Guide
Is AI worth it for your business?
It’s worth it if the wages on repetitive work are bigger than the cost to build and run the replacement. Work it out: hours a week, times 52, times what an hour costs you with on-costs. Then count only the hours that really come out. If the answer’s small, don’t build it.
By Matt Laycock and Zayn Pike. Updated 4 November 2026.
The sum
List the repetitive work by function
Whole functions, not single tasks. Estimating, project admin, compliance, accounts. Start with your dearest people.
Work out what an hour costs
Base pay plus about 30% in on-costs, over about 1,976 paid hours a year. A $122,000 estimator costs about $80 an hour.
Multiply it out
Hours a week, times 52, times that hourly cost.
Count only what really comes out
Someone still has to check the work, so not every hour goes.
Take off what it costs to run
AI usage, hosting and someone to look after it. Put it on the same page as the saving.
A worked example
Sample figures for a business of about 80 people. Hourly cost includes on-costs.
| Repetitive work | Hours a week | Cost an hour | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project and contract admin | 50 | $85 | $221,000 |
| Estimating and quoting | 60 | $80 | $249,600 |
| Compliance, safety and insurance | 40 | $75 | $156,000 |
| Accounts, payroll and month end | 70 | $60 | $218,400 |
| Can be automated | 220 | $845,000 |
That’s what the work costs. It isn’t the saving. Not every hour comes out, so we’d count 65% of project admin, 70% of compliance and 75% of accounts, rounded to the thousand:
| Build | Share that comes out | Saved a year |
|---|---|---|
| Project admin agent | 65% | $144,000 |
| Compliance agent | 70% | $109,000 |
| Accounts agent | 75% | $164,000 |
| Saved, before running costs | $417,000 |
Quoting hours don’t count as a saving here, because they go into winning more work: 10 extra jobs a week, times $1,000 margin, times 45 trading weeks, is $450,000. We keep that apart from the $417,000. A saving is something you can hold someone to, and extra margin is a target.
What most sums leave out
- On-costs. Super, leave and insurance add about 30% to base pay.
- Hours that don’t come out. Fifteen minutes saved across six people rarely takes a cost off the books.
- Running costs. AI usage, hosting and support are real, and they grow with volume.
- Mistakes. One mistyped number becomes a wrong order, a wrong invoice or a wrong pay run, and someone fixes it twice.
- What walks out the door. When your longest-serving person leaves, what they know usually goes too.
When it’s not worth it
- There aren’t many wages on repetitive work.
- The job changes every time and needs real judgement.
- Nobody can explain how the job is done.
- A simple rule or a cheap tool would do it. RAND’s interviews describe projects that never needed AI at all.
- The problem’s still too hard for AI.
If that’s you, keep your money. If you’re not sure, what AI can automate might surprise you, and the audit settles it with your own numbers.
Sources
Next step
The infrastructure gap is costing you more than you think.
The businesses pulling ahead aren’t working harder. They’re running on better infrastructure. We build it, you own it, and it compounds. 15 minutes with a founder, no slides. If there’s no saving worth chasing, we’ll tell you.
Questions, answered first
How do I work out what an hour of staff time costs?
Take base pay, multiply by 1.3 for on-costs and divide by about 1,976 paid hours. A $91,000 role comes to about $60 an hour.
What if it saves time but nobody leaves?
Then it’s only a saving if those hours go somewhere that makes money, like winning more work. Count it as extra margin, and treat it as a target rather than a saving.
Is AI worth it for a small business?
Usually as a subscription and a tidy process. Custom AI pays when real wages sit on repetitive work. If they don’t, we’ll tell you.
What return should I expect from AI?
There’s no honest universal number. Ask to see the sum for your business, with the rates shown, and check it yourself. We won’t take a build unless it saves significant money.
What does custom AI cost?
We price each build after the audit, against what it saves you, so we don’t publish prices.