By Vicki Holman – Ecosystem Architect, ANS
It’s the question you inevitably encounter when you’re pitching any AI technology: ‘What’s the return on investment?”
Of course, building the business case is a crucial part of any technology spend. It has to deliver value. Otherwise, what’s the point?
But when it comes to Generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, I think tradition ROI metrics – cost savings, revenue increase, and so on – might not paint the whole picture.
I think Copilot can transform people’s working lives. It can make people happier at work. It can help them do things they couldn’t before. It can make it easier and quicker for them to make choices.
The problem is, we often don’t have the right words to describe the value of those things, especially in a business context.
To truly understand the benefits Copilot can bring, organisations need to mature how they think about value.
Here is my proposal for three different alternative frameworks to ROI that allow them to do exactly that.
1. Return on Experience
One of the best things about a tool like Copilot is how much easier it can make your working day.
It can help you complete in seconds mundane tasks that used to take hours, or even days.
Even – perhaps especially – when you don’t know where to start with a big task, Copilot can be invaluable.
If I’m ever struggling to get started with something, I ask Copilot for ideas. There really is no better aid in the face of a blank page. Copilot came up with the structure for this article!
The benefit of Copilot’s improvement of the employee experience can’t be overstated. Research by Oxford Economics and Unum suggests staff turnover costs businesses an average of £30,614 per employee.
That gives you an idea of how much could be saved if stressed, burned out employees had lighter workloads that were easier to complete and manage. Copilot can help with those staff happiness levels, but you need to be measuring it first.
- Suggested metrics: Employee engagement, satisfaction, retention, turnover, and tenure.
2. Return on Output
I think one of the most underrated aspects of Copilot is that it can help people do tasks they couldn’t do before. In so many ways it’s a great democratiser across disciplines.
With Microsoft Copilot 365’s help, someone without much writing experience writing can draft a great document.
Someone without much design skill can craft a visually impactful PowerPoint presentation.
Someone without a head for spreadsheets can work wonders in Excel.
Even in specialised areas like software engineering or financial modelling, Copilot can help people achieve outputs they wouldn’t have been able to previously. It can allow people to unleash their creativity in ways that could drive real business value.
If you’re thinking of a compelling business case for Copilot, you could do a lot worse than measuring the value of employees transforming overnight into multi-disciplinary jack-of-all-trades!
- Suggested metrics: Number of tasks completed, number of tasks completed by discipline.
3. Return on Decision-making
A lot of work is about making decisions.
But often we don’t have the information we need to make those decisions. Or we’re unable to be part of the conversations where decisions are made. Or there are just so many tasks competing for our attention that it’s hard to decide where to start.
One of the great things about Copilot is that it solves a lot of these challenges.
Double-booked for meetings? Just get Copilot to summarise the actions for you from the one you couldn’t attend.
Can’t find that Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation you needed? Ask Copilot to find it for you.
Struggling to prioritise your workload? Just ask Copilot to order your to-do list based on which tasks have the most urgent deadlines.
Traditional productivity metrics often fail to account for the fact that the time taken to make decision is often the most time-consuming part. Although, to be fair, it’s a more challenging thing to measure.
You could start with the average time taken to make key decisions, where a reduction would suggest improved efficiency. Or you could consider decision accuracy in terms of success rates, error rates or alignment with strategic goals. The third option would be to measure the number of decisions made supported by data or insights.
- Suggested metrics: Decision accuracy (before and after Copilot implementation), decision cycle time, number of decisions supported by data or insights surfaced by Copilot; forecast accuracy
If AI is the new frontier, we should use new ROI metrics to measure it
The measurement approaches I’ve outlined above are just three examples of how an organisation could measure the value of Copilot.
The point is, when we consider Copilot, we should expand our horizons of how we think about ROI.
Obviously, every business is different and has different aims and priorities. But whether you’re an AI sceptic or totally bought into the promise of tools like Copilot, it will be able to support those aims in different ways.
My advice for anyone wanting to build a business case for Copilot is, first and foremost, define the purpose you want it to serve. It sounds obvious, but in the age of AI hype, you’d be surprised how many people start with the GenAI tech and backfill what they want it to do!
The next step is to align the purpose you’ve set for Copilot with the KPIs you have in the organisation. Crucially, it should be something you can measure against. If you can demonstrate that Copilot can impact the things that matter to the business, then you’re onto a winner.
My other main piece of advice when it comes to measuring value is not to overlook the little things. With buzzy technology like AI, it’s tempting to look for a big, dazzling business case that will revolutionise the entire business model and deliver double figure growth.
For example, I once interviewed a very senior stakeholder with a Copilot license. When I asked what he did with the time he saved, he said he finished work on time and walked his dog.
I love that response! If Copilot saves each of your employees 15 minutes a day, or gives them to the ability to finish work on time and spend quality time with their family or loved ones, that’s a result that will be felt across your business.
All you need is to put the right metrics in place to capture it.
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