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Aristo's read Grounded in page evidence

The value report keeps capacity, causal proof and protected spend in one evidence story.

Why it matters
Expansion or hold decisions can be separated from unsupported benefit claims.
Recommended action
Anchor the next investment decision in the strongest causal evidence shown.

The Value Report · Contoso

You got back $3,000 a month. It cost you $2,237 a month1.3× the cost.
Aristo

$3,000 a month came back against $2,237 of cost — 1.3× the cost.

What came back · $3,000 · 1.3× the cost What came back · $3,000 · 1.3× the cost Holdout-proven activationAttested hoursLicence spend recaptured What it cost · $2,237 — $2,237 What it cost · $2,237 Platform base · $2,000 a month$3 per holdout-proven activated seat$2,237 $0 $1,500 $3,000

The whole green bar = $3,000, in three parts:

$2,370 seats Aristo woke up
$540 hours people counted themselves
$90 idle licence spend back at work
$3,000 / month
Came back
counted
$2,237 / month
What it cost
list price
Protected, not returned — kept deliberately outside the cover figure
$246 / month
estimate

$246 a month more was protected, not returned — so it is deliberately not in the figure above. Question 4 shows it →

How we counted this

how both bars were built, number by number

What came back — $3,000 a month. counted Counted, with nothing modelled inside it. $36,000 a year at this rate. $45/hour is Aristo's labeled default, $30/seat is your own — set both in Settings.

What it cost — $2,237 a month. list price $2,000/mo platform base + $3 × 79 holdout-proven activated seats.

$2,370 / mo
Seats Aristo woke up causal

79 Copilot seats that a small group Aristo deliberately never helped — the holdout — says would still be cold. Question 3 shows the working.

$540 / mo
Hours your people counted themselves attested

12 net hours counted by the people who did the work — the same currency Microsoft's Copilot Analytics Labs measures.

$90 / mo
Licence spend put back to work counted

Seats a verified reassignment moved to somebody who asked — the License Report’s plan, still running.

Fig 1 · Both bars share one scale — the green bar really is that small next to the blue today, and this report says so rather than rescaling it. Prices behind them: your own seat and hourly prices on the green; this platform's own pricing constants on the blue ($2,000/mo base + $3 per holdout-proven seat).

Counted from your own tenant through one read-only consent — nothing sampled, modelled or bought.

You can now decide: whether to expand — the return already clears its own cost, and the mechanism under it is proven.

Share and deliver this read

PPTX · Teams · Copilot · report series
Take this to the boardroom The whole report (PPTX) One slide per question, the claim as the headline — with the causal part named on the cover chart.
Aristo comes to you
In Teams. When Teams delivery is configured, sponsor cards use this same counted summary.
In Copilot. Aristo Spark is a Microsoft 365 Copilot agent — ask it in Copilot Chat or Word.
In your deck. This report leaves as a PowerPoint for the room you are walking into.

Report 3 of 3 — the License Report found the money, the Frontier Firm Report turned it on, this is what came back.

This is an illustrative enterprise scenario. Every figure below belongs to an illustrative organisation so you can see the shape of the finished report. Counted from your own tenant through one read-only consent — nothing sampled, modelled or bought.

Question 1 · What did the people actually get done?

Your people finished 1,842 jobs with Aristo helping. Each one was counted the moment it finished.
Habit, or a launch spike? The seven-day bar answers it.See the time returned

How we counted this

what a win is | what is deliberately not counted

Every figure here is an aggregate event count from your own tenant, recorded when the thing happened. Nothing on this page is a survey answer, an estimate or a login, and no figure can be traced to a person.

A win is a job somebody actually completed with Aristo alongside them — counted at the moment it finished, never a login and never a survey. counted

The seven-day figure is the current week, so a board can see whether this is a habit or a launch spike. It is allowed to go down.

A completed move is a strategy move a leader approved that then ran to the end. Approvals are deliberately not counted here — only completions.

None of these numbers is a self-reported opinion, and none of them can be traced to a person.

So what: a board has been shown licence counts and login charts for two years and has learned to distrust both. This page counts finished work — a job somebody completed, a move that ran to the end, a skill somebody else reused — which is the only activity measure that survives the question "so what?".

You can now decide: whether the work is real and habitual rather than a launch spike — the seven-day figure beside the total is what tells you which.

Defined: Win — one job a person finished with Aristo alongside them, counted at the moment it finished. Completed move — a strategy move a leader approved that then ran to the end; approvals are deliberately not counted. Skill — a saved, reusable instruction file Copilot follows, built by one of your own people. Reuse — somebody else running that skill instead of building their own.

See the finished work, counted

wins · moves · skill reuse
Fig 2 · Work finished with Aristo's help
Tasks finished this period — 1,842 finished Tasks finished this period 1,842 finished Finished in the last seven days — 186 this week Finished in the last seven days 186 this week 0 921 1842
1,842
Tasks finished with help
186
In the last seven days
0
Strategy moves completed
No strategy move has finished yet — the Frontier Firm Report carries the one move waiting for approval, and a completed move appears on this line the day it closes.the next move →
8 skills were built once and reused 41 times across the org — the same job done again without anybody rebuilding itcounted
12,543 people have worked with Aristo directly — an aggregate count; this report cannot name any of themcounted

counted Every figure here is an aggregate event count from your own tenant. No page of this report can name a person.

Question 2 · How much time came back?

12 hours came back, counted by the 7 people who did the work. That is $540 a month.
This benchmarks 1:1 against a Microsoft Labs read — with a control group behind it.See the proof

How we counted this

the debit column | Microsoft’s own currency

Net minutes people recorded themselves, gained minus lost, aggregated across a floor of five attesters and converted to hours. Below five people this report shows nothing at all rather than a number a small group would make personally identifiable.

Gained, minus lost. The green bar is moments people marked as time they got back, one job at a time. The amber bar is the time Aristo cost somebody — they said so, and it is subtracted in the same ledger. A ledger with a debit column is the only self-reported number a CFO can defend.

The same currency Microsoft measures. Microsoft's Copilot Analytics Labs publishes agent-assisted hours as its value currency, so this figure and a Labs read are quoted in the same unit and benchmark 1:1. The difference is where the number comes from: Labs estimates the value; Aristo pairs a counted, self-attested number with a never-nudged control group, which is Question 3.

Aristo's own planning estimate is deliberately absent from this page. An activity-based projection of hours saved exists in this product and is useful for planning, but it is a parameter multiplied by a headcount. It is not evidence, so it is not printed beside a figure a board will treat as one.attested

So what: this is the number every AI vendor quotes and almost none of them count. Aristo's version is net and self-attested: the people who did the work record the time they got back, and the time it cost them is subtracted in the same ledger. A figure with a debit column is the only self-reported number a CFO can take into a board meeting.

You can now decide: whether to quote this figure externally. It is in the same unit Microsoft's Copilot Analytics Labs publishes, so it benchmarks against a Labs read directly — with a control group behind it that a Labs read does not have.

Defined: Attested — counted by the person who did the work, not modelled by Aristo. Net hours — hours gained minus hours lost; the number is allowed to go down. Agent-assisted hours — the value currency Microsoft's Copilot Analytics Labs publishes; this figure is quoted in the same unit. Attester floor — the five-person minimum below which no hours figure is shown at all.

See the hours ledger, with its debit column

gained · lost · who counted them
Fig 3 · Time returned, counted by the people who returned it
12 net hours returned
attested

Worth $540 a month at Aristo's labeled default of $45 an hour assumption, across 7 people counting their own time.

Hours gained — +15 hours Hours gained +15 hours Hours lost, counted too — −3 hours Hours lost, counted too −3 hours 0 h 8 h 15 h

Question 3 · Is it causal — or would it have happened anyway?

Yes. Helped seats are 14.0 points ahead of the ones Aristo never touched. That makes 79 seats genuinely ours.
This is the number no competitor can print — activation a control group says would not have happened anyway.See what it justifies

How we counted this

the method, in a paragraph you can repeat

How it works, in one paragraph you can repeat. On the first day, Aristo splits your cold seats into two groups by a fixed rule — not by hand, and not re-drawn later. One group gets help. The other gets none, on purpose. Some weeks later Aristo counts how many in each group are genuinely using Copilot. The difference between those two percentages is the lift, and it is the only part of this report that answers "would it have happened anyway?" — because the second group is what "anyway" actually looks like inside your own company.

The helped arm — cold seats that got Aristo’s warm, role-matched help.

The never-nudged arm — cold seats Aristo deliberately left alone, chosen on day 0 and never touched since.

A fixed rule splits your cold seats on day 0 into a helped arm and a control arm that is never nudged. Neither arm is hand-picked and the split is not re-drawn to flatter a result. The lift is the difference between the two arms' activation rates, and every dollar claimed from it uses the lower bound of a 95% confidence interval.

So what: every other number in this document is counted; this one is caused, and the difference is the whole reason the report exists. A rising line proves a line rose. A control group your own company never touched is what tells you whether the line would have risen anyway — and it is the one thing a dashboard cannot retrofit later.

You can now decide: whether the activation you are seeing is worth paying for — this page measures how much of it Aristo actually caused, so the judgement rests on a counted difference rather than on a rising line.

Defined: Control group / holdout — a deterministic share of your cold seats, set on day 0 and never nudged; they keep every licence and capability, they simply get no help from Aristo. Lift — the helped arm's activation rate minus the control arm's, in percentage points. 95% confidence interval — the range the true lift sits in; every dollar this report claims from the lift uses its lower bound. Proven — the gap cleared 95% confidence. Directional — it has not, so no dollar is claimed.

See both arms, in full

the control group · the confidence interval
Fig 4 · The never-nudged control group
14.0 points of lift
causal

The helped seats are 14.0 points ahead of the ones Aristo never touched, after 90 days. At 95% confidence the true gap is between 6.1 and 20.7 points — and every dollar this report claims from activation uses the lower end.

Helped arm 38.0% active. At 95% confidence the true gap over the never-nudged arm is between 6.1 and 20.7 points — every dollar claimed uses the lower end. Helped · 1,126 seats 38.0% now active Never nudged · 154 seats — 24.0% now active Never nudged · 154 seats 24.0% now active the never-nudged arm — what “anyway” looks like inside your own company 0% 50% 100%
79 Copilot seats are holdout-proven — the seats the confidence interval's lower bound will carry, so statistical noise cannot manufacture one$2,370 / mo causal
The cost of the strategy, at list price. $2,000/mo platform base + $3 × 79 holdout-proven activated seats.$2,237 / mo list price
The control group is never a punishment. Its members keep every seat, every licence and every included capability; the single thing they do not get is Aristo's nudge — and the arm is re-drawn as each cohort refreshes, so nobody is held out forever.

Question 4 · What did protecting the spend save?

Another $246 a month was never spent — and it is kept off the cover on purpose.
Every spending path is watched against a floor you named yourself.Set your thresholds

How we counted this

why an envelope is a different kind of true

Protected, not returned — $246 a month. Credits steered onto the included seat plus skills reused instead of re-forged. Both are counted events multiplied by a published task price, which makes the dollar an envelope rather than a measurement — so it lives here and never joins the board figure on the cover. estimate

The recaptured licence line is already inside the cover figure and is shown on this page only so the protection story reads whole. It is counted once, on the cover, and never added twice.

Steering and reuse are counted events from your own tenant; the dollar beside each is that count multiplied by Microsoft's published medium-task credit envelope. The licence line is counted differently — a verified reassignment confirmed on re-read — and it is the same money already on the cover, shown here once more so the protection story reads whole.

So what: money not spent is money returned, but it is a different kind of evidence and it is kept separate on purpose. These figures are counted events multiplied by a published task price, which makes each dollar an envelope. Envelopes belong on this page; the cover carries only what was counted outright.

You can now decide: whether the guardrails are set where you want them. Every path on the traffic lights measures against a floor your own leadership named, never someone else's benchmark.

Defined: Steered — a job Aristo routed onto the Copilot seat you already pay for instead of a metered credit task. Re-forge avoided — a shelf skill somebody reused rather than rebuilding it, so the credits to build it were never spent again. Envelope — a labeled estimate: a counted event multiplied by a published price, never a measured invoice line. Recaptured — idle licence spend a verified reassignment put back to work.

See what was protected, line by line

steered · re-forge avoided · recaptured
Fig 5 · Money that was never spent
Credits steered onto the seat you already pay for — $0 Credits steered onto the seat you already pay for $0 Skills reused instead of re-forged — $246 Skills reused instead of re-forged $246 Licence spend recaptured — counted once, on the cover — $90 Licence spend recaptured — counted once, on the cover $90 $0 $123 $246
$246 / month
estimate
Protected, not returned
Credit steering — every time Aristo routes a job onto the included seat instead of a metered one, the saved envelope lands on this line. Nothing has been steered this period.
41 skill reuses off the shelf — built once, then run again by somebody else without the credits being spent a second time$246 estimate
$90 a month of idle licence spend is back at work — the License Report's reassignment plan, still running; verified moves onlythe License Report →
4 of 4 spending paths are litSeats org-wide: 65.7% of 4,200 paid Copilot seats are genuinely active against your 75% floor — 1,440 paid seats nobody is using (160 never assigned to anyone) · countedthe traffic lights →

The recaptured licence line is counted once, on the cover — never added twice.

Question 5 · Does the return justify expanding?

Yes. 1.3× the cost back, and the mechanism behind it is proven rather than asserted.
The next move is already written and costed.Open the move

How we counted this

where the multiple comes from | who executes what

The multiple is the counted return divided by list price from this platform's own pricing constants. Nothing on this page executes anything: the expand move lives on the Frontier Firm Report and the spending ceiling lives on the traffic lights and in your own Microsoft admin center, so there is exactly one place each decision is made.

So what: this is the sentence the whole series was built to earn. The License Report found the money to pay for the work; the Frontier Firm Report turned the seats on; this page says whether it worked, using a control group your own company never touched. Proof is what turns an expansion into a decision — and this report is equally willing to say hold.

You can now decide: expand, or hold. Both are supported answers here, and this page will print the second one just as plainly as the first.

Defined: Return — counted and attested value only; the envelope figures on Question 4 are excluded from it. Multiple — the return divided by what the strategy costs at list price. Cold seat — a paid seat whose holder has had no genuine Copilot activity in the last 28 days. Included seat — the Copilot capability you already pay for, before any metered credit is spent.

See what expanding is worth

the seats it has not reached yet
Fig 6 · From proof, to the decision, to the next return
Seats the mechanism has reached — 79 proven Seats the mechanism has reached 79 proven Seats it has not reached yet — 1,280 still cold Seats it has not reached yet 1,280 still cold 0 640 1280
Station 1
$3,000
What came back this month
Station 2
$2,237
What it costs
Station 3
1,280
seats still cold
Expand activationthe next move against the remaining cold seats is already written and costed on the Frontier Firm Report. Approving it there is what executes; this page only says whether the evidence justifies it.the next move →
Raise the spending floorif the return justifies more metered work, the ceiling that governs it is yours to set, on the traffic lights and in your own Microsoft admin center. Aristo never raises a limit on your behalf.the traffic lights →
Fund it from the same placethe License Report's reassignment plan is what pays for the strategy out of licence spend nobody was using, so an expansion does not have to arrive as a new line in the budget.the License Report →

The return already exceeds the cost, 1.3× the cost. The mechanism behind it is proven against a group Aristo never touched, which is the part that makes expanding a decision rather than a hope.

Count your own return the same way.

Start with one consent

One read-only consent, a never-nudged control group set on day 0, and this document starts answering “did the AI money do anything?” with a number your board can check.

§6 · Methodology

Where every number on these pages comes from.

Plain words, no marketing. A figure that is counted says counted; a figure the people themselves counted says attested; a figure that rests on a modelled price says estimate and names the model; a figure Aristo cannot reach is shown as a dash with the exact thing that would fill it in.

Every number on these five pages, sourced

the return · the causal claim · hours · protection · the covenant
The return — the cover figure is the sum of exactly three things, and nothing else is allowed in: holdout-proven seats × your seat price, attested net hours × your hourly value, and licence spend a verified reassignment put back to work. No estimate, no projection and no planning parameter is inside it.
The causal claim — on day 0 a deterministic share of your cold seats becomes a never-nudged control group: stable, not hand-picked, not resettable. After the window, lift = the helped arm's activation rate minus the control arm's, with a 95% Newcombe confidence interval. Proven seats come from the interval's LOWER bound, never the point estimate, so statistical noise cannot manufacture a seat. Below 95% confidence this report says directional and prints no dollar. Negative lift would be reported as negative.
Attested hours — net minutes people recorded themselves, gained minus lost, converted to hours. The ledger is suppressed whole below a floor of five attesters: fewer than five and this report shows no hours figure at all rather than one a small group would make identifiable. Aristo's own activity-based projection of hours saved exists in this product and is deliberately not printed on these pages, because a parameter multiplied by a headcount is not evidence.
The vocabulary — Microsoft's Copilot Analytics Labs publishes agent-assisted hours as its value currency. Where this report presents attested or counted time it uses that same unit, so a Labs read and this page benchmark 1:1. The distinction worth stating out loud: Labs estimates the value; Aristo pairs the number with a control group it never touched.
Counted work — a win is one job somebody finished with Aristo alongside them, counted at the moment it finished; a completed move is a leader-approved strategy move that ran to the end, never an approval; a skill reuse is one download of a shelf skill somebody else built. All three are aggregate event counts from your own tenant, and none of them is a survey answer.
Protected, not returned — steered credits and avoided re-forges are counted events multiplied by the published medium-task envelope. That makes the dollar a modelled envelope, so it is chipped estimate, kept on Question 4, and never added to the cover figure. The recaptured licence line appears on Question 4 as a cross-reference only; it is counted once, on the cover.
The cost of the strategy — list price, taken from this platform's own pricing constants: $2,000 per month platform base plus $3 per activated seat. The seat count on this line is holdout-proven activation — the seats the control group says Aristo genuinely woke up — because this org HAS a valid holdout. It is the basis of the figure shown here; what appears on an invoice is governed by your order form. It is the same figure, from the same constants, that the License Report prints.
The prices — A price in this report is still Aristo's labeled default — $30 per Copilot seat per month and $45 per hour — so every dollar derived from it is labeled assumption and sharpens the moment your own figures are entered.
What this report will not do — it will not count a seat twice (a seat becomes reassignable only after the activation arm failed on it, so activation and reassignment are mutually exclusive by construction), it will not claim baseline-active Copilot spend as something Aristo produced, and it will not let a good month quietly re-baseline a bad one. The return is allowed to go down.
The covenant — every figure is an aggregate. No page of this report can name a person, the control group is never identified, and the people whose hours are counted are counted in a group of five or more or not at all.
▸ Take this into the boardroom (PPTX)
One slide per question, the claim as the headline — the same numbers as this page, never re-typed, with the causal part named on the cover chart.
The other two halves of this story: the License Report → finds the money, and the Frontier Firm Report → turns it on.  ·  count your own return in 30 minutes →