AI ROI Calculator

What this calculator measures

Most AI business cases fail because they count one kind of value and ignore the rest, then get argued down by a finance director who spots the gap. This calculator separates the return into four layers, because they carry very different levels of certainty and you should be honest with yourself about which is which.

• Layer 1 — time saved. Hours recovered × wage × 52. The most defensible number, and the one people most often overstate. Count only hours actually removed, not hours made slightly more pleasant.
• Layer 2 — direct cost savings. Software you can cancel, contractors you stop paying, overtime that disappears. This is real money and the easiest to verify after the fact.
• Layer 3 — mistakes prevented. Rework, refunds, missed deadlines, errors that reach a customer. Genuine value, harder to evidence. Use your actual incident history, not an estimate of how bad it could be.
• Layer 4 — new revenue enabled. Work you can now take on that you previously turned away. The largest number and the least certain — treat it as upside, not as the basis of the decision.

How to read the result

The total is an annual figure, and it is only as good as the inputs. Two sanity checks before you use it anywhere:

1. Does layer 1 survive a manager's scrutiny? Ask the person who does the work how many hours it really takes. The gap between what a process is assumed to cost and what it actually costs is usually large, and usually in the direction that helps you.
2. Would you still proceed at half the total? Implementation runs late and adoption is imperfect. If half the number still justifies the spend, the project is robust.

About the suggested fee range

The calculator shows 10–20% of total year-one value as a reference fee band. That is a common rule of thumb in value-based consulting, not a market rate or a benchmark, and we are not aware of any independent survey establishing it. Treat it as a way of noticing when a quote is wildly out of proportion to the value at stake — not as a number to quote back at anyone. For actual published rates, and a warning about who publishes them, see what AI consulting costs in 2026.

What this does not tell you

It does not tell you whether the project is technically feasible, how long it will take, or whether your data is in a fit state to support it. It is an arithmetic tool for framing a conversation, not a feasibility study. Run the readiness assessment next — a strong ROI number attached to a business that is not ready to implement is the single most common way this money gets wasted.