Technology and AI ROI Measurement for PE Portfolio Companies

The economist beside the operator, not the vendor

When a portfolio company rolls out a new platform, automation or AI, the vendor measures its own success. We embed alongside the operator as the independent read on adoption, time saved and where the freed capacity goes.

From work we have done

We have embedded alongside operators and AI vendors at PE-backed portfolio companies, with results including a 15% labor productivity gain across about 100 facilities and a health care tech company 20% more productive within a year.

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What the vendor reports, and what the return depends on

Vendors report activity. We measure the outcomes the return depends on, and we don't build or sell the technology.

What the vendor typically reports

Licenses

Seats purchased and assigned

Logins

Who opened the tool

Feature use

Clicks and sessions

Satisfaction

Survey scores

What we measure

Accuracy

Is the output right, by task type?

Real adoption

Who relies on it, and who works around it

Time saved

Per task, against a measured baseline

Redeployment

Where the freed capacity actually goes

The return

Outcome Margin the board can see, and evidence it was the technology that produced it

Figure 1. The return on a technology investment is decided in the bottom row.

From a plan to a tool management can steer with

The regression and linear-programming models that set the best mix of inputs at each location can be left behind as a decision tool, so management can test a change in labor, hours or technology, or an investment such as automation, before committing capital.

Find out whether the technology is paying off

A short conversation is usually enough to see what would need to be measured, and how quickly.

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