Stop Viewing AI as a Cost: It’s Your Newest Team Member with ROI
Big news from OpenAI yesterday
How much is AI going to cost? I hear this often from leaders. My immediate response is how much would you pay a new employee in salary and benefits? How long is the hiring process to find the right candidate? How long is the ramp up time for that new employee? You get where I am going. It’s time-consuming and costs are involved but we hire employees because we expect a return on every hire.
For many business leaders, artificial intelligence (AI) still feels like a luxury—a costly experiment that might not deliver tangible returns. But this viewpoint is outdated. In fact, the smarter way to think about AI is not as a cost, but as an essential team member—one that, like any valuable employee, pays back your investment many times over.
AI as a Team Member, Not a Tool
It’s time to rethink how we view AI. Imagine AI as a new hire—a highly skilled, adaptable, and tireless worker. Just like any team member, it needs some training (setup), a few tools (integration), and oversight (monitoring). However, unlike human employees, AI can work 24/7, doesn’t require breaks or holidays, and can manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
While hiring an employee usually comes with onboarding, training costs, and a learning curve, AI gets up to speed far more quickly. What’s even more compelling is that AI doesn’t stagnate—it continues learning and improving over time, increasing its value to your company.
Please know I am speaking through the lens of bringing on the AI as a team member to help the organization not replace the team members.
The ROI of Hiring AI (simplified version)
Let’s compare AI to the cost of hiring a full-time employee. Take, for example, a basic AI system designed to automate customer service tasks, data entry, or scheduling.
The average entry-level salary for a human customer service representative in Ohio is about $35,626 per year (from zip recruiter), not including benefits or overhead. Meanwhile, a basic AI-powered chatbot might cost you around $5,000 to set up, with a management/maintenance fee of around $1,000 per month—meaning your total investment for the first year could be around $17,000. Or an off the shelf chatbot at $450 per month and no set up fee for an investment of $5400 per year.
Now, imagine this AI chatbot handling 80% of your customer inquiries, with human employees only stepping in for complex issues. Not only do you save on the salary of a full-time employee, but your human team can now focus on more strategic work, leading to better customer relationships and driving long-term growth. The initial investment in AI pays for itself in just a few months, and the benefits continue to grow without the ongoing costs of employee turnover, benefits, or training.
And/or you purchase Microsoft Copilot $20 per month per user or ChatGPT plus for $25 per month per user for each of your team members. Let’s say you have 300 employees and you purchase Microsoft Copilot, which would cost $72,000 per year. If you could hire someone tomorrow for $72,000 who works 24/7 and PhD level intelligence, would you hire them and have an ROI? Yes! You would scoop them up as fast as possible.
Scaling with AI
One of AI’s most powerful features is its ability to scale. As your business grows, so do your needs, but AI doesn’t demand a higher salary or overtime pay. Whether you're handling twice the workload or five times as much, AI scales with you.
Imagine trying to grow your customer service team from handling 500 inquiries a month to 5,000 inquiries a month. For humans, this requires hiring more staff, additional training, and an expanded management team. The AI scales handling the increased workload at a fraction of the cost.
This flexibility means AI remains an affordable and valuable asset as your company grows. Compare that to the costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and compensating more employees, and AI quickly becomes one of your most valuable team members.
From Cost to Competitive Advantage
Shifting your perspective from viewing AI as a cost to seeing it as an investment in your team can change the game for your business. Think of AI as a hire who handles the mundane, repetitive tasks, allowing your human employees to do what they do best—think creatively, build relationships, and drive innovation.
The companies that adopt AI early are not only saving money; they’re gaining a competitive edge. Those who wait or view AI as an optional expense will find themselves struggling to keep up.
AI Isn’t an Expense—It’s an Investment in Growth
AI is no longer just a “nice-to-have.” It’s the future of business, and it’s here now. When viewed as an essential team member, AI can not only handle the heavy lifting but also provide a return on investment, often exceeding that of a traditional employee.
AI is not just another line item on your budget and start seeing it for what it is: a powerful, member of your team that will help drive your business forward.
Big news from OpenAI yesterday
Guess what I will be doing all weekend, playing with the new model. So far what I am seeing is it shows you the steps of reasoning before providing the output.
From OpenAI, we trained these models to spend more time thinking through problems before they respond, much like a person would. Through training, they learn to refine their thinking process, try different strategies, and recognize their mistakes.
https://openai.com/index/introducing-openai-o1-preview/
Here is the new model’s reasoning when chatting through my view that AI is an investment, not a cost.
Weighing the approach
I'm analyzing how small to mid-sized businesses could approach AI and its costs by integrating OpenAI's guidelines into the response.
Evaluating AI's potential
Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) can harness AI for enhanced efficiency and customer experiences, despite costs and implementation challenges.
Highlighting AI's transformative power
I'm examining AI's substantial benefits for small and medium-sized businesses, such as making better decisions from vast data insights, consistently improving customer service with AI chatbots, and enhancing marketing through personalized customer engagement.
Enhancing AI adoption
I’m thinking through the security and compliance hurdles in AI adoption for SMBs. Starting small and leveraging cloud-based solutions seem like practical first steps.
MAICON (Marketing AI Conference)
I was attending MAICON this week in Cleveland. It was fantastic and I will be returning next year. I will do a recap of my trip. The speakers were incredible. If you are in marketing, you need to add it to your conference list. It will be held on Oct 14-16, 2025. https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/events/marketing-artificial-intelligence-conference
Greater Cincinnati AI Events for 2024 (over 70 events)
New events are added weekly. Here are the events that I am aware of: https://kendraramirez.com/cincinnati-ai-events-2024/
September 18 SCORE Confluence Conference. The links are clickable in their pdf. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LvdvZniLoRH0-z4_OfKF3erZyMy4-dU7/view I am leading a session on Change.
September 19 11:15-1 Florence Business Council https://business.nkychamber.com/events/Details/florence-business-council-september-meeting-ai-for-business-growth-1065323?sourceTypeId=Website I am leading this session.
September 20, 8-12 at Miami University in VOA. Butler County Workforce Development https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-integration-shaping-tomorrows-future-tickets-935909720167?aff=oddtdtcreator I am one of two speakers on this day.
September 27 AI Hands-on Workshop at NKU hosted by BizAccessHub. Back by popular demand. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bizaccesshub-small-business-ai-bootcamp-fall-2024-tickets-991306062117?aff=oddtdtcreator Early bird pricing ends on September 13. Myself and many other amazing trainers and coaches are involved.
October 8 from 3-5 for our CincyAI meetup. Come see why we sell out every month with over 150 attendees. Half of the room is AI developers and half the room is the business community navigating AI. Thank you to UC Research and Digital Futures for your partnership. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/920236270457?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Kendra Ramirez
KendraRamirez.com
We provide AI Speaking and Training, AI Readiness Assessments, AI Strategy, AI roadmap and implementation, and AI Coaching for small to mid-size businesses.