# Estimate realistically how much time AI could free up in a workflow

A grounded estimate of capacity AI could create in a workflow, step by step, net of review time and with clear assumptions.

- Topic: Working with AI
- Framework: RTF
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Write, Summarize, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/estimate-realistically-how-much-time-ai-could-free-up-in-a-workflow

## Prompt

```text
Estimate how much capacity AI could realistically create in a workflow, without the hype.

**The workflow:** [STEPS]
**Volume:** [how often it runs, per week or month]
**Time per step today:** [from tracking or best guess - say which]
**People involved and their roles:** [DETAILS]
**How AI would be used:** [e.g. drafting, summarizing, data prep, classification]

Steps:
1. For each step, estimate time today vs. with AI, including the new time for prompting, reviewing, correcting, and handling errors. Most AI steps still need review; include it.
2. Give low, likely, and high estimates.
3. Account for adoption: learning time, how many people will actually use it, and the share of cases AI can't handle.
4. Separate **hours freed** (capacity) from **cost saved** (only if hours are actually redeployed or not hired).

Return:
1. A table: Step | Time today | Time with AI (incl. review) | Saving per run | Runs/month | Hours/month (low / likely / high).
2. Total monthly capacity created, with the assumptions listed.
3. The 2-3 assumptions the estimate is most sensitive to, and how to test them in a pilot.
4. A one-paragraph summary I could share with my manager.

Show your math. Label every number not provided by me as [ESTIMATE] and do not present estimates as measured results.
```

## What to fill in

- STEPS
- how often it runs, per week or month
- from tracking or best guess - say which
- DETAILS
- e.g. drafting, summarizing, data prep, classification
- ESTIMATE

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.