AI automation calculator

How many hours could AI automation give your team back?

Most calculators like this assume every saved hour turns straight into money. This one shows all of its working, discounts its own answer, and tells you when the number is too small to be worth a build.

Where the week goes

Hours per week across your whole team. The sample numbers are a five-person office; replace them with yours.

$/ hr

Wage plus taxes and overhead. If you are not sure, take the average hourly wage and add about a third.

50%

Freed-up time leaks into interruptions unless somebody plans what it goes to. We count half by default. Raise it only if you have a plan for the hours.

0
hours a week we would actually count, out of 0 the tasks could give back
$0
a year at your hourly cost, over 48 working weeks
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to pay back a custom build from $7,500

Hours a week each task could give back, after the share AI can take and before the discount for leakage. The clay bars are the tasks we would look at first.
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Show the math

For each task: hours a week × share AI can take = hours it could give back.

Add those up, then multiply by the share that turns into useful work: hours we would count.

Value a year: hours we would count × your hourly cost × 48 working weeks.

Payback: $7,500 ÷ (value a year ÷ 12) for a custom build, and $400 ÷ the weekly value of your biggest task for a single automation.

The shares are our starting guesses, informed by the jobs we automate in our own business, not a measurement of yours. A task full of judgment calls, like replying to an upset customer, deserves a lower share. A task that is pure copying, like moving form entries into a spreadsheet, can run close to all of it. Change any of them.

Where these numbers come from

We run this on ourselves first

Every share above is a guess you should argue with. Ours are anchored in the thirteen jobs an AI agent runs for our own studio every week: support triage, backups, reports, a newsletter draft, and more. We published the run log, the costs, and what broke.

The short version: by our estimate those jobs would take a person about 28 hours a week. Run by an agent they cost about $138 a week at pay-as-you-go prices, and a person still signs off on anything that matters.

Read the build story →

Questions

Before you trust the number

How much time can AI automation save a small business?

It depends on how much of the week is repeatable work: sorting email, answering the same questions, booking, copying data between tools, chasing invoices. The sample five-person office above comes out at about eight and a half hours a week we would count, out of seventeen the tasks could give back. Count only half unless you have a plan for the freed time.

Which tasks should a business automate first?

The ones with the most hours and the fewest judgment calls. Copying data between tools, booking and reminders, and following up on leads who went quiet are usually first. Replies that need tact come later, and a person should read them before they send.

What does AI automation cost?

A single automation on tools you already use is $400 with us. A custom system that ties several jobs together starts at $7,500, fixed bid. Running costs are usually small: the thirteen jobs we run for ourselves cost about $138 a week in AI usage at pay-as-you-go prices.

What if my number comes out small?

Then automation is probably not your crux, and we would rather tell you that on a free fit call than sell you a build that will not pay back. The calculator says so too.

Want the real number?

A Crux Roadmap spends three business days inside your actual week and comes back with the automations worth building and a fixed price. Refundable in full if it does not land. Free fit call first.

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