This isn’t a great example of ROI calculations. When companies calculate staff costs they factor in benefits, shared services costs (HR, IT Helpdesk, etc). Even if the ai wasn’t cheaper than the salary alone, benefits put that much higher.

However, it doesn’t really matter. Low or no ROI isn’t going to stop the AI cult from selling snake oil products to companies with the promise of “savings”, real or not. C suite types will say its a better long term investment in new technology and tools, or that multiple applications of an ai service allow costs to be spread across the business.