A financial worksheet for a voice AI call-center pilot
Calculate a voice AI pilot's contribution using actual costs, released capacity, recovery work and a clearly labeled hypothetical example.
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A call that moves from a person to an assistant does not automatically remove the person's salary from the budget. It may release capacity, reduce overtime, improve coverage or create new review work. Those effects have different financial meanings and should appear on separate lines.
Use this worksheet after selecting a task with the call-center pilot guide. It replaces a fixed savings promise with a calculation your finance and operations teams can inspect.
Define the comparison period and scope
Use the same eligible call types, operating hours and outcome definitions before and during the pilot. Record seasonal changes or outages. Separate the expense of exploring the technology from the cost of operating an accepted workflow.
Collect call receipts, carrier statements, recurring number charges, integration costs and staff time. Include unanswered or failed calls where they incurred charges. Current Burki pricing is the starting point for a Burki estimate; a component price alone is not the total cost of a customer request.
Classify the benefit before adding it up
| Category | Example | Financial treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Avoided cash expense | Overtime no longer required | Count only when actually avoided |
| Released capacity | Staff can handle more complex requests | Report hours; do not automatically call it savings |
| New recurring expense | AI usage and monitoring | Subtract from operating benefit |
| One-time investment | Integration and training | Track separately for payback |
| Speculative revenue | Possible additional sales | Exclude from the base case until evidenced |
Ask the workforce owner how released time will be used. Ten minutes saved across scattered shifts may not remove a whole shift or contract. It can still be useful capacity, but it is a different claim.
Work through a hypothetical month
Assume a fictional pilot avoids $2,000 of overtime and $600 of external answering-service charges. AI and telephone usage costs $700, additional review work costs $400, and integration monitoring costs $200.
The recurring net benefit is $2,600 minus $1,300, or $1,300 for the month. If implementation cost $7,800, simple payback would be six months only if that monthly benefit continues. These are illustrative inputs, not Burki rates, customer results or a forecast.
Suppose the overtime remains necessary. The avoided expense falls to $600, while new expenses remain $1,300. The pilot then adds $700 in monthly cash cost, even if it releases staff capacity. This sensitivity check is more informative than assuming that every automated minute creates savings.
Include recovery and quality
Count duplicate contacts, staff corrections, failed transfers and actions that require manual repair. Define a verified resolution and calculate cost per such resolution as well as cost per call. A cheaper conversation that leaves the issue open may be the more expensive workflow overall.
Keep a sample of the evidence behind those classifications. A model-generated success label should not be the sole basis for an investment decision.
Make an explicit expansion decision
Present the base case, downside case and unresolved dependencies together. Expand when the measured benefit and service quality justify the next commitment. If results are inconclusive, retain the draft and improve the task rather than promising a universal percentage reduction. The financial case should describe what changed in your operation, not what another vendor's headline suggests might happen.
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