What a Company Brain Costs — and How to Measure Whether It Pays Back
Before you spend on a Company Brain, work out what your team's repeated questions and slow answers cost you today. Here's the simple payback formula, what drives the price, and the numbers to track after launch.
By Garvit Jain, Vardhan AI
The right way to think about a Company Brain's cost is against what the problem costs you now. Most businesses have never put a number on it, so let's do that first — with your own figures, not ours.
Step 1: what does the problem cost today?
Three sources of cost, each with a formula you can fill in this afternoon:
- Time on repeated questions = (number of people who answer or look up repeat questions) × (hours per week each) × (their hourly cost) × 4
- Slow or wrong replies = (enquiries per month) × (share that go cold or get a wrong answer) × (average deal value) × (your normal close rate)
- Knowledge risk = what it would cost if your most knowledgeable person left tomorrow — weeks of lost productivity, mistakes, rework
Use honest, conservative numbers. Ask your team to log repeated questions for one week rather than guessing. You may find the first number alone is larger than you expected.
Step 2: what drives the price of a Company Brain?
- Scope: one department versus several
- Volume and mess of source material: how many documents, and how much cleaning they need
- Integrations: a Google Sheet is simple; several systems take more
- Actions and automations: how much the Brain should do, not just answer
- Ongoing care: keeping sources current and tuning answers after launch
At Vardhan AI a setup is a fixed-scope engagement, with an optional monthly plan to keep it maintained. We give a specific quote after a short workflow call because scope changes the answer. The full breakdown is in our Company Brain catalogue, which you can download on the Company Brain page.
Step 3: the payback calculation
Payback period (months) = setup cost ÷ (monthly value recovered − monthly running cost). Monthly value recovered is the part of Step 1 you realistically expect to win back. Be cautious: assume only half of the time cost is recovered, and ignore any upside from extra deals until you have proof.
Step 4: what to measure after launch
- Time to first reply for enquiries — before and after
- Hours spent on repeat questions — the same weekly log you started with
- Wrong or outdated answers sent — should fall to near zero
- Onboarding time for the next new hire (see onboarding with a Company Brain)
- Questions the Brain couldn't answer — a shrinking list means it's learning your business
Take a baseline before go-live and review at 30 and 90 days. If the numbers don't move, the answer is usually in the documents — missing, outdated or unowned — not in the idea.
When it isn't worth it yet
If you have three people and answer few repeat questions, a shared folder and clear habits may be enough. A Company Brain pays off as team size, enquiry volume and dependency on a few knowledgeable people grow. Our service is aimed at teams of roughly 10 to 500 where tribal knowledge is the bottleneck. If you're unsure, Talk to us → and we'll tell you honestly whether it's worth it for you.