“The first draft took five minutes.” How long did it take to make that draft usable?
Start with a baseline. Record the effort needed for comparable tasks today, including preparation, checks, revisions and handovers. Define an acceptable quality standard.
Test AI on work of similar difficulty. Count the complete effort, including corrections. Include tool costs, setup and training when assessing financial value.
Here is an illustrative example. An article previously took 60 minutes to draft and 20 to review. With AI, drafting takes 20 minutes but review takes 35. Total effort falls from 80 to 55 minutes, saving 25 minutes if the finished work meets the same standard.
Across 12 articles, that releases five hours of capacity. A cash saving depends on how that capacity is used.
Track the outcome that matters: factual errors, revision rounds, successful bookings or resolved enquiries. For revenue or conversion changes, use a comparable control group where feasible before crediting AI.
Review repeated use rather than relying on a demonstration. Record what improved, what became harder and whether the improvement holds.