In short
- “Average” gains that circulate say little about your company. A study by researchers (NBER, 2023) measures +14% of requests resolved per hour among customer support advisers.
- The calculation comes down to four lines: the cost of an hour in your company, hours saved measured during a trial, the full cost of the agent, gains outside hours.
- The time your team spends approving the agent’s work is part of the cost. It is often what decides.
An AI agent is a program that prepares tasks from your tools: a draft reminder, a reply, a quote. At Kendu Intelligence, the principle is simple: the agent prepares and your team approves, at least at the start. Before signing, one question: does it bring in more than it costs? Here is a method you can redo yourself, with your figures. It promises nothing. It measures.
The figures that circulate, and the ones that hold up
The figures that come up often are of three kinds: a technical potential, a forecast, or a company talking about its own results. None measures a gain in an SME.
A more solid figure comes from a study published by the NBER, an American economic research organisation. Released in April 2023 by Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li and Lindsey Raymond, it covers 5,179 customer support advisers equipped with a generative AI chat assistant. Result: +14% of requests resolved per hour on average, +34% for beginners and the less skilled, a minimal effect for the most experienced.
Two lessons. The gain measured seriously remains modest, and it changes depending on who does the work. An average measured elsewhere does not tell you what you will gain: measure in your own company.
Step 1: the real cost of an hour of administrative work (France, Spain, Belgium)
An hour saved is worth what it costs you: gross salary plus employer contributions, divided by the hours actually worked. Your own figure is the best. Public statistics give only an order of magnitude.
| Country | Reference salary | What you add | Your exact figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | Private-sector employees (a wider category than administrative staff): €2,500 gross per month on average in 2024, salary adjusted to full time (Insee Première n° 2079) | Employer contributions, less any reductions | The line “Montant total versé par l'employeur”, mandatory on the payslip, or the Urssaf simulator, whose results are indicative |
| Spain | Office employees without public contact: €28,148.26 gross per year; with public contact: €22,263.18 (2023 averages, INE) | At least 30.65% in 2026: 23.60% + 5.50% unemployment (rate for permanent contracts) + 0.20% wage guarantee fund + 0.60% training + 0.75% “intergenerational equity mechanism” (order PJC/297/2026, articles 4, 16 and 33). On top comes the work accident contribution, paid by the employer alone according to a legal scale | Your gestoría (firm that handles your payslips) or the payslip (nómina) |
| Belgium | Administrative employees in the private sector in Wallonia: €3,310 gross per month, median salary 2022, full-time and part-time combined (IWEPS, based on Statbel) | About 25%: 19.88% basic contribution and up to 5.12% “wage moderation”, another employer contribution (ONSS, instructions for the 3rd quarter of 2026). Plus 1.60% if you employ at least 10 workers on average, and a few small contributions. Less any reductions | Your social secretariat (the provider that does your payslips): ask for the full annual cost, bonuses included |
The median salary splits employees into two equal halves: half earn less, the other half earn more. The Belgian figure dates from 2022 and mixes full-time and part-time: your payslip is more recent and more precise.
Then divide the annual cost by the hours worked. In France, the legal reference is 1,607 hours per year for a full-time employee. For example, if your payslip shows €3,000 of “Montant total versé par l'employeur” each month, that makes €36,000 over 12 months, or about €22.40 per hour. In Spain and Belgium, use the hours in your collective agreement.
Step 2: the hours saved, measured during the shadow trial
You do not guess the hours saved: you measure them during the shadow trial. For a few weeks, a length defined with you, the agent proposes its work without sending anything, and your team works as usual. Then we compare.
Four measurements:
- The current time spent each month on the task, without the agent.
- The agreement rate: the share of proposals your team would have sent without changing them.
- The approval time: reading, correcting and approving a proposal.
- The stop cases: in cases written in advance (dispute, amount outside the rules, missing data), the agent stops and hands over instead of guessing. These cases stay manual.
Hours saved = current time − approval time − time of stop cases.
An hour saved has value only if it is put to use: absorbing more activity without hiring, reducing overtime. Otherwise, count zero.
Step 3: the full cost of the agent, approval time included
Add everything up:
- The set-up: on quote, depending on your tools. The initial audit, at €490 excl. VAT, is deducted from the quote if you sign it within 30 days. Spread the set-up over the intended period of use, for example 24 months.
- The supervision subscription: on quote.
- AI usage: the AI model is billed by the volume of text it reads and writes, counted in “tokens”, pieces of words (Anthropic’s rates). Ask during the audit how it will be billed and where you will follow it.
- Your team’s time: writing the agent’s rules, following the shadow trial, learning to approve the agent’s proposals. And above all approving, every month.
Approval is a real cost line. At the start, your team approves every action: this is autonomy level 1. If the measurements are good, and with your written agreement, the agent then acts alone on cases covered by written rules. Your team then approves only the exceptions and checks a sample: this is autonomy level 2. The calculation is then redone. In our method, some actions always stay approved by a human, such as issuing an invoice or sending a formal notice (the official letter demanding payment).
Step 4: the gains that are not hours (payment time, response time)
Payment time. A reminders agent prepares each reminder on the date set by your schedule. Your clients may pay faster: compare the average payment time before and after. Each day gained frees up cash:
Cash freed = annual turnover invoiced on credit terms (paid afterwards, at 30 or 60 days for example) × days gained ÷ 365.
This money is freed only once. The monthly gain is the financing you no longer pay for: overdraft, or factoring (selling your invoices to an organisation that advances you the money). It is calculated like this: cash freed × your annual rate ÷ 12. If you do not borrow, use the rate at which you invest your cash.
Response time. For quotes or support, measure the time before and after, and your rate of signed quotes. Be careful: other causes make it vary (season, price). If you cannot isolate the agent’s effect, note it without putting a figure on it.
A worked example, with its assumptions
Take, for example, an SME of 30 employees that invoices on credit terms and chases its unpaid invoices by hand. All the figures below are illustrative assumptions, not observed results.
| Line | Assumption | Value per month |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of an administrative hour | €25, contributions included | |
| Current time on reminders and reconciliations | 25 h per month | |
| Approval time for proposals | 6 h per month | |
| Stop cases handled by hand | 3 h per month | |
| Hours saved | 25 − 6 − 3 = 16 h | 400 € |
| Turnover invoiced on credit terms | €3,000,000 per year | |
| Average payment time | from 55 to 50 days | |
| Cash freed, once | 3 000 000 × 5 ÷ 365 ≈ 41 100 € | |
| Financing avoided, at 6% per year | 41 100 × 6 % ÷ 12 | ≈ 205 € |
| Total value | ≈ 605 € |
Reading. The agent pays off if its monthly costs stay under €605: subscription, AI usage, set-up spread over 24 months, team start-up (10 hours, or €250, spread the same way). Payback time, in months = (set-up + start-up) ÷ (€605 − subscription − AI).
Two variations show where everything is decided:
- Approval of 12 hours instead of 6: 10 hours saved, about €455 per month.
- Hours freed with no other use: only the cash counts, about €205 per month.
Sometimes the right conclusion is that an agent is not worth it for this process. Better to know early: the audit estimates these figures with your volumes, the shadow trial measures them before going live, supervision will track them every month.
Going further
- Our method: audit, shadow trial, autonomy levels.
- Supervision: the monthly report and the indicators planned for each agent.
- Request an audit: this calculation, done with your volumes; €490 excl. VAT, deducted from the quote if you sign it within 30 days.