Your Executive Committee or Board is asking what the AI spend is worth. I built the math that shows how a 20M consulting firms transforms into a $50M consulting firms in 5 years. I am a CPA (inactive), JD, and a business growth advisor that has worked with100's of CEO's on valuations in the past 30 years. I know what good looks like in a valuation model. I stress-tested five different approaches to determine the change in the business value from a successful AI deployment and they all came up with basically the same number. It was not theory, productivity, or vague promises about transformation. It was utilizing the cost savings to transform how the company makes money.
It was a number and a math calculation that I would feel 100% confident presenting to an Executive Committee or Board. Most firms will never have one because productivity gains from automation and the gathering of disconnected tools will never create strong valuations and they will not transform a business.
The first question that you should ask an AI consultant is how their automations, workflows, and tools are going to drive your business value. The second question should be how are you going to change my revenue model to drive top line growth. When it is done well, the cost reductions are invested back into the company to drive more profit and a higher multiples so that you are counting money and value, not productivity.
The Problem With Most AI ROI Models
Most AI consultants talk about productivity gains, automation savings, workflow efficiencies, and reduced employee time. Some talk about “strategic transformation. Not many professionals can translate AI into a higher business value because they were never trained to think like owners, CFOs, private equity buyers, or tax advisors. They know software and automation. They do not know how to value companies or what drives the valuation of companies.
That is not how sophisticated firms evaluate investments. Boards fund value creation. Acquirers buy cash flow. Partners care about current compensation. Those are very different conversations.
I Built the AI ROI Math Most Firms Are Missing
I work with $20M–$50M consulting and professional services firms that want to materially increase enterprise value over the next five years. It is not based on hype or fuzzy math. It is based on the two most important elements of a valuation, profits and multiples.
I built a multi-model AI ROI framework specifically for privately held professional services firms because the existing models weren’t built for this market. Fortune 500 consulting frameworks don’t translate well to partner dependent and relationship driven firms with custom delivery systems that are not productized. I am also not convinced that the Fortune 500 companies have cracked the formula for computing a return on business value.
Professional services firms have a completely different economic engine. That requires different math. So I stress-tested the framework five different ways using five independent valuation approaches. The interesting part? All five models landed in remarkably similar places. That’s when I knew the frameworks were highly predictive and defensible because they arrived at the same answer in different ways.
What the Models Actually Measure
The models don’t just estimate AI savings. That is just a cost reduction exercise and you cannot cut costs fast enough to compete with your competitors using the savings to improve their cash flow. Here is what our models show.
EBITDA expands because revenues are higher, margins are higher, and the quality of earnings is much greater.
Revenue capacity multiplies because capacity, capability, and pricing power drive sales, but far more important, they drive competitive advantage.
Risk reduction improves substantially because there are less dependencies, tribal knowledge, an inefficient manual delivery systems.
Multiple Expansion is where the real valuation impact occurs because of pricing power and competitive advantage. Firms with systemized delivery, scalable operations, recurring revenue, strong data visibility, and AI-enabled operating leverage will be industry leaders.
These firms will increasingly trade at higher multiples than firms still operating on pure human throughput. The valuation gap between AI-enabled firms and traditional firms is likely to widen significantly over the next five years. Most Executive Committees and boards already sense this. They just don’t yet have the math.
Why My Background Matters Here
I’m business growth advisor, a trained CPA and a lawyer. I bring a unique advantage because I know how to calculate and review the value of companies well. I am able to optimize after tax proceeds, and identify risks to the quality of earnings and the quality of the multiple.
I’ve spent more than 30 years inside privately held business financials, legal structures, tax structures, operations, growth strategy, succession planning, and exit preparation. I knew how to do this long before AI came along. However, having very good AI skills has allowed me to amplify and compound my capabilities on a weekly basis. Once you know how to use AI and you use it to solve business problems that are worth solving every day, your capabilities sky rocket. That is what makes it so hard to catch up when you fall behind.
I know what buyers will discount, what boards will challenge, what lenders question, what the IRS will scrutinize, and what increases business value. The last piece is the most important piece because it is my responsibility to help my clients have a stress free retirement and leave the legacy that they want to their loved ones.
AI is just a vessel to put progress into overdrive. In the business world, it is not worth doing unless you have a clear picture of how each investment will shape your business value over the next five to ten years. AI investment that does unlock one of the eight gates to maximum value is not worth pursuing. We show you what the gates are and how to strategically move through each gate to maximize value.
If you are a company and you are tired of spending money that never hits the P&L, DM me and I will send you the math for your review and peace of mind.
If you are a consultant or professional service provider, email me at bkerrigan@excelerating.com to learn how to drive more value in an AI world.
It’s a financial engineering discussion.
And most firms are approaching it with the wrong lens.
Who This Is For
This framework is designed for:
Managing Partners of $20M–$50M consulting, accounting, advisory, and professional services firms
Owners 3–5 years from an exit
Boards demanding defensible AI ROI projections
Firms trying to protect and increase valuation in an AI-driven market
Who This Is Not For
This is not for:
firms shopping for AI tools
companies looking for generic automation advice
organizations wanting another slide deck
people chasing AI hype cycles
This is for firms that want to quantify how AI changes enterprise value.
Final Thought
The firms that win over the next decade will not necessarily be the firms that adopt the most AI.
They’ll be the firms that understand how AI changes the economics of valuation.
There’s a massive difference.
One is experimentation.
The other is strategy.
If you want a one-page summary of the four valuation models, send me “ROI” in a DM.
No call required.
If the math works for your firm, we’ll discuss implementation.
If it doesn’t, you’ll still walk away with a stress-tested AI ROI framework you can apply anywhere.