How to Measure Planning Time Saved with AI

A worked example with made-up numbers, and a template to measure your own team's hours.

This walkthrough shows how to measure whether AI saves planning time, using a made-up design studio and invented numbers. It sets a start and an end, builds a baseline from past timesheets and compares hours stage by stage. You get a template and a disclosure statement to measure your own projects honestly.

Before you say you cut planning time with AI, you need a fixed start and end, a real baseline and comparable projects. This walkthrough shows the method on one project. The studio, the project and every number below are made up to show the method. They are not a client result, and they predict nothing about yours.

A made-up studio and project

The example studio has six people. Two are senior designers, three are designers and one is a project lead. The project is a two-day product launch for 400 guests in a hotel ballroom. The brief asks for a stage, a demo area, a lounge and a dinner layout for the second night.

The studio wants to know whether moving layout and drawing work into Monet changed its hours, and at which stage.

How to measure planning time with AI

Planning time runs from the brief received to the client-approved layout and issued drawings. Count it twice, in person-hours and in calendar days. Person-hours show cost. Calendar days show how long the client waits.

The baseline is the median of at least three comparable past projects. Match them on venue size and scope. A median is the middle value, so one odd project does not skew it. Take every figure from timesheets, not from memory.

Copy this template.

• Stages: Venue plan preparation, layout options, client revisions, renders, drawings, checks
• Timesheet extract: Project, date, person, role, stage, hours, tool
• Baseline: Median of at least three comparable projects, matched on venue size and scope
• Calculation: Baseline hours minus after hours, divided by baseline hours, for person-hours and for calendar days
• Disclosure: Sample size, why each project was chosen, exclusions, who checked the figures

The baseline, in example numbers

In the example, the studio picks three past launches in ballrooms of a similar size. It leaves out a fourth, because that client changed venue halfway through. The exclusion goes in the disclosure.

Take the median of each stage on its own. Stage medians do not always add up to the median total, so report the total from the projects themselves. In this invented case they happen to match.

The same kind of project in Monet

The team logs the new project the same way, stage by stage. In Monet the workflow has five steps.

1. Upload the venue plan as a PDF or DWG.
2. Generate a to-scale layout from the brief.
3. Let the layout checks re-run after each change. They cover exit clearance, temporary structures in the main walkway, crowd flow, booth noise, a carbon estimate and spatial occupancy.
4. Produce 3D renders and walkthrough videos of the event in the room.
5. Export production-ready plans and elevations. One change regenerates the plan, renders and drawings together.

Record the tool on every timesheet line. Then each hour can be traced to a stage and a method. The drawing stage is shown step by step in a walkthrough of production drawings from an AI workflow.

Where the hours went, in the example

Every figure in this table is invented to show the layout of the comparison.

• Venue plan preparation. Baseline median hours (made up): 6. After hours (made up): 3. Change: 3 fewer.
• Layout options. Baseline median hours (made up): 14. After hours (made up): 6. Change: 8 fewer.
• Client revisions. Baseline median hours (made up): 12. After hours (made up): 14. Change: 2 more.
• Renders. Baseline median hours (made up): 10. After hours (made up): 4. Change: 6 fewer.
• Drawings. Baseline median hours (made up): 16. After hours (made up): 9. Change: 7 fewer.
• Checks. Baseline median hours (made up): 4. After hours (made up): 4. Change: No change.
• Total. Baseline median hours (made up): 62. After hours (made up): 40. Change: 22 fewer.

In this example, client revisions took two hours longer. The team showed more options, so the client asked for more changes. A real log should keep a stage like this in view, not hide it.

To get the share of time saved, divide the hours saved by the baseline hours. Do the same for calendar days. Publish both figures with the disclosure, or publish neither. Adapt this disclosure statement.

"Planning time was counted from brief received to client-approved layout and issued drawings. The baseline is the median of [n] comparable projects from [years], chosen for [reasons]. [n] were excluded because [reasons]. Figures come from timesheets and were checked by [role]."

What the hours will not show

Some work still needs people, whatever the tool. That includes the brief, client conversations, design judgment, coordination with builders and the final check. Monet does not add custom objects such as signs or props, so that time stays in the log as before.

Fewer hours also change how a studio should price its work. Why to stop charging billable hours makes that case.

Run it on your next project

Pick three comparable past projects, pull their timesheets and log the next one the same way. The method is what makes any time figure worth quoting.

If you want to run the same before and after test on your next project, you can start a free trial of Monet with your own venue plan.