Interactive business calculator
AI automation savings calculator
Estimate in 30 seconds how many work hours and how much money AI automation could release for your business compared to your current manual processes.
AI savings calculator
Estimate released work hours and cost savings.
Important: this online calculation is indicative and does not constitute a quotation. Final scope, delivery schedule and fees are determined after detailed project discovery.
What the result means — and what it doesn’t
What the number includes
The portion of your team’s weekly manual work that we consider realistically automatable (72% by default), multiplied by the loaded hourly cost and 46 working weeks. This is the released annual gross resource in money.
What it doesn’t include
It excludes the one-off implementation cost (shown separately), licence and API fees, and the organisational learning time. It is not a quotation — final scope is confirmed during discovery.
What drives the ROI of AI automation?
Four factors decide whether an AI project pays back in months or years. The calculator projects each one onto your own figures.
1. Volume of manual work
The more people do it, and the more they do, the bigger the prize. A 5-person team with 6 weekly hours of repetitive work spends roughly 1,380 hours per year — 60–80% of that is typically automatable.
2. Fully loaded hourly cost
Not the gross salary but the fully loaded cost: salary + employer taxes + tools + office + management overhead. An employee on a €2,000 gross monthly salary usually costs €14–18 per fully loaded hour.
3. Automatable share
Structured, rule-based work (invoice capture, quote generation, reporting) is 80–90% automatable. Creative or negotiation-heavy work sits at 30–50%. The calculator uses 72% — a realistic average for a mixed portfolio.
4. One-off implementation cost
A typical SME project starts between €2,300 and €10,000 depending on process complexity. Payback usually happens in 3–9 months — after that, the saving is pure benefit.
Three real examples from mid-market SMEs
The figures below come from anonymised client projects and public industry data. Your numbers will differ — that is exactly why the calculator lets you run your own inputs.
Trading company, 12 employees
Incoming email orders, invoicing, stock updates. 8 weekly hours × 3 people of manual work.
- Annual saving: ~€16,000
- Implementation: €7,200
- Payback: 5–6 months
Professional-services firm, 6 people
Email triage, proposal drafts, document extraction. 10 weekly hours × 4 people.
- Annual saving: ~€18,500
- Implementation: €8,800
- Payback: 6–7 months
Manufacturer/wholesaler, 25 employees
Request-for-quote handling, supplier data normalisation, shop-floor reporting. 5 weekly hours × 8 people.
- Annual saving: ~€25,000
- Implementation: €10,800
- Payback: 5–6 months
When it isn’t worth it
If the process consumes fewer than 20 total hours a month, or the rule-set changes significantly every year, a dedicated AI build takes longer to pay back. Consider a ready AI agent or a lower-entry option instead.
Five common misconceptions about AI ROI
“It only pays off for large enterprises.”
The opposite is true. In an SME a process usually involves a handful of people — easy to map and automate. In a large enterprise the same rollout drags on for months of internal alignment.
“AI replaces people.”
In practice the existing team becomes scalable: the same headcount handles 2–3× the workload. Growth instead of layoffs — that is the real ROI driver.
“A ChatGPT subscription is enough.”
A public chatbot has no visibility into your systems, data or customer history. Business ROI comes from integrated automation on your own data — not from using generic AI tools.
“It’s changing too fast to invest now.”
Models change — your business processes don’t. A well-designed automation is built so the underlying model is replaceable. The real cost of waiting: €1,000–€2,500 in missed monthly savings per medium project.
Ten questions to answer before you request a quote
- Which three processes consume the most weekly manual hours?
- Which team member is “irreplaceable” for an admin step? (They are the best automation target.)
- Where does the data for the process live — ERP, CRM, email, spreadsheets, paper?
- How structured are the inputs — templated emails or free-text requests?
- What decisions does the process make, and are they written down as rules?
- What is the cost of error — if the AI is wrong 5% of the time, is that survivable or catastrophic?
- Who owns the project on your side (not IT — the head of the affected function)?
- Are there written work instructions, or is it “we just do it this way”?
- Which KPI should automation improve — cycle time, error rate, capacity, customer experience?
- What budget can you commit to the first rollout, and what payback horizon do you expect?
Frequently asked questions
How much does AI automation cost to implement?
A typical SME project starts between €2,300 and €10,000. A simple single-process rollout is €2,300–€4,500; a multi-system, workflow-transforming project is €6,500–€13,000. Exact cost depends on process complexity and the number of systems to integrate.
How quickly does an AI project pay back?
Realistic payback is 3 to 9 months if the process consumes at least 15–20 total work hours per week and the loaded hourly cost is above €12. The calculator maps this to your own numbers.
Does AI really automate 72% of the work?
It is the empirical average of a mixed portfolio. Structured, rule-based work (invoice capture, categorisation, reporting) reaches 85–95%; creative or judgement-heavy tasks 30–50%. The calculator uses a conservative midpoint.
Which processes should be automated first?
Three criteria: (1) high volume — many hours across several people, (2) repetitive pattern — describable as a rule, (3) structured data — email, PDF, form. Typical fits: quote generation, incoming order handling, email classification, data normalisation.
Do we need our own development team?
No. We deliver the implementation turnkey. You only need a business owner familiar with the process. Operations can run under our SLA or be handed to your IT team.
How is this different from ChatGPT or a generic chatbot?
A generic chatbot cannot access your ERP, CRM, invoicing or document systems and does not decide by your business rules. Integrated AI automation works on your own data and inside your existing workflows — that is what produces measurable ROI.
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Next step
Save your calculator result as PDF and send it with a short process description. The first meeting will start from concrete numbers and your own workflows — not from generalities.
Request project discoveryWhat to expect from the first call
30 minutes, video call, no obligation. We walk through your process, identify the fastest-payback point, and — if it fits — send you a written proposal within a week.