As of 13 August 2026, AI can calculate training ROI.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your training budget, attendance records, payroll or paid-time information, and the performance reports covering the period before and after the training.
   2. Gather the programme description, participant numbers, delivery costs, staff time, baseline measures, post-training measures and any comparison-group results.
   3. Record how each outcome is converted into a financial value in pounds, and mark any figure that is an estimate rather than an observed result.
   4. Paste the gathered information into the prompt, leaving missing fields blank and asking the model to identify gaps rather than fill them.
   5. Ask the model to calculate the costs, benefits, net benefit and ROI, then produce the sensitivity analysis and evidence table requested in the prompt.
   6. Compare every figure in the response with the original budget and performance records, and recalculate the arithmetic in your spreadsheet.
   7. Ask an L&D, finance or performance colleague to challenge the attribution, assumptions, comparison period and decision recommendation before sending the report to senior managers.

   Prompt

   Calculate the return on investment for this workplace training programme using only the information I provide. Do not invent figures, outcomes, attendance, savings, salary costs or causal claims. First list the inputs you need and identify anything missing. Then show the calculation step by step, including total training cost, measurable financial benefit, net benefit and ROI percentage where the data supports them. Separate direct evidence from assumptions and estimates. State clearly whether the result shows correlation or supports a credible causal claim. If the data is insufficient, say that ROI cannot be reliably calculated and produce a gap list instead. Include a sensitivity analysis for any uncertain input, a short explanation suitable for senior managers, and a table of every figure with its source and confidence level. Use this context:
   
   Training programme: [description]
   Business objective: [objective]
   Participants: [number and roles]
   Training costs: [trainer, materials, venue, platform, paid time and other costs]
   Baseline measures: [pre-training results and measurement period]
   Post-training measures: [post-training results and measurement period]
   Comparison group or counterfactual: [details, or state that there is none]
   Financial value of the outcome: [method and figures]
   Other relevant changes during the period: [details]
   Time horizon: [period]
   Currency: GBP

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.