The ROI of one AI agent, worked out in the open
By Krish Subramanian, Chief AI Officer, KOI AI · Published · 3 min read
The return on an AI agent comes from one process: the time it consumes today, the share an agent takes over, and what that time costs fully loaded, set against a fixed fee. For a 12-person team spending half its time on one document-heavy process at $75K per person, the illustrative return is 2.7× to 5.4× in year one. Your number comes from your baseline, which is why KOI records it before work starts.
AI consulting earned its reputation for ROI claims the hard way: returns of 100× promised on a slide, and returns that depended on layoffs delivered in practice. The fix is not a smaller number. It is showing the arithmetic, naming the inputs, and letting the buyer put in their own. This is the calculation KOI uses on its pricing page, with every input exposed.
The five inputs
| Input | Illustrative value | Where yours comes from |
|---|---|---|
| People on the process | 12 | Headcount on the team that runs it |
| Share of their time on it | 50% | Time records, or an honest estimate from the team lead |
| Fully loaded cost per person | $75K | Salary, benefits, and overhead, from finance |
| Share of the work an agent takes over | 30–60% | KOI's planning range; the assessment estimates it per process |
| The fee | from $50K per use case | Fixed against the agreed metric |
The inputs to the worked example. Three are yours to know; two are KOI's.
The arithmetic
Read it top to bottom like a sum. People times share of time is the full-time equivalent on the process today. Times the automation share is the time freed. Times the loaded cost is the value of that time per year. Divided by the fee is the return in year one.
A 12-person operations team spends half its time on one manual, document-heavy process. Each person costs $75K fully loaded.
- Time spent on that process today
- 6 people, full time
- Share agents take over
- 30–60% of it
- Time freed
- 1.8–3.6 people, full time
- Fully loaded cost per person
- $75K
- Value per year, from one process
- $135K–$270K
- KOI implementation
- from $50K
- Return in year one
- 2.7× to 5.4×
about 4× at the midpoint
Illustrative. The value is time your team gets back, priced at what it costs you today; whether you redeploy it or bank it is your call. It recurs every year; the fee does not. Your numbers come from the assessment.
Run it with your numbers
- Time on the process today
- 6 people, full time
- Time freed at 30–60% automation
- 1.8–3.6 people, full time
- Value per year, from this one process
- $135K–$270K
- Return in year one, against a fee from $50K
- 2.7× to 5.4×
The value is time your team gets back, priced at what it costs you today. It recurs every year; the fee does not. Your real number comes from the baseline recorded in the assessment, not from this box.
Where the 30–60% comes from
The automation share is the one input a buyer cannot know in advance, so it matters where the range comes from. 30–60% is the planning range KOI uses for a documented, repeatable, document-heavy process in the first six months: the share of its hours an agent takes over once a person is reviewing drafts rather than producing them. KOI's published case studies show the spread on different measures: 31% fewer stockouts for a retailer, 51% faster research and drafting at a professional-services firm, 63% less compliance overhead at a lender. The assessment estimates the share for each of your processes before you commit to any.
What the return is, and is not
- ◆It is time your team gets back, priced at what it costs you today. Whether you redeploy it or bank it is your call. In the engagements behind the case studies, it went to residents, buyers, clients, and the judgment calls only people can make.
- ◆It is not headcount. KOI does not sell headcount replacement, and the fee is not tied to it.
- ◆It recurs. The value is per year; the implementation fee is paid once.
- ◆It leaves two things out: your approvers' time reviewing drafts, and the systems you already pay for. Both are real. The assessment puts them in your figures.
How the fee is set against the metric
Before work starts, one metric is agreed for the process, such as hours per week, cycle time, error rate, or stockouts, and the baseline is recorded from your own data. The fee is fixed against that metric. After launch you get a monthly report in the same numbers, and every agent action sits on a ledger you can audit, so the result is checked rather than claimed. The figures on this page are illustrative models. Yours comes from your baseline.