🧮 AI ROI & Human-in-the-Loop Calculator

Is AI actually saving your team money—or just shifting costs? Factor in the time humans spend fact-checking AI output and get the real answer.

The Formula

    Net Savings = (Human Time Saved × Hourly Rate) − (AI Subscription + Human Review Cost)
  

The "Reality Check" that separates hype from actual ROI.

Tasks per month

e.g. emails drafted, reports written, tickets answered

Human time per task without AI (min)

Human time per task with AI (min)

Time spent prompting + reviewing + fixing

Hourly rate ($)

Fully-loaded cost (salary + benefits + overhead)

AI subscription cost ($/month)

ChatGPT Team, Copilot, Claude Pro, API costs, etc.

Number of team members

AI ≠ Free: Subscriptions, API calls, and review time all add up
Human Review is Hidden Cost: Most teams underestimate the time spent fact-checking AI output
Real ROI Wins Budget: Show leadership hard numbers, not hype
Scale Changes Everything: A 5-minute save × 200 tasks = 16 hours freed per month

📧 Email Drafting

100 emails/mo, 45→10 min, $60/hr, $20 AI

📝 Report Writing

50 reports/mo, 60→15 min, $75/hr, $200 AI (3 people)

🎫 Support Tickets

500 tickets/mo, 15→3 min, $40/hr, $100 AI (5 agents)

💻 Code Reviews

30 PRs/mo, 120→30 min, $80/hr, $400 AI (2 devs)