Finance precision: the headline output is a pre-tax economic multiplier, not accounting ROIC. The tool reports two ROIC views — Year-1 ROIC reflects the selected adoption ramp; Steady-state ROIC is the asset's earning capability at maturity. NPV uses discounted incremental FCF (assuming FCF ≈ NOPAT; working capital and incremental capex are not modeled). Adoption ramp defaults are set per industry; override below for deployment-specific planning.
Industry profile
Adoption ramp to steady state
Ramp: 30% → 55% → 75% → 90% → 100%
Economic Multiplier = (Revenue under influence × Improvement rate × Contribution margin × Realization factor) ÷ Initial AI investment
$1.0B
1.00%
55%
70%
$3.0M
20%
24%
9.0%
5 yrs
2.0%
Incremental revenue
$10.0M
revenue under influence × improvement
Gross contribution
$3.85M
after margin and realization
Economic multiplier
1.28×
gross contribution ÷ initial investment
Implied ROIC
Year 114%
Steady82%
incremental NOPAT ÷ initial investment
Implied NPV
$3.2M
simplified FCF ≈ NOPAT, ramp applied
Payback
~22 months
cumulative contribution net of recurring AI cost, ramp applied
CFO-grade bridge
Calculator formula
Economic Multiplier = (Revenue under influence × Improvement rate × Contribution margin × Realization factor) ÷ Initial AI investmentFinance-grade value bridge
Incremental NOPAT_t = [(Gross contribution_t − Recurring AI cost) × (1 − Tax rate)]NPV = −I0 + Σ [Incremental FCF_t ÷ (1 + WACC)^t]Industry default profile outputs
| Industry | Revenue under influence | Improvement | Contribution margin | AI investment | Ramp | Multiplier | Y1 ROIC | SS ROIC | NPV |
|---|
Verticals marked below the single-workflow hurdle show negative economics at workflow #1 scope under conservative defaults. The portfolio multiplier — foundation pod IP paid once, reused across workflows — is what changes the answer; see the companion framework, Panel 5.
Interpretation discipline
Revenue denominator
The multiplier can be large because small improvements are applied to a large revenue base. Only include revenue actually influenced by the AI workflow.
Realization matters
The realization factor captures adoption, data quality, workflow fit, change friction, and execution probability. This is where CFO skepticism should enter first.
Contribution margin, not gross margin
Use incremental contribution margin after direct costs and variable GTM costs. Avoid using corporate gross margin unless it is a defensible proxy.
Below-hurdle verticals stay visible
Three industry profiles show negative NPV at single-workflow scope. That is the model working, not failing: in low-margin, low-improvement-rate verticals, one workflow cannot carry the full foundation investment. The capital case in these sectors rests on portfolio economics — the multiplier the companion framework models — not on tuning single-workflow inputs until they turn positive.
Two ROIC views
Year-1 ROIC reflects the selected adoption ramp and is the number a CFO can defend against year-end actuals. Steady-state ROIC is the asset's earning capability at maturity. Either figure alone is misleading; the spread between them is the conversation.