You do not have a business case until you can fill in current cost, run cost, and payback. Otherwise it is a brochure with your logo on it.
Drawn from AI That Pays for Itself, the book's operator-first method for making AI produce measurable value.
People-hours, rework, delay, and opportunity cost per month.
Software, inference, human review, maintenance, and quarterly re-validation.
Setup cost divided by monthly saving. Under 12 months with readiness above 18 is where the conversation gets interesting.
It goes into Kit so follow-up can match what you actually asked for, not some generic newsletter fog.
Use this before a vendor meeting, before a pilot, or before asking a board for budget. The point is to force the operational questions first: what moves, who owns it, what it costs, when we stop, and how we keep watching after launch.