L1
PM time recovery
Manual coordination, supplier emails, fieldwork monitoring, and reconciliation — returned to your PMs. The largest lever, confirmed by 4 of 8 PMs reporting 10–15 monitoring hours per week.
AI Project Manager · ROI Calculator
What would your PMs do with
3,000 hours
back every year?
Five operational levers — the time, CPI, and headcount the AI Project Manager gives back. Defaults recalibrated from 8 real MR project-manager responses, not industry estimates.
Operational ROI dimensions
5 levers
Primary-data calibrated
8 PMs
Recomputes as you type
Live
Inputs & results
Adjust the inputs. Watch the hours add up.
This is the updated AI PM calculator — defaults calibrated from the 8-PM questionnaire rather than industry estimates. Tune them to your reality; the five levers recompute live.
A
Section A
Your team
Headcount, salary, and the manual hours AI PM gives back — the largest lever (L1).
3 PMs
Everyone who coordinates suppliers, monitors fieldwork, reconciles.
$65,000
$40,000$120,000
Default $65,000 — drives time-recovery (L1) and headcount (L4).
3,200 hrs
500 hrs4,000 hrs
Monitoring alone 10–15 hrs/wk (4/8 PMs), plus quote + reconciliation time.
B
Section B
Your fieldwork spend
Sample spend powers negotiation savings (L2) and the reconciliation trap (L5).
$400K
$50K$5M
Median cluster $250K–$500K for mid-size agency PMs.
15%
0%30%
5/8 PMs negotiate on gut feel — data-driven recovery ≈ 15%.
20%
0%50%
Conservative default 20%.
C
Section C
Re-fields & growth
Operational re-field avoidance (L3) and the PM hire you can defer (L4).
2 studies
1 study8 studies
With field duration, derives annual study volume.
12%
0%40%
6/8 PMs reported re-fields ≈ 12%.
Drives the headcount-avoidance lever (L4).
AI Project Manager · ROI
Five operational levers. Live calculation — adjust any input on the left and watch the numbers move.
Lost to slow operations / year
$487,960
Net annual ROI with AI PM
$475,972
Payback period
9 days
| Source | Value driver | Value |
|---|---|---|
| L1 | PM time recovery3,200 hrs/PM × $31.25 × 3 PMs | $300,000 |
| L2 | CPI savings — negotiation15% improvement on $400,000 sample spend | $60,000 |
| L3 | Re-field avoidance (ops-driven)12.5 re-fields × $7,500 × 60% ops share | $56,160 |
| L4 | Headcount avoidance1 PM hire deferred at $65,000 | $65,000 |
| L5 | CPI reconciliation trap20.8 drift studies × $385 overcharge | $6,800 |
| Net subscription | −$11,988 | |
| Net annual ROI | $475,972 | |
40× return on the $999/mo Professional tier
Book a 20-minute demoCalibrated from 8 primary PM responses
The five operational levers
Where the operational value actually comes from.
L2
CPI savings — negotiation
5 of 8 PMs negotiate on gut feel or intuition with no data. Benchmarking and data-driven negotiation recover a conservative 15% of sample spend.
L3
Re-field avoidance
Operational failures — missed monitoring, late catches — drive re-fields. Validated at $7,500 per event from 6 of 8 PM responses.
L4
Headcount avoidance
Each AI-assisted PM handles far more concurrent studies, deferring the next hire as volume grows. Default: one $65,000 PM hire deferred.
L5
CPI reconciliation trap
When a supplier moves CPI mid-study, manual reconciliation overpays. AI PM tags each respondent at the rate it was sourced — a structural fix.
Primary-data calibration
Every default has a source.
Every default is backed by a real answer from the 8 MR project managers who completed the SoftSight questionnaire — quote hours, monitoring time, re-field cost, and CPI negotiation behaviour.
- Calibrated from 8 real MR project-manager responses
- All numbers in USD
- Conservatively biased — we’d rather under-promise
| Calibration input | Value |
|---|---|
PM hours recovered / PM / yr Monitoring alone 10–15 hrs/wk confirmed by 4/8 PMs, plus quote + reconciliation time | 3,200 hrs |
Quote processing hours Most PMs 2–4 hrs; Ayush >10 hrs outlier — median 4 | 4 hrs |
Reconciliation hours 6/8 PMs reported under 1 to 2–4 hrs — median 2 | 2 hrs |
CPI negotiation improvement 5/8 negotiate on gut feel — data-driven recovery | 15% |
Re-field rate 6/8 reported re-fields; ‘2–3/year’ most common | 12% |
Re-field cost per event 3/8 PMs quantified at $5K–$10K — validated midpoint | $7,500 |
Ops-driven re-field share Operational failure (missed monitoring) share for standalone view | 60% |
Headcount avoidance One PM hire deferred — default salary | $65,000 |
AI PM Professional $11,988 / yr — tier modelled in this calculator | $999 / mo |
The number you just calculated is your number.
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