Leadership and adoption
Measuring time saved without fooling yourself
"AI saves us loads of time" is a feeling, not a measurement. How to measure honestly what AI delivers, checking time included.
5 min read
Everyone who uses AI feels they save time. But how much? And is that feeling right? An honest measurement helps you make good choices: where to invest more, and where not.
Measure before and after
Pick one task and measure:
- Before: how long does the task take today, averaged over several times?
- After: how long does it take with AI, including checking and correcting?
That last step is often forgotten. A first draft in one minute that needs twenty minutes of corrections delivers less than it seems.
More than time
Also look at:
- Quality: is the result as good, better or worse?
- Errors: are there more or fewer?
- Satisfaction: of the employee and, where relevant, the customer.
- Turnaround: does the customer get an answer sooner?
A simple log
Ask the colleagues involved to keep a note for a few weeks:
Task | Date | Time without AI (estimated or measured) | Time with AI, checking included | Quality (1-5) | NoteTwo to four weeks is enough for an honest picture.
Pitfalls
- Counting only the quick wins. Include the times AI didn't help.
- Forgetting the learning curve. It's slower at first. Measure again after a few weeks.
- Time saved that disappears. Agree what you'll do with the time you save.
Checklist
Your answers stay only in this browser.
Prompt to copy
Here is our log of a task before and after using AI: [paste]. Work out the average time before and after, checking included, and the difference per week. Also comment on quality and the notes. Be critical: say what the figures don't tell us and what we still need to measure.
