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Leadership and strategy

AI business case and ROI course

Turn an AI idea into a business case with numbers you can defend.

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“How much will it save us?” is the first question any leadership team will ask about an AI project, and the one that is usually answered worst. This course teaches you to build an honest business case: with every cost, measurable benefits and a pilot that proves the value before scaling.

We work with templates and the participants’ real cases: estimating the usage and cost of a language model, calculating the cost of human review, setting a baseline and deciding with data whether a project deserves to go into production.

It is the course for anyone who has to defend an AI investment or decide whether to approve it.

What you will learn

  • Identify every cost of an AI project, including those that are not in the quote
  • Translate time and quality improvements into measurable benefits
  • Design pilots with clear hypotheses and success criteria
  • Compare alternatives with a total cost model
  • Present a business case that stands up to the leadership team's questions

Syllabus

7 modules, from the fundamentals to the final project.

  1. Why AI projects fail

    • Pilots that never reach production
    • Cases chosen because they are fashionable, not valuable
    • Hidden costs and badly set expectations

  2. Cost map

    • Licences, usage-based pricing (tokens) and infrastructure
    • Integration with existing systems and data quality
    • Human oversight, maintenance and model evolution
    • Training and change management

  3. Measuring the benefit

    • Time saved and where it is reinvested
    • Quality, errors avoided and response times
    • Additional revenue and customer experience
    • A baseline before you start

  4. A well-designed pilot

    • Hypothesis, scope and duration
    • Success metrics agreed upfront
    • A representative sample and comparison with the current process
    • Deciding whether to scale, adjust or drop it

  5. Financial model

    • Three-year total cost of ownership
    • Cautious, likely and optimistic scenarios
    • Sensitivity to volume and price per use
    • Comparison: off-the-shelf tool versus custom development

  6. Putting a price on risk

    • Risk of error and the cost of human review
    • Regulatory compliance and data protection
    • Vendor lock-in and exit plan

  7. Present and defend

    • Structure of a one-page business case
    • The questions the leadership team will ask and how to answer them
    • Workshop: participants present their cases

Tools you will practise with

  • Business case spreadsheet (course template)
  • Language model usage cost calculator
  • AI pilot canvas

Hands-on project

You build the business case for a real use case in your company with the course template, including three-year costs, scenarios and pilot success criteria, and present it to the group for feedback.

Requirements

  • Basic spreadsheet skills.
  • Ideally, having taken the AI course for executives or having experience with AI tools.

Other courses

Where it is applied

  • AI consulting for SMEs

    We help small and medium-sized businesses find where AI can add value, which cases are worth testing and how to start without investing in solutions they do not need.

Want this course for your team?

We adapt the content, length and format to your company.

Request information