Home / The $2.8M
Dan Young, founder of PC Laptops and Xidax
How AI cut $2.8M a year from my companies.
I didn't read about this. We ran it on our own companies first. Our operating costs are running $2.8 million a year lower, with AI driving it. Here's where it came from, what it does in every department, and where I'd start in yours.
The $2.8M is our own internal management estimate. It hasn't been audited, part of it is a projection from current run rates, and your results will be different.
Where the $2.8M came from
The biggest share. AI took the remedial tasks off our people. The ones who learned to run it moved up to bigger work, and we've given out a lot of raises because of it.
Reporting, audits, reviews and copywriting that used to eat hours every week. That's work we no longer hire for.
It went through every recurring charge and subscription we pay and flagged duplicates, dead accounts and stuff nobody was using.
Email, blog and ad copy we used to pay an outside agency for now gets done in-house.
Every morning it checks our websites, pricing and consent rules and files the fixes, before a customer or a regulator finds the problem.
Most of it is payroll and automated work. Everything rolls up into the one number. Nothing's added on top.
What it did for our people
When we brought AI in, some of our people got worried. I get it. Here's what actually happened.
AI took the remedial stuff. The copying, sorting, checking and retyping nobody wanted to do anyway. The people who learned to use it made their jobs better, took on bigger work, and a lot of them got raises because of it.
The crazy example is our salespeople. They answer customers way faster now. They get quotes out, custom configure systems and work with their teams on stuff that used to take months, and now it happens in a fraction of the time.
Here's the part that gets me. AI lets people without a big college degree or years of training do work that used to take both. That's a game changer for working people. It's a real shot at getting paid a lot more.
What it does in each department
Most people think AI means a chatbot. Here's the work it actually handles in my companies. Everything got better.
Sales
Answers customers fast, gets quotes out and custom configures systems. Work that used to take months now happens in a fraction of the time.
Customer service
Drafts answers from our own policies, so customers hear back fast and get the right answer.
Accounting
Codes expenses, catches duplicate and wrong charges, and has the reports done before you ask. Accuracy went way up.
Inventory and ordering
Tracks every part and order, flags what's running low or sitting too long, and catches mistakes before they ship.
Logistics
Tracks shipments, catches carrier overcharges and spots problems before the customer calls.
Purchasing
Compares vendors and prices, tracks every subscription and contract, and finds what to cut.
Marketing
Writes ads, emails, posts and product descriptions. Shows what's working and where the money's getting wasted.
Video production
Scripts, edits and captions get done way faster, so we put out more video without adding people.
Projects and teamwork
Keeps tasks, deadlines and messages between our companies and teams moving, so nothing falls through the cracks.
Software and AI development
Our dev team builds and tests faster with AI writing and checking code alongside them.
Websites and compliance
Checks the websites, pricing and compliance every morning and catches the expensive mistakes people miss.
Leadership
Shows where the money's going, where you're over or under staffed and what to change. Every day, not once a quarter.
Where the hours go in your business
Every hour on this list is an hour of payroll.
| The busywork | Who does it today | What AI can do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Finding files and answers | Everyone, many times a day | Searches your own documents and answers in seconds |
| Emails, quotes and reports | Office staff and managers | Writes the first draft for a person to check |
| Bills, invoices and subscriptions | Bookkeeping | Flags duplicates and charges nobody is using |
| The same customer questions | Front desk and sales | Drafts answers from your own policies |
| Numbers for the owner | Managers, every week | Pulls the report together every morning |
| Checking the website and prices | Somebody, when they remember | Checks it every day and flags what's wrong |
Where I'd start in your business
Pick one department, not all of them. Start where people spend the most hours on repeat work. For most companies that's the bookkeeping, the reports or the same customer questions over and over.
Look at your recurring charges first. It's the fastest money. Almost every company pays for subscriptions and services nobody uses anymore.
Keep a person checking the work. AI gets things wrong. It drafts, a person approves. That's how we run it.
Decide where your data lives. If customer records, contracts or payroll go into AI, think hard about whether that should be somebody else's cloud or a machine in your own building. Here's what it takes to run it yourself.
Why listen to me
I'm not a consultant. I've been building companies since 1992, I run AI in my own companies every day, and I was talking about it years before ChatGPT. Here are the receipts.
Tell me how many people would use it and what eats their time. Real projects get a fast answer, and if it doesn't make sense for you, I'll tell you.