Hello!

So... is this AI thing actually saving you time, or are you just adding another tool to manage?

You've probably spent money on ChatGPT, Copilot and other AI tools.

You think it's helping you do more and be more effective. But you can't prove it.

And that uncertainty is costing you - either in wasted spend on tools you barely use, or missed opportunities because you can't see what's working.

Here's a 5-minute formula to help you know exactly what AI is worth to you.

The problem with guessing

Right now, you're probably using AI sometimes, skipping it other times, never quite sure if it's faster than just doing it yourself.

You open ChatGPT.

↳ Stare at the blank prompt box.

↳ Ask it to help you with something.

↳ Get a mediocre result.

↳ Spend 20 minutes editing it.

↳ Think to yourself "that would've been faster to just write on my own".

Or worse: You get a brilliant result one day, but can't recreate it the next. So you stop trusting it for anything important.

Meanwhile, your finance director is asking about the AI budget, your team is split between true believers and complete skeptics, and you're stuck in the middle with no data to back up either side.

Without measurement, you either:

• Abandon AI too early and miss out on tens (hundreds?) of thousands of £££ in annual savings, or
• Keep paying for tools that don't pay back, wasting £2k/year per tool.

And when someone asks "What's the ROI on these AI tools?" - you've got nothing.

That ends today.

The formula is stupidly simple

ROI = (Time saved per use × uses per month × your hourly rate) - monthly tool cost

That's it. No advanced maths. Just time, rate, and cost.

Let me show you with one example from my own experience:

Task: Weekly team update
​Before: 3 hours every Friday
​After: 12 minutes with a saved template and some light editing
​Time saved: 2 hours 48 minutes per week = ~11.5 hours/month
​Your hourly rate: £75
​Monthly value: £862.50
​Tool cost: £<20 (ChatGPT and a simple automation built with n8n)
​Net ROI: £840/month or £10,000/year from ONE habit

Setup took around an hour. I had to refine it a few times at first - probably adding another hour in total to set up time.

But it paid for itself in the first use.

And that's obviously not the only thing I'm using ChatGPT for.

Here's what I found when I actually measured

I tracked my AI use for 30 days. Here's what three habits saved me:

Total savings of 2,740/month = £32,880/year

My AI tool spend: £40/month (ChatGPT Plus, n8n, fathom.video)

Net ROI: £2,700/month or £32,400/year from three habits.

Before I measured, I thought I was "using AI pretty well".

The data showed I was leaving £32k+ on the table.

Here's what measurement actually does: It turns AI from "something I should probably use more" into "the first tool I reach for".

Once I saw that £840 from the weekly update habit, I started looking at every repetitive task differently.

Meeting prep? Measurable.

Email responses? Measurable.

Research briefs? Measurable.

That's how you go from one template to five in three months. Not because you suddenly got better at AI - because you could see what was working.

Here's the reality: Each system took me around an hour to set up - sometimes less, sometimes a bit more.

And I had to refine and improve things as I tested them.

Call it 3 hours all-in per system.

For example, with the weekly update template, I tweaked it three times before it consistently gave me what I needed.

The first version was too verbose. The second version missed key details. The third version nailed the structure but the tone was off.

By version four, it was reliably good enough that I stopped thinking about it.

That's the pattern: rough first draft, test it, fix what's broken, test again.

Not instant perfection - but fast enough payback that the iteration is worth it.

But even with that setup time, all three paid for themselves in the first week. And now they just work.

This isn't about perfect systems on day one. It's about measuring what works, improving what doesn't, and letting the compound effect do the heavy lifting.

But most people won't approach this kind of thing systematically.

They won't spend 3 hours to set up a system that will save them 3 hours or more per week from then on.

Your 5-minute challenge

You don't need to track five habits like I did.

Start with one. Pick the weekly task that annoys you most.

The thing you do every week that feels like it should be faster. The thing that makes you groan when you think about having to do it.

Calculate its ROI. If it's saving you £200/month, build the template. If it's not, try a different task.

Pick ONE task you do with AI (or could do with AI).

Calculate its ROI using the formula above:

1. Time saved per use
2. How many times per month
3. Your hourly rate
4. Subtract your tool cost

Don't overthink it. Use rough numbers. The goal is clarity, not precision.

Once you see £500 saved in week one, you'll hunt for the next habit. That's how teams go from skeptical to systematic.

Stop guessing. Start measuring.

What's one task where you think AI is saving you time but haven't measured? Hit reply—I read every one.

Have fun out there,
Andy

P.S. For more simple systems that you can implement immediately, join my Practical AI Jumpstart online course and community, where I'll walk you through 5 high-ROI habits with built-in measurement systems.