What's the ROI?

What's the ROI?

Imagine you ask your associate to analyze three years of quarterly earnings calls for changes in a company's capital deployment priorities. My former senior analyst many moons ago would say, "Here's some grunt work. Banking needs this ASAP. Sorry, Drew."

But let's see how life gets better using an AI tool.

Manual process:

- Select transcripts from (your favorite vendor): 2 minutes per transcript

- 12 transcripts x 2 minutes = 24 minutes

- Reading each transcript: about 25 minutes

- 12 transcripts x 25 minutes = 300 minutes (5 hours)

- CTRL+F for "capital": 17 times per transcript

- 12 transcripts x 17 CTRL+F searches = 204 CTRL+F searches (ugh)

- Add 2 hours for analysis, 2 for report writing and a spreadsheet, 30 minutes for final review

- Total: 9 hours 54 minutes

Current AI tools:

- Select transcripts from app: 1 minute per transcript

- 12 transcripts x 1 minute = 12 minutes

- AI processes all data: 8 minutes

- Human review: 1 hour (60 minutes)

- Total: 80 minutes (1 hour 20 minutes)

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Time saved: 9 hours 54 minutes - 1 hour 20 minutes = 8 hours 34 minutes

That's about an 86% reduction. (8.57 / 9.9 ≈ 0.86)

Next-gen AI projection (30 seconds processing + 1 hour review):

- Natural language prompt: 30 seconds

- AI processing: 30 seconds

- Human review: 1 hour

- Total: 1 hour 1 minute

Time saved compared to manual: 9 hours 54 minutes - 1 hour 1 minute = 8 hours 53 minutes

That's about a 90% reduction (8.88 / 9.9 ≈ 0.90)

Now, let's talk direct costs. Assuming an associate with 2 years of experience makes $120k annually (about $57.69/hour):

- Manual process cost: $571.13

- Current AI tools cost: $76.73

- Next-gen AI projection cost: $58.84

Note: These costs are based on time spent doing the job with each method.

Cost savings:

- Current AI tools save $494.40 per analysis (86.57% reduction)

- Next-gen AI could save $512.29 per analysis (89.70% reduction)

However, the ROI goes beyond just time and cost savings. Associates using AI tools benefit from the following:

- Less grunt work, more focus on insights

- Increased productivity and project diversity

- Reduced deadline stress

- Opportunities for higher-value contributions

- Better work-life balance

Ultimately, it's not just about saving time and money—it's about lightening the load on your team.