{"head":{"title":"AI Automation ROI Calculator: Payback Time | OceanLab","description":"Work out the payback period and 3-year net saving of automating a task with AI, from your own task time, volume, staff cost and build budget.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/tools/ai-automation-roi"},"tool":{"slug":"ai-automation-roi","path":"/tools/ai-automation-roi","name":"AI automation ROI","h1":"AI automation ROI calculator","lede":"Put in one task your team does by hand and see the monthly saving, the payback period and the net result over three years.","category":"decisions","categoryTitle":"Plan and decide","method":["Hours saved per month = minutes per task × tasks per month × the share AI can take on ÷ 60.","Gross monthly saving = hours saved × loaded hourly cost. Net monthly saving subtracts the monthly running cost (model usage, hosting, monitoring).","Payback = build cost ÷ net monthly saving. Net over the horizon = net monthly saving × months − build cost. If running costs are equal to or above the saving, the build never pays back.","The 50% automatable share is a placeholder. Measure it on a pilot: reviewing AI output usually still takes some human time."],"sources":[],"faq":[{"question":"What is a loaded hourly cost?","answer":"Salary plus benefits, taxes, equipment and overhead, divided by productive hours. It is higher than the hourly wage."},{"question":"How much of a task can AI automate?","answer":"It depends on the task. Measure it on a small pilot rather than guessing; the default of 50% is only a starting point."},{"question":"Why can payback be 'never'?","answer":"If the monthly running cost is equal to or higher than the monthly saving, the build cost is never paid back."},{"question":"Is anything I enter sent anywhere?","answer":"No. The tool runs in your browser and there is no sign-up. Nothing leaves the page unless you choose to email your result to OceanLab."}],"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"},"related":[{"href":"/tools/llm-api-cost-calculator","label":"LLM API cost","detail":"Enter your monthly tokens and the input, cached and output mix, and compare what each model would cost."},{"href":"/tools/build-vs-buy","label":"Build vs buy","detail":"Compare SaaS seats with a custom build year by year, find the break-even point, and check the reasons that are not about cost."},{"href":"/tools/software-development-cost","label":"Software development cost","detail":"Pick the features and platform, check the rates, and get a cost and timeline range you can take to any vendor."}],"studies":[{"meta":{"slug":"tallyman","industry":"ai","projectType":"Document processing (IDP)","country":"nl","tags":["ai","enterprise"],"compliances":["EU AI Act","GDPR","Union Customs Code","CN and TARIC","ISO 6346","Incoterms 2020","eFTI Regulation","EN 16931 and Peppol"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/tallyman/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Tallyman - Intelligent Document Processing for Trade and Customs Documents","description":"Designed and built a clickable document processing platform for a Rotterdam freight forwarder and customs representative: it classifies commercial invoices, packing lists, bills of lading, air waybills and certificates of origin, extracts each field with a confidence score, checks it against business rules and sends only the uncertain fields to a person in a side-by-side review workspace.","category":"AI & Automation / Document Processing","client":"Merwedijk Forwarding B.V."}}},{"meta":{"slug":"sanbuk","industry":"ai","projectType":"Back-office agent","country":"ae","tags":["ai","enterprise"],"compliances":["UAE VAT","FTA tax invoice rules","UAE e-invoicing (Peppol)","UAE Corporate Tax records","UAE PDPL","UAE and UN sanctions lists","OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications","UAE AI Charter","ISO/IEC 42001"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/sanbuk/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Sanbuk - Accounts Payable Agent with an Operator Console and Approval Gates","description":"Designed and built a clickable back-office agent for a Dubai mainland distributor: it reads the AP and vendor mailboxes, matches invoices to POs and goods receipts, checks UAE tax invoice fields, drafts replies and posts to the ERP, while people approve by amount, see every tool call and handle every bank detail change themselves.","category":"AI Agents & Automation / Back-Office Agent","client":"Ghafline Distribution LLC"}}},{"meta":{"slug":"pahana","industry":"support","projectType":"AI support agent","country":"lk","tags":["ai","enterprise"],"compliances":["PDPA (Sri Lanka)","Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/pahana/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Pahana - Trilingual AI Support Agent with Safe Human Handoff","description":"Designed and built the staff console for a trilingual AI support agent at a Colombo telecom operator: a dashboard of containment and satisfaction, every conversation with its tool calls and guardrail events, a live monitor where team leads take over a chat, and a handoff queue that makes sure no customer passed to a person is lost.","category":"Customer Support / AI Support Agent","client":"Randiya Telecom"}}},{"meta":{"slug":"quillon","industry":"clinics","projectType":"AI clinical scribe","country":"nz","tags":["healthcare","ai","enterprise"],"compliances":["Privacy Act 2020","HIPC 2020","HDC Code of Rights","Health NZ AI guidance","MCNZ AI guidance","Health Retention Regulations 1996","HISO 10029","Māori Data Sovereignty","SNOMED CT NZ"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/quillon/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Quillon - AI Clinical Scribe That Drafts the Note and Leaves the Clinician in Charge","description":"Designed and built a clickable ambient AI scribe for a network of 14 New Zealand general practices: consent before recording, a structured draft note with every uncertain item flagged, SNOMED CT code and follow-up suggestions, approve and push to the practice management system, and an admin console for safety, retention and quality review.","category":"Healthcare / AI Clinical Scribe","client":"Rimu Downs Health Network"}}},{"meta":{"slug":"kaganek","industry":"ai","projectType":"RAG knowledge assistant","country":"pl","tags":["ai","enterprise"],"compliances":["GDPR","EU AI Act","ISO/IEC 27001","ISO/IEC 42001","Polish labour law"],"cover":{"src":"/case-studies/kaganek/01-home.png","width":1440,"height":1000}},"text":{"en":{"title":"Kaganek - RAG Knowledge Assistant with Citations and Permissions Intact","description":"Designed and built a clickable internal knowledge assistant for a Kraków consulting engineering firm: staff ask in Polish or English and get answers built only from the firm's own SharePoint, Confluence, Google Drive and file share documents, with every claim linked to its source passage and an honest \"I don't know\" when the sources are weak.","category":"AI Agents & Automation / Knowledge Assistant","client":"Modrzew Engineering"}}}],"more":[{"href":"/case-studies/industry/ai","label":"AI agents & automation case studies","detail":"Every OceanLab product build in AI agents & automation."},{"href":"/case-studies","label":"All case studies","detail":"Every OceanLab product build."},{"href":"/ai-automation","label":"AI automation","detail":"AI built into real business workflows, with people in charge."}],"today":"2026-10-25"}