Every company casts a shadow of manual work.
Pick a company like yours. You see it from above: one building per department, and on the ground a shadow of the hours people spend on recurring work by hand. Slot an AI building block into a step and watch the shadow shrink. The calculation shows what you put in, what comes back, and when it pays off.
The companies are fictitious but typical. Hours and savings are estimates from studies, association figures and the catalog; adjust them to your own numbers.
Dark: manual work that remains with AI. Light: work AI takes over if every matching block is used (realistic estimate).
- Family practice Dr. Lindner & colleague, 9 staffTwo physicians and seven medical assistants in a small town, about 1,600 patients per quarter: the phone rings all morning and documentation and billing spill into the evening.278 h of manual work a week
up to 68 h less with AI - Stadtquartier Hausverwaltung GmbH, 12 employeesA property manager with about 1,100 units (WEG and rental) whose managers drown in tenant e-mails, owners' meeting minutes and the annual service-charge statements.318 h of manual work a week
up to 90 h less with AI - Müller & Partner Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, 12 employeesA tax firm drowning in client receipts, deadlines and the same questions every month while qualified staff are scarce.288 h of manual work a week
up to 100 h less with AI - Brandt Heating & Plumbing GmbH, 15 employeesA family-run SHK firm busy with service, bathrooms and heat pumps, losing evenings to quotes, funding paperwork and time sheets.517 h of manual work a week
up to 76 h less with AI - Kramer Building Services Engineering GmbH, 20 employeesA TGA planning office for offices, schools and clinics that loses its engineers to calculations, drawing revisions, minutes and the hunt for old project data.661 h of manual work a week
up to 109 h less with AI - Gartenglück24 GmbH, 25 employees (online retailer for home & garden)Sells about 6,000 home and garden items via its own Shopware store, Amazon, eBay and Kaufland; the biggest time sinks are customer mail, returns and product data.789 h of manual work a week
up to 190 h less with AI - Hotel Seeblick GmbH, 60 rooms with restaurant, 35 staffFamily-run house with 60 rooms and an a-la-carte restaurant: bookings arrive through five channels, guest questions by mail, phone and WhatsApp, and the roster is re-jigged every week because staff are short.735 h of manual work a week
up to 83 h less with AI - Sonnenhof Home Care Service Ltd., 45 staffA home care service with about 120 clients and 30 carers (part and full time): care itself is at capacity, but documentation, route changes and insurer billing eat the time that should go to people.1,349 h of manual work a week
up to 144 h less with AI - Kessler & Sons electrical and plumbing wholesale GmbH, 50 staffTechnical wholesaler with 38,000 items, a central warehouse and four field reps: orders arrive as PDF and email, master data is chronically stale, and the sales desk types, searches and phones half the day.1,419 h of manual work a week
up to 277 h less with AI - Nordhaus Transport & Logistik GmbH, 60 employeesA family-run haulier with 22 trucks and a contract-logistics warehouse, whose dispatchers spend their days on the phone chasing drivers, statuses and paperwork instead of planning.1,942 h of manual work a week
up to 281 h less with AI - Reiter Special Machinery GmbH, 80 employeesBuilds custom machines and assembly lines to customer specification; most time burns between enquiry, bill of materials and documentation, not at the machine.2,271 h of manual work a week
up to 347 h less with AI - Stadtwerke Lindenau GmbH, 150 employeesA municipal utility (power, gas, water) whose customer centre, meter-to-cash billing and regulatory reporting drown a small office team in forms, market-communication errors and BNetzA/KRITIS paperwork.2,905 h of manual work a week
up to 579 h less with AI