • 30% of leads are junk (wasted time) • Sales rep cost: $50/hour

Current cost: 200 × 15 min × ($50/60) = $2,500/month

With AI agent: • Agent handles initial qualification 24/7 • Filters out 90% of junk leads • Sales reps only talk to qualified prospects • Time per lead drops to 5 min (just closing activities)

New cost: 140 qualified leads × 5 min × ($50/60) = $583/month

Monthly savings: $1,917 Annual savings: $23,000

If implementation costs $15,000, ROI is achieved in ~8 months.

Don't forget indirect benefits:

• Faster response times → Higher customer satisfaction → Better retention • 24/7 availability → Capture leads in off-hours → More revenue • Consistent quality → Better brand reputation → Easier sales • Employee satisfaction → Less burnout → Lower turnover costs • Data insights → Better understanding of patterns → Smarter decisions

These are harder to quantify but often exceed direct savings in value.