How do you measure and report the business impact of an AI deployment to the customer's executives?

Agree the business metric and its baseline before launch, measure it the same way afterwards, ideally against a comparison group, and translate the change into money, time or risk, with costs included and assumptions stated. Report briefly and regularly: the headline number, how it was measured, what it cost, and what comes next.

1. Before launch: baseline and metric

• One primary metric tied to the business goal: handle time per ticket, cases closed per person per day, time from request to answer, error rate, revenue per rep.
• Its current value, measured over enough time to see normal variation (weeks, not days).
• Secondary and guardrail metrics: customer satisfaction, escalations, quality audits, cost of the AI.

2. Measure the effect fairly

• Comparison group: some teams or a share of cases without the tool, at the same time. This separates the tool's effect from seasonal swings or other changes.
• If that is impossible, compare before and after, and note other things that changed.
• Measure from system data, not surveys alone. Surveys are useful for satisfaction, not for time saved.
• Keep the same definitions throughout.

3. Translate into value

Example: handle time fell from 9.0 to 6.5 minutes on 30,000 tickets a month. That is 75,000 minutes, or 1,250 hours a month. At a loaded cost of 40 euros an hour, about 50,000 euros a month of capacity. Subtract the AI's running costs (model usage, infrastructure, support) for the net value. Say whether the capacity is being saved (fewer contractors), redeployed (backlog cleared, faster service) or not yet used.

4. Report it well

• One page: the headline result, the method, the cost, the net value, the risks, and the next step.
• Ranges, not false precision: "between 2.1 and 2.9 minutes saved per ticket".
• Quality alongside speed: faster but worse is not a win.
• A user quote or example to make it concrete.

5. Keep reporting

Monthly or quarterly, the same format. Value that is measured and shown keeps budgets and leads to expansion; value assumed tends to be questioned at renewal.

Pitfalls

• Counting time saved that nobody uses.
• Cherry-picking the best team or the best week.
• Ignoring the cost of review and rework.
• Changing the metric after launch.

What interviewers look for: baselines agreed up front, a fair comparison, honest translation into money, and costs on the same page as benefits.