—— The Automation Tech Tree

How a company compounds on Claude.

Four branches of capability, four levels of autonomy. Each node lists the engineering effort to build it, what it costs, and the monthly cash flow it returns. Dashed prerequisites gate the tree — and the cross-links show why the custom-model branch is infrastructure for everything else. Sequencing this tree against your cash is CFO work.

I · Assist

II · Augment

III · Automate

IV · Autonomous

Operations

CLAUDE AUTOMATION

Custom models

INFRASTRUCTURE

Marketing

GROWTH

Finance

INTELLIGENCE

Claude email & ticket triage

Effort◆ 80 h

Build cost$12k

Benefit+$4k/mo

Document intelligence

Effort◆ 200 h

Build cost$30k

Benefit+$9k/mo

⤷ Claude email & ticket triage

Agent workflow orchestration

Effort◆ 400 h

Build cost$60k

Benefit+$18k/mo

⤷ Document intelligence

Autonomous back office

Effort◆ 800 h

Build cost$120k

Benefit+$40k/mo

⤷ Agent workflow orchestration · Distilled domain model

Prompt & eval library

Effort◆ 60 h

Build cost$8k

Benefit+$2k/mo

Fine-tuned classifiers

Effort◆ 160 h

Build cost$25k

Benefit+$6k/mo

⤷ Prompt & eval library

Distilled domain model

Effort◆ 450 h

Build cost$70k

Benefit+$20k/mo

⤷ Fine-tuned classifiers

Proprietary model moat

Effort◆ 1,000 h

Build cost$150k

Benefit+$45k/mo

⤷ Distilled domain model

Claude content pipeline

Effort◆ 70 h

Build cost$10k

Benefit+$5k/mo

Personalization engine

Effort◆ 240 h

Build cost$35k

Benefit+$12k/mo

⤷ Claude content pipeline

Campaign autopilot

Effort◆ 420 h

Build cost$65k

Benefit+$22k/mo

⤷ Personalization engine · Fine-tuned classifiers

Self-optimizing growth loop

Effort◆ 850 h

Build cost$130k

Benefit+$48k/mo

⤷ Campaign autopilot

Live KPI cockpit

Effort◆ 60 h

Build cost$9k

Benefit+$2.5k/mo

Forecasting copilot

Effort◆ 180 h

Build cost$28k

Benefit+$7k/mo

⤷ Live KPI cockpit

Scenario & pricing engine

Effort◆ 350 h

Build cost$55k

Benefit+$15k/mo

⤷ Forecasting copilot

Autonomous FP&A

Effort◆ 700 h

Build cost$110k

Benefit+$35k/mo

⤷ Scenario & pricing engine

Hover a node for what it does.

◆ h — hours of effort$ — build cost+$/mo — monthly benefit⤷ — prerequisite

Illustrative figures. In an engagement, hours, costs, and benefits come from your process inventory, payroll data, and Claude usage telemetry. © Sergei Mochtchenkov, CFA.