Measure an AI workflow pilot without inflating the savings
Published October 16, 2026
An original operational worksheet covering handling time, rework, quality and a cautious decision rule for expansion.
Download article and templates (Markdown)Measure the whole workflow
Saving time on a first draft is not the same as saving time on a finished business task. Include preparation, prompting, checking, corrections, handoff and any later rework. Keep the volume and task difficulty comparable between the baseline and pilot.
Worked example: internal meeting summaries
A fictional team prepares 80 summaries per month. The baseline takes 20 minutes per completed summary. During a small AI-assisted pilot, preparation takes three minutes, drafting two minutes, review seven minutes and corrections three minutes: 15 minutes total.
If that difference holds, the potential capacity saving is 80 x 5 = 400 minutes, about 6.7 hours monthly. At a chosen planning rate of USD 40 per hour, the time has an estimated value of about USD 267. Subtract a hypothetical USD 80 monthly licence and USD 40 recurring administration cost to get about USD 147 of modeled monthly value. These are illustrative assumptions, not EAIRI pricing or a savings promise.
The saved hours are not automatically cash savings. They become useful only if the team can redirect that capacity, avoid overtime or improve another measured outcome. One missed action item could outweigh the drafting benefit, so pair speed with quality.
Copy this pilot record
Workflow, owner and pilot dates:
Comparable task count:
Baseline finished-task time:
Pilot preparation / drafting / review / correction time:
Error rate and severity before / after:
Rejected or escalated outputs:
Recurring licence and administration cost:
One-time setup and training effort:
Observed benefit versus assumed benefit:
Expand / revise / stop, with reason:
Decide before scaling
For this fictional pilot, a reasonable pre-agreed gate might require no critical missed decisions, a lower median total handling time and no increase in correction backlog. Review outliers as well as the average. Compare similar meetings and do not exclude failed AI runs from the pilot's time measurement.
Keep one person accountable for checking decisions and owners against the original meeting record. Apply consent and recording policies before using any transcription tool. Revisit the model when task volume, staffing, tool pricing or output quality changes.
Sources and review
Reviewed October 16, 2026. Worksheet, figures and decision gates are original EAIRI examples, not investment advice or guaranteed ROI. Risk-based evaluation context: NIST AI RMF.