4. Strategic Surface Area: Measure the Moves You Couldn’t Make Before

Some ROI isn’t in the spreadsheet. It’s in what AI lets you do faster, earlier, or more often:  campaigns launched,  experiments run,  agility when the market shifts. This is your strategic advantage: adaptability.

What to track:

• Time to launch a new campaign, play, or segment
• Speed of testing (messaging, offers, ICPs)
• Internal self-sufficiency (less dependency on ops, analysts, etc.)
• Strategic pivots executed with AI support

AI increases strategic agility. You go to market faster, pivot faster, and win before others react.

Don’t ask “What’s the ROI of AI?” in a vacuum. Ask: “What workflows can AI enable that we couldn’t do before?” Then track what happens when you finally do them. That’s your ROI.