Practical advice
Include checking time in your AI business case
Avoid inflated savings estimates by counting the human review, maintenance and exception handling a workflow still needs.
The practical answer
Start with this principle
AI-assisted work is not free once the first draft appears. A useful business case includes setup, checking, corrections, subscriptions and ongoing ownership.
Do this in order
Three steps you can use today
Map the new process
Write every remaining human step beside the automated ones. Include reviews, approvals, failed runs and the work needed to keep instructions current.
Use a realistic correction rate
Test a sample and record how often staff edit or reject the output. Do not assume the cleanest demonstration represents daily use.
Compare complete monthly costs
Put staff time, software, support and maintenance on the same period. Recheck the figures after the workflow has been live long enough to settle.
Copy and adapt
Honest ROI calculation
Task: ........................................................
Before
Times per week ....... x minutes each ....... = ....... minutes
After
Times per week ....... x minutes each ....... = ....... minutes
PLUS review and correction time ....... minutes
PLUS time spent fixing it when it goes wrong ....... minutes
Real weekly saving = before minus (after + review + fixing)
A saving that ignores the review step is not a saving, it is a forecast.