Capacity Released is the metric that measures whether time freed by AI or automation resulted in an actual change to the operating cost base – through headcount avoidance or measurable output increase – rather than being absorbed back into existing workloads. It differs from “hours saved,” the most commonly reported automation metric and the least useful one, because hours saved only becomes financial value if it changes a P&L line. Capacity Released is the metric that survives a board-level review.