Calculating ROI

The Time-to-Value formula

Here is the core formula. It is simple on purpose — a number leadership can understand and interrogate in a five-minute conversation.

Annual AI Value = (Hours saved per week x Fully loaded hourly cost x 52 weeks) - Annual AI cost

Let's define each term:

Hours saved per week: How many hours does this workflow currently take per week, multiplied by the percentage you conservatively expect AI to save. If a task takes 10 hours/week and you estimate 50% savings, that is 5 hours saved per week.

Fully loaded hourly cost: Not just salary. Include benefits, office space, technology, and overhead. A rule of thumb for financial services: take the annual compensation and multiply by 1.3-1.5 to get fully loaded cost, then divide by 2,000 (working hours per year). A $200K associate fully loaded is roughly $130-150/hour.

Annual AI cost: Enterprise licence ($20-60/user/month x 12 months) plus your share of implementation, training, and integration costs in Year 1.

Worked example — due diligence workflow

Let's run the numbers on a workflow your firm probably does: the first draft of a due diligence memo.

Current state:

• An associate spends ~8 hours producing a first-draft DD memo
• Your team produces roughly 3 DD memos per week across the group
• Total weekly time: 24 hours

With AI assistance (conservative estimate):

• AI handles the document review, extraction, and first-draft structuring
• Associate reviews, adds judgment, and finalises: ~3 hours per memo
• Time saved per memo: 5 hours
• Total weekly savings: 15 hours

The calculation:

• Hours saved per week: 15
• Fully loaded hourly cost (senior associate): $140/hour
• Annual value of time saved: 15 x $140 x 52 = $109,200
• Annual AI cost (5 users at $40/month + $10K implementation share): $12,400
• Net annual value: $96,800

That is the ROI on a single workflow for one team. And we used conservative assumptions — 62% time savings, not 80%.

Understanding the full cost

A credible ROI calculation does not hide costs. Here is what to include:

Direct costs (easy to quantify):

Implementation costs (Year 1 only):

Ongoing costs:

Year 1 total for a team of 10: roughly $25,000-$75,000 depending on integration complexity.

Ongoing annual cost: roughly $15,000-$50,000.

The range is wide because it depends on whether you need enterprise integrations (Category 3 from Module 5) or can start with AI assistants and team infrastructure (Categories 1 and 4).

Quantifying value — beyond time savings

Time savings are the easiest to measure, but they are not the only source of value. Your ROI calculation is stronger when it includes multiple value drivers.

1. Time savings (primary — quantify this) Hours saved x fully loaded cost. You already calculated this.

2. Capacity increase (secondary — estimate this) If your team can produce DD memos in 3 hours instead of 8, they can handle more deals without adding headcount. If your deal flow is constrained by team capacity, this translates directly to revenue.

3. Error reduction (supporting — mention this) AI is systematic. It reads every page of a 200-page document, not just the pages you had time for. Fewer missed risks, fewer surprises in due diligence, fewer compliance oversights.

4. Speed advantage (strategic — frame this) In competitive situations — auctions, time-sensitive mandates — the firm that produces analysis fastest has an edge. A DD memo in one day instead of three is a competitive weapon, not just an efficiency gain.

Your turn — calculate ROI for your #1 workflow

Take your highest-VALUE-scored workflow from Module 4 and run the numbers.

Step 1: Current state

• How many hours does this workflow take per instance? ___
• How many instances per week (across the team)? ___
• Total weekly hours: ___

Step 2: AI-assisted estimate

• What percentage of time do you conservatively expect to save? (Use 40-60% for document-heavy work, 20-40% for judgment-heavy work)
• Hours saved per week: ___

Step 3: Value

• Fully loaded hourly cost of the person doing this work: ___
• Annual value: hours saved x hourly cost x 52 = ___

Step 4: Cost

• Number of users who need AI access for this workflow: ___
• Annual licence cost: users x $40/month x 12 = ___
• Year 1 implementation share: ___
• Total Year 1 cost: ___

Step 5: Net value

• Year 1 net value: Annual value - Year 1 cost = ___
• Ongoing net value: Annual value - Ongoing cost = ___

Write these numbers down. They go directly into Section 4 of your readiness report.

The 'one associate' test

If the formula feels too abstract, use this sanity check.

A senior associate at a financial services firm costs roughly $200,000-$400,000 per year fully loaded. Enterprise AI licences cost $240-$720 per user per year.

If AI saves just 20% of one associate's time, that is $40,000-$80,000 in recaptured capacity — against a licence cost of under $1,000.

That is a 40-80x return on the licence alone. Even after implementation costs, the ROI is overwhelming.

The question is not whether AI is worth it. The question is which workflows to apply it to first and how quickly you can get teams productive.

This framing works well with leadership because it is intuitive, conservative, and impossible to argue against. One person. Twenty percent. Forty thousand dollars. Against a thousand-dollar licence.

Conservative vs optimistic — and common mistakes

Your readiness report should present two scenarios: conservative and optimistic. This gives leadership a range instead of a single number they can dismiss.

Conservative projection:

• Use the lower end of your time-savings estimate (e.g., 40% instead of 60%)
• Include full Year 1 costs including implementation
• Count only direct time savings — no capacity or speed-advantage claims
• This is your "worst realistic case"

Optimistic projection:

• Use the higher end of your time-savings estimate
• Use ongoing costs (Year 2+, no implementation)
• Include capacity increase value (more deals with same headcount)
• Mention speed advantage qualitatively

Common mistakes to avoid:

1. Counting only cost savings. "We can eliminate 2 headcount." This creates fear and resistance. Instead: "We can handle 30% more deal flow with our current team."
2. Ignoring the learning curve. Month 1-2 will show lower productivity as people learn. Your ROI timeline should show break-even at Month 3-4, not Month 1.
3. Forgetting speed-to-market value. If your firm competes on speed — and most do — a DD memo in one day instead of three has strategic value that dwarfs the hourly cost savings. Mention it, even if you cannot put a precise number on it.
4. Presenting a single number. A range is more credible than a point estimate. "We expect $60,000-$120,000 in annual value" is more believable than "$87,432."

What you have built

You now have a defensible ROI calculation for your top workflow. This includes:

• Current-state baseline (hours per week)
• Conservative time-savings estimate
• Fully loaded cost calculation
• Annual value vs annual cost
• The "one associate" sanity check

Carry these numbers into Module 7. They become Section 4 of your readiness report.