AI Cuts Time and Operating Costs: Who Benefits from the Savings?
24 — Nada Samara
From translation and content writing to design and education, AI is reshaping the service economy by shortening time, speeding up tasks, and reducing some operational burdens. In parallel with its widespread use, there is increasing interest in assessing how much it contributes to achieving economic savings, and identifying the biggest beneficiaries, whether they are individuals or companies.
AI has the potential to reshape the global economy, according to the paper "The Global Economic and Financial Consequences of Artificial Intelligence". Lessons from scenario planning, issued by the International Monetary Fund in April 2026. The paper explains that the impact of technology is linked to the automation of tasks, the acceleration of research and development, while the magnitude of its economic impacts depends on how fast it spreads, and how prepared economies and institutions are to deal with it.
Individual or corporate beneficiaries ?
Assessing the impact of these transformations on companies and individuals varies according to the nature of use and the sector, according to Sami A Nour, a technical expert, the first beneficiary of AI savings is not individuals, but companies, business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals.
Sami A Nour explained that, from his point of view, AI has not contributed to lowering the cost of services for individuals; services, such as translation and everyday needs, remain the same, but it has reduced the time spent in the search process, because information already exists, while AI works to collect, analyze and interact with the user around it.
He added that companies and small business owners have partly dismissed some service providers, such as writing, translation, and design, along with some administrative and office tasks.
He pointed out that professional service providers have also benefited from AI, either directly using it or through their usual tools that have reduced the prices of their services as a result of the fierce competition imposed by AI.
The decline is not sustainable.
Sami A Nour believed that this decline would not be sustainable, given the high costs of infrastructure, chip manufacturing, artificial intelligence speeds, and memory, as well as the complexity of supply chains.
He added that the prices of services would rise gradually, but the services that will raise their prices would, in turn, set a maximum use limit based on the Credit system, pointing out that this model is already applicable in a number of services at present.
How do you measure savings economically?
Economic savings are not measured by the number of tasks AI performs or the number of jobs it can spare, but rather by its ability to increase productivity and improve resource yield, according to economist Abdul Rahman Adel.
He explains that the lower cost of performing certain tasks does not necessarily mean significant economic savings, as companies in turn bear other costs, including subscriptions, technical infrastructure development, system integration, training, and usage control, which makes the economic impact different from company to company depending on the size of the investment and nature of the activity.
He adds that economic savings become more apparent when they are reflected in lower operating costs, increased competitiveness, or added value, not just by replacing certain tasks with artificial intelligence tools. The impact of these savings on individuals remains limited in many services, while their effects are more pronounced in companies capable of employing technology to improve efficiency and productivity.
Source: 24