Short answer: a well-chosen process pays for itself in 2 to 6 months. The line below which you're better off doing nothing is roughly 20 hours of automatable work a month - from there, the gap between what a person costs and what the system costs is big enough to cover the build. Below: the formula, a calculator for your own numbers, and the cases where the math doesn't work.
A formula you can do on a napkin
Calculating ROI isn't magic. You need three numbers:
- How many hours a month the work takes. Not someone's whole job, one specific task. Entering invoices. Answering "where's my order?". Stitching a report together from three systems.
- What one hour costs the business. In the US the average is $46.89 (BLS, June 2026: private-industry employer cost per hour worked). Important: that's not take-home pay. It's the full cost of the role - wages plus benefits like paid leave, insurance, retirement and payroll taxes. And that's before the desk, the laptop and the software.
- What the build costs. A one-off sum. On the Lithuanian market, automating a single process typically costs €500 to €3,000, and a more complex agent starts at €1,500. More detail in the pricing article.
Then it's simple arithmetic: build cost ÷ monthly savings = months to pay back. If the build cost €3,000 and you save €900 every month, it pays back in 3.3 months. From month four, that €900 stays with you.
Calculator: enter your own numbers
It uses our pricing: up to $10 for every hour of AI work, with a $300 monthly minimum. Nothing is sent anywhere - everything is calculated in your browser.
run your own numbersWhat this calculator doesn't show
It would be dishonest to let you think one table answers everything. It's deliberately conservative and only counts hours. In reality a few more things fall on both sides.
In your favor. Mistakes that cost more than the hours: the wrong amount on an invoice, a forgotten reply to a customer, an order spotted too late. Speed: when you answer in a minute rather than the next business day, some customers simply don't go to a competitor. And nights and weekends: the system doesn't need a schedule.
Against. Your own time during the build - someone has to explain how the work is done today and review the results in the first weeks. Realistically, that's a few hours a week in the first month. The calculator leaves it out because it's on your side of the ledger, not mine, but it's worth knowing.
And one more common mistake: hours saved don't mean people let go. Why the numbers don't work that way is in the article on AI and employees.
ROI isn't driven by how impressive the solution is, but by how often the work repeats.
Four cases where it doesn't pay off
I'm writing this part before the sales pitch, because this is where the most money gets burned. If you recognize your situation, don't rush.
- 1. Not enough work. If it comes to about 10 hours a month, a person costs you about $469 for it and you'd pay our $300 monthly minimum, so the savings are around $170 a month. The build is a fixed cost, so it would take well over a year to pay back. I tell clients exactly that. In that case an off-the-shelf SaaS tool from €29 a month is often cheaper, or a simple chatbot instead of an agent.
- 2. The process changes every week. Automation likes stability. If the procedure hasn't settled yet, settle it with people first - otherwise you'll pay for rework.
- 3. Almost every case is an exception. When the rules can't be written down because it always "depends," you're only automating the form, not the substance. The cost grows faster than the benefit.
- 4. The data lives in people's heads. If prices, procedures and answers aren't written down anywhere, the first job isn't programming, it's collecting them in one place. That's valuable too, but it's a different project with a different price.
How to pick the right candidate is covered separately: which work is worth automating with AI agents (and which isn't).
Three real scenarios with numbers
Typical cases we see in Lithuanian small and mid-sized businesses. Calculated at $46.89 an hour and our pricing.
| Work | Hours/mo | Costs now | With AI | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entering invoices and documents | 40 | $1,876 | up to $400 | $1,476/mo |
| Customer service (repeat questions) | 160 | $7,502 | up to $1,600 | $5,902/mo |
| Several processes automated together | 300 | $14,067 | up to $3,000 | $11,067/mo |
The ratio is the same everywhere, roughly 4.7 to 1: an hour costs you up to $10 instead of $46.89. So the return is driven by the volume of work, not the rate - one serious process almost always pays off better than five small ones, because the build cost is spread over more hours.
How to check it without risking the whole budget
All of these numbers are just a table for now. They only become real when you run the system on your own data.
That's why we work through a 2-week pilot: we pick one process, agree on a specific number the system has to hit, and launch it for real - not in a slide deck. After two weeks it's simply visible: either the number was hit or it wasn't. If it wasn't, I refund all of it. If it was, the pilot payment is credited toward the full build.
Worst case, you lose two weeks, not half a year and not your budget. More about the guarantee.
Questions about AI automation ROI
How long does AI automation take to pay off?
A well-chosen process in a Lithuanian small or mid-sized business usually pays for itself in 2 to 6 months. The math is simple: divide the build cost by the monthly savings. If the build cost €3,000 and you save €900 a month, it pays back in about 3.3 months.
How much does an hour of employee time really cost?
For a US employer, one hour of work costs $46.89 on average (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, private industry). That's not take-home pay but the full cost: wages plus benefits such as paid leave, insurance, retirement and legally required payroll taxes. When calculating automation ROI, use this number, not the salary.
When doesn't AI automation pay off?
The four most common cases: when there's less than about 20 hours of automatable work a month; when the process changes every week; when almost every case is an exception; and when the data lives in people's heads rather than in systems. In those cases an off-the-shelf SaaS tool, or simply changing nothing, is usually cheaper.
How can I check the ROI before investing in AI?
Run a 2-week pilot on your real data, with a number the system has to hit agreed in advance. It's a real launch, not a demo: after two weeks the number has either been hit or it hasn't. In our case, if the agreed target isn't met, we refund all of it.