The honest arithmetic.
WHAT TO COUNT
Time spent on the task before Time spent on the task after, including verification The subscription cost The time spent learning
THE VERIFICATION COST
The one people omit.
Time saved drafting and spent correcting is not a saving.
A REALISTIC CALCULATION
If a task took an hour and now takes twenty minutes plus ten minutes checking, you saved thirty minutes.
Across a week, that is worth knowing.
WHAT MAKES IT WORTHWHILE
High frequency Low verification burden Work you were doing badly or not at all
THAT LAST ONE
AI frequently enables work that was not happening: content you never wrote, documents you never produced.
That is value, though it is not time saved.
WHAT MAKES IT NOT WORTHWHILE
Infrequent tasks Tasks requiring heavy verification Tasks you do faster directly
WHEN TO REASSESS
After three months of actual use.
THE QUESTION
Is the work better, or just faster? Both count. Confusing them does not.