50 minutes. Self-marked against the rubric. 12 marks. In the full course this counts toward the labs and cases share (15% of the course grade). Write your answers in the boxes, then open the model answer and tick each mark you earned honestly. Nothing is sent or stored.
Scenario (invented)
A customer-service director is offered an AI tool to triage incoming emails (invented figures). Today 8,000 emails a month are triaged by hand: 2 minutes each at £0.50 per minute. The tool costs £2,500 a month and triages 70% of emails automatically. Of those, 3% are misrouted, and each misrouted email costs £6 to fix. The other 30% are still triaged by hand.
Tasks
Task 1 (4 marks)
Calculate the number of emails handled automatically, the cost of those still done by hand, the cost of misroutes and the total new monthly cost.
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Task 2 (2 marks)
The current cost is 8,000 × £1.00 = £8,000. State the monthly saving and the annual saving.
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Task 3 (3 marks)
The misroute rate turns out to be 6% rather than 3%. Recalculate the number of misroutes, their cost and the new saving.
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Task 4 (3 marks)
Write a recommendation of up to four sentences that applies the five questions and states the conditions for going ahead.
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Rubric and model answer
Task 1: new monthly cost (4 marks)
Model: automatic = 70% × 8,000 = 5,600. By hand = 2,400 × £1.00 (2 min × £0.50) = £2,400. Misroutes = 3% × 5,600 = 168; 168 × £6 = £1,008. Total = 2,500 + 2,400 + 1,008 = £5,908.
Task 2: the saving (2 marks)
Model: monthly saving = 8,000 − 5,908 = £2,092; annual = 12 × 2,092 = £25,104.
Task 3: test the assumption (3 marks)
Model: misroutes = 6% × 5,600 = 336; cost = 336 × £6 = £2,016. Total = 2,500 + 2,400 + 2,016 = £6,916; saving = 8,000 − 6,916 = £1,084.
Task 4: write a recommendation (3 marks)
Model: “Approve a three-month pilot, not a full contract. At a 3% misroute rate the saving is £2,092 a month, but at 6% it halves, so we will measure the real rate on our own emails against today’s hand triage. The head of customer service is accountable, and we proceed only if the saving stays above £1,500 a month and customer complaints do not rise.”
Marks so far: 0 of 12