Know what your AI spend actually returns.
Most organizations can tell you what they spend on AI. Few can tell you what it returns. We map every AI tool you pay for, measure what it gives back in time and value, and turn the answer into clear decisions: what to keep, what to cut, and where AI should do more.
The unexamined line item
AI is the fastest-growing cost no one can account for.
AI spend rarely arrives as a decision. It accumulates — a seat here, a subscription there, three teams solving the same problem with three different tools. By the time anyone asks what it costs, the answer is spread across a dozen cards and nobody owns it.
The harder question is the one underneath: what is any of it giving back? Hours returned, work made better, decisions made faster — against a number almost no organization has put together. Without that, every AI decision is a guess, and the guesses are getting more expensive.
Enterprises buy software to answer this. Organizations of five to a hundred people have exactly the same question, and nobody answering it for them.
How it works
Start with an assessment. Act on what it finds.
The work enters as a fixed-scope assessment, converts into a sprint where the findings justify one, and continues as quarterly reporting for organizations that want the number tracked.
- 01Two weeks
AI Return Assessment
The diagnostic. Where your AI spend goes, what it returns, and what to do about it.
- AI stack and spend map
- AI Return Index score
- Time and value returned, by function
- Keep, consolidate and cut recommendations
- 90-day AI opportunity roadmap
- Executive readout
- 0230–45 days
AI Optimization Sprint
Acting on the assessment: fewer tools, better workflows, a team that uses them well.
- Tool consolidation and renegotiation support
- Workflow redesign for your top three use cases
- Team enablement session
- Measurement baseline set up
- 03Ongoing
AI Return Reporting
Keeping the number honest once the decisions are made.
- Quarterly AI Return report
- Updated Index score and trend
- Executive review call
What you receive
Decisions, not a dashboard.
AI Stack & Spend Map
Every AI tool the organization pays for, who uses it, what it costs and when it renews, in one view.
AI Return Index
A single score showing how effectively the organization turns AI investment into results, with a benchmark band.
Return by Function
Estimated hours and dollar value AI is returning across marketing, sales, operations and admin.
Recommendations
Clear keep, consolidate and cut decisions with the expected savings.
90-Day Roadmap
The highest-value AI opportunities to pursue next, in order.
Executive Readout
A 45-minute working session to walk leadership through findings and decisions.
The AI Return Index
Three positions, and the one you want to be moving toward.
Exposed means spending without return. Most organizations measuring this for the first time land lower than they expect, which is the point — the Index is built to be re-measured, so the useful number is the one that moves.
- 0–39Exposed
- 40–69Developing
- 70–100Compounding
Why we do this
An AI decision is a marketing intelligence problem.
Marketing Intelligence™ is about making better decisions faster. AI spend has become one of the least understood lines in a growing company’s budget, and an unexamined line item is a decision nobody is making on purpose.
This service turns it into one: keep, consolidate, cut or scale. That is the same work we do everywhere else — gathering what is true, and making it usable by the people who have to choose.
The inward half of a pair.
The Authority Capital™ Assessment looks outward — how your market sees and trusts you. AI Return looks inward — whether your investment in AI is paying for itself. Run together, they make a thorough first engagement: what the market thinks of you, and what your own operation is actually returning.
Questions
Before you start.
What do we have to hand over?
A summary of your AI subscriptions, who holds seats, and a team roster by role. We ask for subscription summaries rather than raw financial statements, and a mutual NDA is standard on every engagement.
How much of our team’s time does it take?
Light. A kickoff call, a short intake questionnaire, a five-day activity log that takes a few minutes a day per person, and three to five brief staff interviews. The analysis is ours to do.
How accurate are the return figures?
They are estimates from sampled data, and we label them as such. We use conservative figures and hourly costs you validate, because a number leadership does not believe is worth nothing — the decision it supports matters more than the decimal place.
Isn’t this an IT project rather than a marketing one?
AI adoption in most organizations started in marketing, and that is usually where spend and overlap are heaviest. The method applies across the business, but it begins where the tools actually landed.
What if the assessment says our AI spend is fine?
Then you have a defensible number for the board and a roadmap for where AI should do more. The assessment is not built to justify a sprint — it is built to answer the question, including when the answer is that you are in good shape.
How often should we re-measure?
Quarterly if you are actively changing the stack, annually once it settles. The score matters less than its direction.
Begin
Find out what your AI is returning.
Every assessment starts with a conversation — we want to understand how your organization works before we measure what its tools give back. Tell us a little about the business and we’ll take it from there.