Multiply how often each repeated task happens by how long it takes, assume AI takes over only part of it, and subtract the time you spend checking its work and the cost of the tools. Controlled studies found large gains on suitable tasks (40% less time on business writing, 25% faster consulting work, 56% faster on a coding task) and worse results on tasks outside AI's abilities, so start with frequent, clear, low-risk work.
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Share AI takes over starts at a cautious default from "clear steps" (40%, 25% or 10%). Change it if you have tested it.
| Number | How it is worked out |
|---|---|
| Hours now | Times a week × minutes each ÷ 60. Ten minutes, forty times a week, is nearly seven hours. |
| Hours back | Hours now × share AI takes over, minus your checking time (default 25% of the time saved). |
| Value | Hours back × 52 ÷ 12 × hourly cost, minus monthly tool costs. Payback = set-up hours × hourly cost ÷ monthly value. |
| Score /15 | The AI Opportunity Audit: frequency (monthly / weekly / daily), time (under 5 / 5–30 / over 30 min), clear steps, safety of a mistake and customer impact, 1–3 each. 12+ is a strong first candidate; safety 1 goes last. |
The default shares (40% for tasks with clear steps, 25% for mostly clear, 10% for judgement calls) are deliberately cautious assumptions, not research findings. Studies measured bigger gains on well-suited tasks, but real businesses lose time to setup, edge cases and checking.
Education, not legal, tax or financial advice. Estimates depend on your inputs; measure real hours before and after. Keep a person in charge of pricing decisions, legal, medical, tax or financial advice, hiring and your most important relationships.
This tool puts a few of the named techniques from The AI Advantage to work. Each line says how it relates to the tool.
See every technique in The AI Advantage →
On the right tasks, a lot: in a Science study, professionals using ChatGPT for business writing took 40% less time and produced 18% better-rated work; support agents with an AI assistant resolved 14% more issues per hour (34% for the newest agents); consultants did suitable tasks 25.1% faster; developers finished a coding task 55.8% faster. On a task outside AI's abilities, consultants using it were 19% less likely to produce a correct solution.
Score each repeated task 1–3 on frequency, time, how clearly you can write the steps, how cheap a mistake is and whether customers would notice. Totals of 12 or more out of 15 are strong first candidates. Anything where a mistake is expensive or hard to reverse goes last, whatever its score.
Pricing and discount decisions, anything that is legal, medical, tax or financial advice, hiring and firing decisions, and messages to your most important relationships. AI can draft and summarise for a person; a person decides.
Usually a few assistant seats plus an automation platform and some API usage. Set a hard monthly spending limit, use the smallest model that does the job, and compare the bill with the hours saved every month; switch off anything that costs more than it saves.
If you bill by the hour and AI halves your hours, you halve your revenue for the same result. Move towards fixed prices for outcomes or deliverables, so the client gets the speed and you keep the efficiency.
The scoring method, the default task list and the "what not to automate" list come from The AI Advantage (Part 3, the AI Opportunity Audit). The default shares are our cautious assumptions, not study results.