Learn · AI for leaders
What is one workflow worth?
Most people count the hours AI saves. Move the numbers yourself and see where the money usually is, and when it isn’t.
Free lesson, about five minutes. Updated
- Quotes sent now
- More quotes sent
- More jobs won
- Hours back
- 900 habout half a person
- Worth in hours
- $49,500at the hourly cost
- More quotes
- 00 more jobs won
- Work won
- $0at the margin per job
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1 PredictWhich is worth more in a year?
A team writes 1,200 quotes a year, 50 minutes each. AI drafts each one in 5 minutes for a person to check. One in three quotes wins a job worth $3,500 in margin, and the team’s time costs $55 an hour.
Pick one first. A guess that turns out wrong teaches the most.
Locked in. Now test it.
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2 TrySend more quotes
Move More quotes sent from 0% to 10%, and watch the squares and the figures.
- Hours
- $49,500
- Work won
- $0
Use your own numbers
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3 ObserveWere you right?
Commit to a prediction first.
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4 ExplainWhy does it come out this way?
Saved hours are worth what the team does with them. Here they go into quotes, and each quote is a chance at a $3,500 job. A small rise in quotes sent, at the same win rate, brings in more than the wages of the time saved.
That only holds if there is more work to quote, or if faster quotes win more often. With no extra demand, the hours are the whole value. That is why the hours are the figure to promise, and the work won is the upside.
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5 ApplyA new case
A claims team handles 400 insurance claims a month, 25 minutes each. AI brings that to 5 minutes, with a person checking every one. Where is the value?
Only if claims are waiting. Claims arrive at the rate they arrive, and handling more of them brings nothing new in. Unlike quotes, there is no work won here.
Right. Twenty minutes saved on each of 4,800 claims a year is 1,600 hours, close to a full person’s year, plus the cost of the mistakes that stop. Faster payouts can keep customers too, but promise the hours.
The check stays, and the value is still large: twenty minutes saved on each of 4,800 claims a year is 1,600 hours, close to a full person’s year.
The math behind the figure
- Hours back are quotes a year times the minutes saved on each, over 60.
- Worth in hours is the hours back times what an hour of the team costs, with pay, benefits and overhead.
- A person’s year is taken as 1,800 working hours.
- Work won is the extra quotes, times the share that win, times the margin per job. It counts only if there is more work waiting to quote, or if faster quotes win more often.
- Every figure here is a sample, not a client’s. In an assessment, each number comes from the people who do the work, and the figure we promise is the hours.
AI for leaders
Five lessons on what AI is, where the money is, and what has to be true first.
- 1Why does the same question get different answers?5 minutes
- 2What is one workflow worth?This lesson
- 3Why can’t AI answer questions about your own business?5 minutes
- 4Where does your data go when you ask AI?5 minutes
- 5What does AI cost to run?5 minutes