Fastest Ways to Get ROI from AI (Most Common Wins)
If you’re trying to justify AI spend, don’t start with big, vague “innovation” projects. Start with the work your team repeats every day—support replies, sales follow-ups, meeting summaries, and lead screening. That’s where ROI shows up fastest because you can measure time saved and speed gained right away.
Here are the most common wins we see.
1) AI support assistant trained on your FAQs and docs
Support is usually the quickest place to see results because the same questions come in again and again.
An AI support assistant can answer common questions using your help center and internal SOPs. If you don’t want it replying directly, it can draft responses for an agent to approve.
A practical way to start: take your top 30 repeat questions (password resets, invoice requests, setup steps, shipping timelines—whatever applies) and train the assistant on those first. In many cases, teams see a real drop in response time within 2–3 weeks, mainly because agents stop typing the same replies all day.
Tradeoff: this only works as well as your documentation. If your policies are scattered or outdated, the assistant will give inconsistent answers. You’ll need someone to own and maintain the knowledge base.
2) Sales email and proposal drafting (to move deals faster)
Sales teams lose time to “small writing tasks” that pile up: first outreach, follow-ups, recap emails, and proposal edits. AI helps most when you already have a basic sales process and you’re just trying to execute it faster.
A realistic example: if a rep sends 12 emails a day and each takes about 7 minutes to write, that’s over an hour a day spent just drafting. AI can cut that down by generating a solid first draft, while the rep adds the final context and voice.
Where it works best:
- follow-up sequences
- recap emails after calls
- proposal first drafts using your template and pricing rules
Tradeoff: AI can’t own positioning or deal strategy. It also shouldn’t “make up” case studies, results, or promises. A human still needs to review anything customer-facing.
3) Meeting notes and action items (hours back every week)
This is one of the least risky, highest payoff uses—because the output is internal, and the value is simple: less confusion and fewer missed tasks.
AI can summarize meetings, highlight decisions, and list action items with owners and dates. It’s especially helpful for recurring meetings like weekly sales reviews, project standups, and client check-ins.
A common outcome: managers save around 3 hours per week just by not rewriting notes, chasing updates, or rewatching recordings to confirm what was decided.
Tradeoff: meeting summaries aren’t perfect if the audio is messy or people talk over each other. The fix is simple: do a quick skim before you share and correct names/next steps.
4) Content repurposing (one piece of work, many outputs)
If you’re already creating solid long-form content—blogs, webinars, podcasts, whitepapers—repurposing is a fast way to get more mileage without adding more work.
AI can turn one blog into:
- 6–10 social posts
- a short email sequence
- a checklist or FAQ version
- a “sales-friendly” summary your team can reuse
This is especially useful when your marketing team is small and you’re trying to keep consistency across channels.
Tradeoff: repurposed content can start sounding repetitive if you don’t add fresh examples or opinions. The best approach is to mix repurposing with real customer questions, real objections, and real lessons learned.
5) Lead qualification chatbot (or voice) to improve speed
If speed-to-lead matters in your business, qualification is a strong ROI play. A chatbot or voice assistant can ask a few consistent questions, capture details, and route the lead to the right next step.
Good uses:
- collect budget, timeline, and use case
- route to the right team or calendar link
- answer basic “do you do X?” questions instantly
This helps when your team can’t respond in minutes—like evenings, weekends, or busy hours—without leaving leads hanging.
Tradeoff: some people don’t like bots. The safest setup is clear and respectful: “I can get you to the right person faster,” with an easy option to talk to a human.
How to pick the fastest ROI path (quick checklist)
If you’re deciding where to start, pick the workflow that is:
- High volume (it happens daily)
- Repeatable (rules and answers don’t change every hour)
- Measurable (you can track time, response speed, conversion, or backlog)
A simple order that works for most teams:
- Support assistant (biggest volume + clear metrics)
- Meeting notes (fast setup, quick wins)
- Sales drafts (time savings + better consistency)
- Lead qualification (if inbound volume is meaningful)
- Content repurposing (best when you already publish regularly)
