# Build and One-Off Costs — Estimating AI Automation ROI

Source: https://www.skillbyai.com/en/ai-automation-roi/c-build

> Everything before the first real invoice.

## More than engineering

One-off costs include discovery and process design, engineering and **integration** with existing systems (often the largest item), building an **evaluation set** and testing, **security, privacy and legal** review, change management and **training**, and the pilot itself. Integration with legacy systems and data clean-up are frequently underestimated; add contingency proportional to uncertainty.

## Build, run, oversee, maintain

API fees are a small part of the cost; people and upkeep usually dominate.

![Four ideas: build costs, run costs, oversight, maintenance.](assets/figures/ai-automation-roi/section-4-map.svg) — Figure 4.1 — Build, run, oversight and maintenance.

## One-off cost lines

Typical categories for an automation project.

```text
discovery & process design        8,000
build & integration (ERP, email)  30,000
evaluation set & testing          6,000
change management & training      5,000
security & legal review           4,000
---------------------------------------
one-off total                     53,000   (+ contingency for integration risk)
```

## Add contingency for integration

Legacy integrations rarely go as planned; 20 to 50% contingency on that line is common.

**Quiz:** Which one-off cost is often underestimated?

- [x] Integration with existing systems and data clean-up
- [ ] Buying a laptop
- [ ] Writing the project name
- [ ] Printing slides

*Answer:* Integration with existing systems and data clean-up. Integration is usually the hard part.