EBITDA from AI
Where AI actually shows up in the EBITDA bridge
“AI will drive margin expansion across the portfolio” is not a number a CFO can budget. We write AI as a named workstream with a sized delta, an implementation cost, an owner and a date.
For PE funds & operating partners|Named workstream, not a theme|Net of run cost
5
Questions every line must answer
7
Functional area in the roadmap
0
Vendor names, unless you ask
The test
Five questions every AI line must answer
If a plan cannot answer these five, the AI line is decoration and will not survive the first board meeting that asks for the variance.
1
Which named process?
Not “customer service” — which queue, which document type, which decision step, which team.
2
What does it cost today?
FTE-hours multiplied by loaded cost, or vendor spend. Without a current cost there is no saving to state.
3
What displacement rate, on what evidence?
Observed pilot, comparable deployment, or estimate — and we say which.
4
What does the replacement cost to build and to run?
One-off implementation plus recurring licence, compute and maintenance. We report net, never gross.
5
Who owns it, and by which date?
A named role and a dated milestone, or the line does not go in the plan.
Where it lands
Inside the deliverables you already use
90-Day Roadmap
Seventh functional area
RAG assessment, KPI baselines, and phased initiatives across Days 1–30, 31–60 and 61–90.
Closing Cockpit
Post-close workstream
A Day-1 owner, a first milestone, and the CP checks — data rights, GDPR/nLPD, works council timing.
The Read
Reason five
AI-addressable cost and capacity, sized outside-in before the books open.
Discipline
Sometimes the answer is no
On a business where the addressable cost is small, we say so. A finding that an AI initiative is not worth the management bandwidth in year one is a useful finding, and a firm that only ever finds upside is not doing analysis.
Capacity released is only an EBITDA delta if it is actually banked — either headcount avoided on a growth path, or cost removed. If it is neither, we label it and keep it out of the total.
Add the workstream, or run it standalone
Thirty minutes to scope it against one portfolio company or one live deal.
Book a 30-minute scoping call →Value Bridge Partners
