Catalogue › Value Realisation › roi-model

ROI model

Builds a transparent return-on-investment model for an AI initiative or portfolio - full costs across licences, consumption, build, run, review effort, support and change, benefits by class and timing, low, central and high ranges, sensitivity to key assumptions and an assumptions log. Use when a case or renewal needs a return figure, when an ROI number cannot be traced to its inputs, or when estimated and actual return must be compared.

Department

Value Realisation

Lifecycle

Envision, Mobilise, Measure, Scale, Improve

Maturity

builder, scaler, ai-enterprise

Risk tiers

0, 1, 2, 3, 4

Platforms

platform-neutral

Editions

starter, scale, enterprise

Reviewers

none

Status

draft

Copilot Cowork

Value Realisation plugin for Copilot Cowork, or this skill on its own: Download SKILL.md

Licence

CC BY 4.0, by Simon Foote

Purpose

A return figure is only as good as the model behind it, and most AI return figures cannot be traced to anything. This skill builds a model that anyone can follow: every cost and benefit line with its source, every assumption logged with an owner, ranges instead of single points, and a sensitivity view showing which assumptions decide the answer. The same model is reused after launch with actuals, so estimated and achieved return can be compared honestly. It goes wrong when costs stop at licences, when benefits are gross and front-loaded, and when one optimistic number travels through the organisation without its caveats.

When to use

• A business case, investment case or renewal decision needs a return figure.
• An existing ROI number is being quoted and nobody can show how it was calculated.
• A sponsor wants to compare estimated return at approval with the return achieved.
• Several initiatives need comparable return figures for a portfolio decision.
• A scale decision depends on whether return holds at a larger size.

When not to use

• Classifying and valuing financial benefits with finance - use value-realisation:financial-benefits.
• Writing the case document that the model supports - use opportunity-management:business-case.
• Building the programme-level funding case - use ai-strategy:investment-case.
• Tracking the programme budget and consumption spend - use programme-management:budget-and-capacity.
• Answering licensing and capacity questions - use platform-governance:ai-licensing-and-capacity.

Questions to ask first

1. What decision will the model inform, who takes it, and what return would change their mind?
2. Over what period should return be assessed, and does the organisation use a standard appraisal method or discount rate?
3. Which costs are already committed or sunk, and which are incremental to this decision?
4. Which benefits are classified and valued with finance, and which are still estimates?
5. Which two or three assumptions does everyone privately doubt?

Required inputs

• Classified and valued benefits from value-realisation:financial-benefits, with timing profiles.
• Non-financial benefits from value-realisation:non-financial-benefits, to be shown beside the return rather than inside it.
• Cost inputs from the organisation's own agreements, quotes and plans: licences, consumption, build effort, support, change and training.
• The organisation's appraisal conventions from finance.

Cost lines for licences and consumption come only from the organisation's own agreements or a licensing partner's quote. Where a figure is not yet known, enter it as a range marked [To confirm] with its owner. Never use list prices from memory or published averages.

Decision framework

The model has five parts, and a return figure may be shown only when all five exist.

Practitioner approach

Start from the decision. A model for a renewal compares continuing with stopping; a model for a new agent compares building it with the next best option, which is often doing nothing or using Copilot Chat well. Getting the comparison right matters more than any formula, and it decides which costs are incremental.

Build costs before benefits, and be thorough. AI costs are routinely understated because the visible line is the licence. Add the effort to prepare and own knowledge, the time people spend reviewing outputs, the support load, the cost of periodic evaluation and the change and training effort. Consumption-based services need a usage forecast with a range, because costs grow with success. Take every rate and price from the organisation's own agreements or a licensing partner, never from memory.

Bring benefits in as finance agreed them, net of dis-benefits, and apply an adoption ramp. Benefits seldom arrive at full level on launch day; a realistic curve over several quarters, tied to the adoption assumptions in the benefit statements, changes the answer more than most people expect. Keep cashable, non-cashable, cost avoidance and revenue on separate lines so the headline can say what kind of return it is.

Use ranges for every material line, and then run the sensitivity. Move each key assumption across its range and see which ones flip the answer. Calculate break-even values for the most doubtful ones: "the case holds as long as at least this share of the target teams use the scenario weekly". Break-even framing helps sponsors judge risk better than a single percentage return.

Keep an assumptions log as the spine of the model. Each assumption has a source, an owner, a confidence level and a date when it will be tested against reality, which then becomes a measurement point in the realisation plan.

Present simply. Lead with the decision, the central return, the low case and the two assumptions that matter most. Show non-financial benefits beside the return, in their own units. Never let a return figure travel without its range, its class and its date.

After launch, keep the same structure and replace estimates with actuals at each review. The comparison of estimated and actual return, line by line, is the most valuable output of the whole exercise, because it teaches the organisation how to estimate the next case.

Outputs

• An ROI model with costs, benefits, ranges, sensitivity and assumptions log, in the organisation's spreadsheet or modelling tool.
• A one-page return summary: decision, central and low return, break-even values, key assumptions and non-financial benefits beside it.
• Assumption test dates handed to the benefits-register as measurement points.
• An estimated-versus-actual comparison at each post-implementation review, recorded in the post-implementation-review-report.

Microsoft platform considerations

Licensing models and consumption-based charges for Copilot, agents, Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry differ and change. Model them as separate cost lines with the charging basis the organisation's agreement actually uses, take figures from the organisation's agreements or a licensing partner, and check references/sources.md before describing how any product is charged. Never state prices or licensing conclusions.

Adoption considerations

The adoption ramp is usually the most sensitive assumption in an AI return model. Make it explicit, tie it to the adoption plan, and test it early using value-realisation:adoption-to-value-metrics.

Knowledge considerations

Knowledge preparation and upkeep are real recurring costs for any grounded solution. Include the owner time needed to keep sources current; leaving it out makes agents look cheaper than they are and starves their knowledge later.

Security and privacy considerations

Include the cost of required security and privacy controls and reviews in the model. Commercial terms in the model may be confidential; share the summary widely and the full model only with those who need it.

Responsible AI considerations

Include the cost of human oversight for solutions that inform decisions about people, and never improve a return by assuming oversight will be reduced. Return figures must not create pressure to deploy AI where review has said it is not appropriate.

Evaluation requirements

Include the recurring cost of evaluation and regression testing. Where benefits depend on output quality, link the assumption to the quality threshold agreed at release so the model and the evaluation are consistent.

Value measures

Success is the share of return figures in circulation that can be traced to a model with all five parts, and the gap between estimated and actual return narrowing over successive cases, tracked by the Benefits Realisation Lead.

Scale notes

Starter

A simple spreadsheet with incremental costs, benefits as finance agreed them, low and central cases and five or six logged assumptions. Use a partner's support for anything involving consumption-based services at volume.

Scale

A standard model structure for every case above a threshold finance sets, sensitivity and break-even analysis, and estimated-versus-actual comparison at every review.

Enterprise

A portfolio model that aggregates initiatives without double counting, shared cost rates and adoption curves, and calibration of future estimates from the history of past cases.

Hand-offs

• To opportunity-management:business-case or ai-strategy:investment-case with the return summary.
• To value-realisation:benefit-realisation-plan with assumption test dates.
• To value-realisation:post-implementation-review for estimated-versus-actual comparison.
• To platform-governance:ai-licensing-and-capacity for any licensing or capacity question raised by the model.

Reviewer gates

Not applicable, because the model informs a funding or scale decision rather than releasing a solution. The finance contact agrees conventions and figures. Where a model assumes reduced human oversight, responsible-ai must be consulted before the figure is used.

Failure modes

• Costs stop at licences, and the run cost of review, knowledge and support appears after approval.
• Benefits start at full level on launch day, and the return is overstated in the first year.
• A single return percentage travels without its range or class, and becomes a commitment nobody made.
• Consumption costs are forecast at pilot volume and grow sharply with adoption.
• Nobody compares estimated with actual return, so the next case repeats the same errors.

Sources

references/sources.md in this skill lists the source records behind this skill, what each is authoritative for, how volatile it is and what you may do with it. Product availability, licensing, limits and preview status change often, so check the current source before stating them, and cite what you used.

Never

• Show a return figure without its range, its class of benefit and its assumptions.
• Enter licence prices or consumption rates from memory or published lists.
• Mix cashable return with cost avoidance or non-cashable value in one headline figure.
• Improve the return by assuming human oversight or evaluation will be cut.