AI in Business: Do the Maths Before You Implement | AI ROI
- Evgeniya Chepkova
- Sep 26, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 1, 2025
Our COO at Scale Lab Consulting Agency and founder of a chain of Impact Academies Cyprus - IT schools for kids in Limassol and Nicosia (Paphos coming soon), Evgeniya Chepkova, has been interviewed for the first issue of Cyprus Business Focus Magazine (September 2025). This article explains AI ROI and why you should do the maths before any implementation.
Technology is a means, not an end
AI, automation and digital tools appear in almost every corporate deck now. They are discussed at forums, built into strategies and listed in proposals and briefs. Yet one critical point is often lost: which specific problem will they solve in your company?
I’m Evgeniya Chepkova. For over 20 years I’ve run departments, projects and businesses, helping companies bring order to processes and launch improvements that work in real life.
Here’s the key point: if you haven’t defined the problem, lack a target metric and haven’t calculated the economics and ROI, if it’s unclear what problem the tool solves, you shouldn’t move forward.
Automation: the “wow effect” doesn’t equal saving
Digital tools should amplify processes that already work. Without clear business goals and sound unit economics, digitalisation turns into an expensive experiment. Too often “fashionable” tools are purchased as a badge of progress - and then no one can explain which metric is meant to change.
AI ROI: banking case study
A bank (about 10,000 enquiries per month) considered a voice assistant. On paper it looked perfect. Yet, our maths showed high costs and minimal savings. ROI didn’t add up, which meant a no-go for roll-out, however sleek the slides were. Technology must close real jobs to be done, not serve as a vanity badge.
The modern assistant is a tech specialist
The “classic” executive assistant is giving way to a technical assistant - someone who selects and configures tools, trains the team and embeds them into daily work. This speeds up adoption and reduces vendor dependency.
In one project the vendor needed nearly six months to deploy and train. In another, we trained an internal “owner” from day one and the launch took around three months, all while the team was already using the system when it was still being fine-tuned.
AI as an amplifier: order or chaos
A simple formula I repeat to teams: 1 year of experience × AI = 10 years of growth; 0 years × AI = 0. AI won’t save a chaotic foundation. Without process understanding, knowledge bases and logic it only accelerates the mess.
Security is non-negotiable.
Enterprises send solutions back for assessment and improvement as many times as needed - slow and strict process, yet that’s how resilience is built.
In SMEs we often see the opposite: bots created from personal emails, unlimited access, no audit trail - until the first leak.
Data is an asset therefore protection must be part of any digitalisation. If there’s no dedicated security role, a tech assistant should temporarily own it - the earlier the better (and in some cases cheaper).
Bottom line: everything starts with maths
AI, CRM and RPA are just tools. They deliver real growth where there is a goal, a metric and an internal owner. I’ve seen projects take off in three months, and others drag on for six months or sit in “set-up mode” for years. The difference wasn’t the technology; it was how the decision and roll-out were owned.
Don’t implement before you do the maths. Ask uncomfortable questions. Appoint someone who is truly inside the work and accountable for outcomes. Then automate. AI is an amplifier of logic, maturity and accountability.
Ready to check your AI readiness?
Before you roll anything out, check your readiness. Book a free AI Readiness Discovery Session (Operations) and we’ll:
confirm the job to be done and success metric;
run a quick readiness check (processes, data, team);
sketch TCO/ROI assumptions and next steps;nominate an internal owner (or tech assistant role).
FAQ for AI in Business
How do we know an AI project will pay back?
Define the job and metric that your want to improve (e.g. time saved, cost reduced, number of employees reduced, revenue lifted), compute TCO/ROI before a pilot and appoint an internal owner responsible for implementation, training and reporting on effectiveness, issues that come up and AI ROI.
Who should own the roll-out?
IT department project lead or if you it’s not part of your organisation then a technical assistant who configures tools and trains the team — it speeds everything up.
What about data security?
Bake InfoSec into scope from day one: permissions, audit trails, storage. SMEs often neglect this step.
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16 px collapsible text is perfect for longer content like paragraphs and descriptions. It’s a great way to give people more information while keeping your layout clean. Link your text to anything, including an external website or a different page. You can set your text box to expand and collapse when people click, so they can read more or less info.
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