Calculate ROI from AI investments with new tool

The white paper complements the calculator by providing methods and ways of thinking for values that cannot or should not be calculated in economic terms.

“Our message is that organizations should not solely focus on ROI, as this will likely lead to an under-prioritization of more innovative use cases that could have the most transformative potential,” says Kristin Heinonen.

Several partners have been involved during the development phase, providing feedback on the calculator. These dialogues have confirmed the intended scope of use, which is to calculate the effects of potential scaling and broad implementation within the business after a successful pilot.

“But we’ve also seen that the tool has an educational effect. By reviewing the inputs required for the calculation before starting a project, it becomes a tool to plan for which data points need to be collected to measure the desired outcomes,” says Kristin Heinonen.

This reasoning is also recognized from organizations that have undergone AI Sweden’s maturity assessment. In that process, less mature organizations are faced with questions they cannot even answer, but the mere fact that the questions are posed raises awareness of what needs to be in place to advance on their maturity journey.

Kristin Heinonen emphasizes that the calculator can be used by both advanced partners and those just starting out. Depending on the amount of data available, it can be used in both simpler and more advanced ways.

Everything is summarized in a dashboard-like view where all figures can be broken down annually, up to seven years into the future.

What’s important to keep in mind when using the calculator?

“That it’s best suited for straightforward, less complex AI implementations and calculates gains that are relatively easy to quantify, such as time savings or increased revenue. However, it’s not the right tool for very large moonshot projects, nor does it capture qualitative gains. But it’s crucial not to limit oneself to what’s easy to calculate, as this risks excluding the most innovative and transformative use cases.”

Kristin Heinonen also points out that the calculator shows a possible outcome, but many of the input parameters are difficult to assess.

“Therefore, it’s important to calculate several different scenarios. And the complexity is also one of the reasons we’re releasing the tool as an Excel document, as it allows users to examine the calculation formulas and potentially make their own adjustments.”

The calculator and the white paper are the latest additions to resources from AI Sweden that assist partner organizations in the systematic implementation of artificial intelligence, thereby improving the conditions for creating value with AI.

“We have recently released an update to one of our previous training programs, Systematic AI Adoption, which now includes a new step-by-step guide to driving use cases. And, of course, the use case library on My AI is still available for inspiration on which applications to explore.”