At my company people always understate the headcount savings. Because the invariable question is - "You are spending x million and for y FTEs you save only 1 FT

At my company people always understate the headcount savings. Because the invariable question is - "You are spending x million and for y FTEs you save only 1 FTE of HC? How does that make sense?". Or worse yet - "You estimated 40 FTE savings, why don't we pick and chose 40 FTEs to let go". That sends shivers down managers as it reduces their area of influence. They found a hack and that is loading up the intangible column. In that list reputation/brand risk always makes an appearance. "If you don't do this project this terrible thing might happen and we might suffer reputational risk. We estimate 2x millions of loss due to reputation being harmed". And presto! there is a case for the project. Its like cloud migration project. Total run costs are part of the pitch but you add on extra things like added security, automatic updates etc. it becomes an easier sell. AI tools being so hyper focused on "productivity gains" it is going to be tough sell. Especially because users will resist it and the productivity boosts if any will remain low.