Glossary
AI ROI and tokenomics terms, defined.
This glossary defines the terms used to measure AI cost and return. Definitions are written and maintained in-house so usage stays consistent. Where a term is used differently by different vendors or standards bodies, the entry records each usage and its source.
A
AI business case
A structured estimate of expected AI costs, benefits, risks, implementation requirements, and strategic alignment.
AI ROI
The net financial or strategic value generated by an AI initiative relative to its full cost.
AI value
The measurable business value created by AI, including productivity, revenue, cost efficiency, experience, resilience, sustainability, and competitive advantage.
AI value pillar
A category of business value used to classify AI outcomes, such as cost efficiency, resilience, experience, productivity, sustainability, or growth.
C
Cost per inference
Total inference cost divided by the number of model requests or completed inference operations.
Cost per outcome
The total AI and operating cost required to deliver one acceptable business result — a resolved case, a qualified lead, a completed workflow, an approved document.
Cost per token
Total model-related cost divided by the number of tokens used or processed.
M
Marginal cost of intelligence
The incremental cost of generating an additional useful AI output, decision, or completed task.
Model routing
Directing a request to the most suitable model, provider, or serving path based on task requirements and economics.
Modeled ROI
An estimated return based on assumptions about cost, adoption, output quality, and expected business impact.
O
T
Time to value
Time required for an AI initiative to produce measurable business value or reach break-even against the alternative approach.
Token attribution
Assigning token usage and associated costs to an accountable application, team, business unit, customer, model, or use case.
Tokenomics / token economics
The discipline of managing how AI tokens are produced, distributed, consumed, priced, allocated, and optimized to create business value.
Total cost of ownership
The full lifecycle cost of an AI system: model or API usage, compute, data, tooling, integration, security, operations, and human oversight.
U
Unit economics
The revenue, value, and cost associated with a defined, measurable unit of a product or service.
Use-case economics
The total cost of achieving a specific business outcome, measured per unit of that outcome.
Useful intelligence per dollar
A quality-adjusted measure of useful AI outcomes delivered for each dollar of spend.