Rippling burned millions on AI in months — then built a tool to measure employee ROI

According to TechCrunch, HR platform Rippling spent millions of dollars rolling out AI within just a few months — and ran into the question familiar to anyone buying AI for business: which part of that spending actually works. The answer became an internal tool that measures employee ROI, factoring in how people use the new capabilities.

The sequence matters more than the amount. Subscriptions, tokens and pilots multiply easily while they are handed out just in case, and nobody holds the thread between cost and outcome. Even a tech company that itself sells workforce-management software got around to measuring only once the bill grew visible.

For a company in Kazakhstan the cheaper route is the reverse: first pick the processes where AI must deliver a measurable effect, and only then scale the spending. Anchoring to roles helps: when the director, the accountant and a manager each have their own AI agent — the way 1Cifer structures it, for instance — it is clear which position actually got relief, and the ROI conversation runs on facts rather than impressions.