Professional Services Intelligence Brief
How to Evaluate the Business Case for Workflow Automation
Automation promises time back, but many firms cannot show a return. A simple business case, built on one workflow and measured before and after, tells you whether it is worth doing.
Short answer
To evaluate the business case for workflow automation, pick one repeatable workflow, measure its current hours, errors and delays, estimate what automation could change, and compare the benefit with the full cost, including setup, licenses, training, oversight and risk. Evidence of returns is thin: the Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 survey found that only 18 percent of organizations collect metrics on the return from AI, even though 40 percent report organization-wide GenAI use, up from 22 percent a year earlier.[1] SPI-linked data suggest the clearest gains are in revenue leakage, where top firms used automation to cut losses below 3 percent.[2]
Where is the evidence for automation’s return?
Adoption has moved faster than measurement. The Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 AI in Professional Services Report, based on a survey of more than 1,500 professionals, found that four in ten respondents say their organizations use generative AI, up from 22 percent a year earlier, while 19 percent say their organizations do not plan to use it at all.[1] But only 18 percent say their organizations collect metrics on the return from AI, and those that do mostly track internal measures such as cost savings or employee usage rather than business-focused outcomes such as client satisfaction or amount of business generated.[1] The report describes many organizations as struggling to determine ROI, and says many are using AI tools without guidance on what constitutes success.[1]
The same report states that advanced AI capabilities mean work that took hours can now be done in minutes, and that for firms that depend on hourly billing this could threaten how they make money.[1] The implication for a firm is that automation can reduce delivery cost but may also change what clients are willing to pay for, so the business case should include pricing as well as cost.
How do you pick the right workflow to automate?
Choose a workflow that is frequent, rule-based, measurable and painful. Good candidates in professional services include time entry and billing preparation, client intake and onboarding, document assembly and first drafts, data gathering and reconciliation, status reporting and routine communications. Poor candidates are rare, judgment-heavy tasks where errors are costly and the volume is low.
Revenue leakage is a strong target. Deltek’s summary of the SPI report says professional services organizations lost an average of 4.5 percent of revenue to leakage in 2025, caused by missed billing, scope creep, write-offs or poor contract controls, while top firms used automation to cut losses below 3 percent.[2] A workflow that catches unbilled time and expenses, flags out-of-scope work or prompts invoicing has a measurable benefit that you can estimate from your own data.
How do you build the business case?
Measure the baseline first. For the chosen workflow, record volume per month, minutes per item, who does it, error or rework rate, delay and the cost of each hour. Then estimate the change: time saved per item, errors avoided, faster cash collection and capacity released. Be conservative and ask the people who do the work to check your assumptions.
| Element | What to estimate | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| Benefit: time | Hours saved per month times the value of an hour | Time study before and after on a sample |
| Benefit: leakage | Unbilled or written-off amounts the workflow would catch | Last twelve months of write-offs and unbilled aging[2] |
| Benefit: quality | Errors and rework avoided | Error log and rework hours |
| Benefit: cash | Days of lockup removed | Billing and collection data |
| Cost: setup | Software, configuration, integration, data clean-up | Vendor quotes and internal time |
| Cost: running | Licenses, support, oversight, review of outputs | Contract terms, staff estimates |
| Risk | Accuracy, confidentiality, regulatory and client rules | Pilot results; policy review |
Value the time saved honestly. Hours freed are worth the fully loaded cost of those hours only if they are converted into billable work, reduced overtime or avoided hiring. If the saved time simply disappears into the day, the benefit is not cash. Under fixed fees, saved time is profit; under hourly billing, it may be lost revenue unless pricing changes.
What are the risks and how do you control them?
The Thomson Reuters report notes that accuracy is a barrier cooling expectations for some, and that many professionals cite reliability and accuracy, the need for human oversight and ethical or legal concerns as reasons AI should not be applied to certain work.[1] Build review into the process, define which tasks require human check, keep a log of errors and test accuracy on a sample before scaling. Check confidentiality and client agreements: the report found that 40 percent of professionals have been told both to use AI and not to use AI on client work, depending on the client.[1]
Plan for change management too. People need training, clear rules and time to adapt. Consider the effect on pricing, since clients increasingly expect to benefit from efficiency gains, and on roles: use automation to free skilled people for higher-value work, not simply to cut hours.
How do you run a pilot and decide?
Pilot on one team for one to three months with a defined baseline and success measures: hours per item, error rate, turnaround time and user satisfaction. Compare with a control group if possible. Calculate the return: annual net benefit divided by the total first-year cost, and the payback period. Decide in advance what result would make you scale, adjust or stop. After the pilot, document the new process and update training, then track the same measures quarterly; the 18 percent figure in the Thomson Reuters survey is a reminder that most organizations never close this loop.[1]
Frequently asked questions
How many firms measure the return on AI?
Only 18 percent of respondents to the Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2026 survey said their organizations collect metrics on the return from AI.[1]
What workflows are best to automate first?
Frequent, rule-based, measurable ones such as billing preparation, intake, document assembly and status reporting; revenue leakage is a strong target.[2]
Can automation hurt pricing?
It can. Thomson Reuters notes work that took hours can be done in minutes, which challenges hourly billing, so consider fixed or value pricing as part of the case.[1][3]
How long should a pilot run?
One to three months is common, with a baseline, success measures and a rule agreed in advance for scaling, adjusting or stopping.
What are the main risks?
Accuracy and reliability, the need for human oversight, confidentiality and conflicting client rules; the Thomson Reuters survey found 40 percent of professionals have been told both to use and not to use AI on client work.[1]
What to do next
- Choose one repeatable workflow and measure its baseline.
- Estimate benefit and the full cost, including oversight and risk.
- Run a one to three month pilot with clear success measures.
- Review pricing: decide how efficiency gains will be shared with clients.
Optional · interactive example
See it in an interactive example.
Firm Economics Dashboard: a service-line dashboard with utilization and realization, a scenario simulator for hours, rate and cost, evidence-linked answers from APIS, and a sample brief, all on synthetic data.
The experience below is built on a synthetic firm, “Demo Advisory Partners,” analyzed by service line. It has no client-level or engagement-level records, so service lines are used to show the method. Nothing in it is real.
- In the Scenario tab, the preset adds 3% to billable hours, the best case where all saved time is billed. Note the profit.
- Now add 3% to hours but 3% to compensation cost per hour. What if the savings are not converted?
- Ask APIS how sensitive profit is to hours and cost.
Understand Your Firm’s Economics and Growth Opportunities
Two Pillars helps professional services firms investigate profitability, capacity, pricing and growth using the firm’s own data and a structured assessment process. A good first step is a delivery workflow review that maps how work moves through your firm, measures waiting time and capacity at each step and finds the one constraint that limits output.
Sources
- Thomson Reuters Institute, 2026 AI in Professional Services Report. Accessed October 2026.
- Deltek, 5 KPIs from the SPI Professional Services Maturity Benchmark Report Every PSO Must Track for Sustainable Growth (July 15, 2026). Accessed October 2026.
- Thomson Reuters Institute and Georgetown Law Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession, 2026 State of the US Legal Market. Accessed October 2026.
Sources checked October 2026. This guide is general information for the leaders of professional services firms and is not legal, accounting, tax or financial advice. Figures and rules are cited to the sources below and may have changed since they were accessed, so confirm anything you rely on against the current source. Two Pillars & Co is independent of the organizations cited. See our editorial policy.