How much can you save in your business in 2026 with process automation?

Automated business processes as the basis of competitive advantage in 2026 — truth or myth?

Surely many times you have come across expert content on the automation of business processes and its supposed translation into an increase in savings in the company. Why did we use the phrase supposed? Because, for example, on the popular portal LinkedIn, there are many posts about the fact that automation allows you to reduce operating costs, speed up operations or reduce the number of errors, but really few people talk about how much they actually saved thanks to it. Therefore, we want this article to be a reliable source of knowledge and not just another marketing talk. Of course, as a company engaged in the implementation of business automation, we stand by technology, but we will try to present you with the very facts on the basis of which you can or will be able to decide on the implementation yourself. And if you don't know yet what automation can look like in a company, find out more about business process automation before reading this article.

In order to make the real case studies that we will write about in the following paragraphs and their results more understandable, here is a brief summary of how automation affects operating costs and the competitiveness of companies in the market:

1. Automation of business processes makes activities in companies carried out faster, therefore, when used in appropriate activities, it can actually help us get ahead of the competition.

Example: We make an offer for our services in a company that cares about a quick start of the project. We use an automated bidding process, and our competitor prepares the offer manually. Thanks to BPA (business process automation), we can submit a document faster and thus increase our chances of winning a client.

2. Automation allows reduce the number of working hours required to complete the process.‍

Example: We run a service company where one accounting specialist has been required so far. However, as our business grows, we have to issue more and more invoices. For this purpose, we can either hire another employee, or implement the appropriate tools that will automate the entire accounting process.

3. With automation the so-called hidden costs are also reduced — that is, the number of actions that we would have to perform is reduced, for example due to mistakes made or information chaos.

Example: Sellers in your company conduct sales mainly through online meetings with clients. After such conversations, potential clients return from time to time asking to prepare additional documents or to confirm the assumptions again. However, once the automation of sales processes is implemented, it turns out that it is enough to send them an automated summary of the conversation to avoid most of the additional questions.

The above examples show that automation is not an abstract concept detached from business realities, but a very concrete tool that affects the daily work of teams and the pace of development of the company. So, to answer the question from the title — yes, automated business processes can become the foundation of your competitive advantage in 2026. However, for this to happen, you need to know which activities to automate and, of course, what is best to spend the saved time and budget on.

How do we calculate the ROI of automation for our customers?

In order to evaluate, whether automation is profitable, we start by counting how much a company actually spends each month to perform a given process. If, for example, two people are needed to handle a specific task, each earning PLN 9,000 gross, then the cost of the process is PLN 18,000 per month. Automation, which reduces working time by 70%, allows you to recover about PLN 12,600 every month — which means that when implemented for PLN 20,000, the investment pays off after about a month and a half. From this point on, all the savings generated become a pure profit for the company. With such calculations before the start of the project, our clients know whether it is worth automating processes and how much they can actually save.

Examples of process automation that have brought savings to our clients' companies

Before we go into specific figures, we want to emphasize that the following summary is only a snippet of the implementation we have done for our clients. We show here mainly small improvements implemented for the SME sector — all based on real data and effects, what companies have achieved with automation. If you want to see more examples, including more complex projects, we invite you to our full case studies, where we detail the processes, tools and results: https://www.sagiton.pl/en/case-studies

Below are 5 examples of business process automation that we have implemented for our clients. See how much time we have saved by automating sales or customer service processes!

1. Automation of sales processes for the company from the service industry

What we did:
We have implemented sales process automation by integrating the Slack messenger into the customer's website and CRM system. Thanks to this, the leads immediately fall into the corresponding channel of the communicator. In addition, we have created dedicated dashboards that show sales results in real time.

What was the cost reduction:
First of all, thanks to the automation of the company, salespeople no longer need to log in to the CRM system and began to take leads faster, which in our client's industry has a real impact on the number of closed sales. The implementation of dashboards eliminated the need to manually create operational reports, which in total took up to 30 hours per week for the sales department.

Time of implementation: 3 weeks
Cost of implementation: PLN 13 000
Time saving: 70 hrs per month
Budget-saving: PLN 6,500 per month
Return on Investment (ROI): after 2 months

2. Automation of the document flow system for the administration department

What we did:
We created a system that made it possible to automate the process of signing documents. Customers now receive an intuitive form in which they fill in their details for the contract themselves. In addition, the administration department has a view of all the statuses of the contracts, so employees know when a given document was opened, and in the absence of signatures, they can send an e-mail notification with a single button.

What was the cost reduction:
This automation of customer service, first of all, provided a saving of time, which was spent on controlling the process. The administration department no longer has to constantly ask managers at what stage a given document is, or reprimand clients to send the information required for the contract.

Time of implementation: 4 weeks
Cost of implementation: PLN 50 000
Time saving: 110 hrs per month
Budget-saving: PLN 5,500 per month
Return on Investment (ROI): after 9 months

3. Automated financial report

What we did:
We implemented financial report automation, which collected data from four separate companies for our client and presented the results on clear dashboards. We have also created automated notifications that, at the moment of detection of exceeding the established threshold, inform the client by e-mail and by SMS message.

What was the cost reduction:
The savings in the company that this automation has brought are mainly the reduction of hidden costs. The customer has reduced operational risks associated with inaccuracy of information (mistakes were often made when transferring data). The company also recovered the time of 4 employees of the accounting departments, who once a week prepared operational reports manually.

Time of implementation: 3 months
Cost of implementation: PLN 80 000
Time saved: 300 hrs per month
Budget-saving: PLN 10 000 per month
Return on Investment (ROI): after 8 months

4. Automation of bidding and customer service with the use of AI Agent

What we did:
We have implemented an AI-based automation system that automates the handling of RFQs in the sales department. Artificial intelligence analyzes the content of a telephone and email query using automated call transcripts and data from the Subject and the CRM system. Based on this, he prepares a preliminary draft of the offer, which the trader only verifies and approves. The system automatically classifies customers, prompting purchasing potential and suggesting optimal offer conditions to the customer service department.

What was the cost reduction:
Optimization of processes and their automation eliminated the need for manual creation of offers and independent analysis of trade conversations. Traders stopped wasting time taking notes, listening to conversations and checking order histories. The company recovered tens of hours a month and was able to handle more queries without expanding the team — while reducing the risk of lost sales opportunities caused by delays in customer service processes.

Time of implementation: 6 weeks
Cost of implementation: PLN 45 000
Time saving: 80 hrs per month
Budget-saving: PLN 9 000 per month
Return on Investment (ROI): after 5 months

5. Automated competitive price analysis process

What we did:
We have implemented a system that automatically takes competitors' prices based on EAN codes and updates them in an Excel file. We have combined it with a sales monitoring tool, so that in the event of a drop in results, the system itself takes data on competitive offers and informs employees about it. Thanks to this, the company always knows how it positions itself against the background of the market and can react quickly to changes.

What was the cost reduction:
Automation in our client's company eliminated the need for manual analysis of competitors, which previously occupied employees up to 60 hours per month. The company also avoided losses due to overpriced prices and a drop in sales — the automation system itself detects critical situations and prompts actions. Thanks to this, the customer realistically reduced operating costs and increased the profitability of sales.

Time of implementation: 1 week
Cost of implementation: PLN 5 000
Time saving: 60 hrs per month
Budget-saving: PLN 2,500 per month
Return on investment: after 2 months

How much can be saved by automating processes in the company?

Based on the examples presented from small and medium-sized enterprises, it can be seen that companies save an average of PLN 6,700/month on a single automated process. The final level of savings depends on how much the company currently pays employees to carry out a given process, what tasks are to be automated, and whether the automation will actually be used by employees on a daily basis. It is worth remembering that not every process is profitable to automate — but repetitive, time-consuming and executed ones can often generate significant savings and a quick return on investment (2/3 months) even in smaller companies.

Simulations of savings in the company that automation can bring

Automation allows you to significantly reduce the cost of running an enterprise even in small companies. Below we present examples of process automation that we most often implement in our clients and that provide a quick return on your investment in automation.

To answer the question of how much a company can save with automation in 2026, we present the three most basic processes that occur in almost every organization:

1. Automation of invoicing — automatic generation of invoices based on data from design tools, CRM or Excel sheets. In a company with a 2-person accounting department, such optimization of the process is an average of 40 hours of savings per month.

Converting to the employee rate PLN 50/h —> 40 hrs × PLN 50 = PLN 2 000 savings per month, PLN 24 000 savings per year

2. Automation of reporting — such an automation system collects data from different departments, compares costs, sends notifications of overruns, generates PDFs and allows you to create your own customized dashboards. For a team of 5 managers preparing reports: 75 hrs savings per month.

75 h × PLN 50 = PLN 3,750 savings per month, PLN 45 000 savings per year

3. Automation of bidding — the customer selects a product or configuration, and the system automatically calculates the price, generates an offer and generates it in the form of a ready-to-ship PDF file. Managers can edit the document, for example, adjust the margin or individual conditions. Savings: 90 hours per month — instead of manual calculations and creation of offers from scratch by two managers.

90 h × PLN 50 = PLN 4,500 savings per month, PLN 54 000 savings per year

The total savings simulation is approx. PLN 10 250 savings per month only on the three basic processes that occur in most companies. On a yearly basis, these automations allow approx. PLN 123,000 savings. What's important, this is only the basics. We have presented the easiest to implement automations of business processes, but in practice there are implementations that give several times greater results. In one of our client's companies, we automated bidding in such a way that the preparation time of the offer was shortened from 8 hours of work of a highly qualified specialist to 1 minute. As a result, the company generated savings of hundreds of thousands of euros per month, while handling a much larger number of queries without increasing the team.

In conclusion, what savings can automation bring in a company?

As you can see, in small companies, the basis of automation can generate savings in the company of the order of PLN 10,000 per month. With more advanced processes — such as complex bidding or data analysis — the savings increase even more and can amount to tens of thousands of zlotys per month, significantly increasing the efficiency of the entire organization.

If you want to reduce operating costs in your company, write to us and create a process optimization plan with us!