1. Shift from Billable Hours to Outcomes-Based Pricing: Remaking Business Work in an era of AI
The world is entering a new era where the business processes of electronic platforms have profoundly impacted the traditional pricing models of many industries. In recent years, the practice of billing by the hour, a directly tied to time-based processes, is becoming obsolete. As AI takes on a host of business processes, it is rewriting the rules for how businesses charge their clients. This shift is not merely a reformulation of costs; it is a radical reimagining of the concept of value and how it is measured in business transactions.
AI has transformed the way businesses approach tasks ranging from scheduling to customer communication, but it has not yet changed the fundamental ways in which they value their work. In these industries, billing by the hour is often linked to inefficiencies, overtime miles, and the long hours invested by employees. Many argue that the effectiveness of such models lies in their ability to capture the essence of a client’s needs, rather than their ability to measure precise time or effort.
The rise of AI is forcing organizations to rethink how they quantify success. Instead of simply measuring time or effort, they must focus on the outcomes rather than the act of completing a project. Fewer traditional time-based models are surviving this reformed era, as they converge with the broader use of AI, which can identify inefficiencies in workflows and scale projects more effectively. The outcome-based approach requires a different set of skills: rather than focusing on completion time, workers must conceptualize what truly drives the client’s success.
2. Michael’s Experience and the Law Firm Movement Back
Last year, Michael received a news item in the New York Times questioning his entire organization’s approach to billing. He had been a member of a high-profile law firm where billing by the hour was a core component of their model. Critics ranging from stakeholders in the industry to journalists alike老爷 by the hour had argued that their system was eroding their profit margins and undermining the efficiency of the work they were doing.
"When I first met with Tracey Shirtcliff, the CEO and founder of the law firm, the conversation was met with a heavy heart," explains Michael in his summary. "‘You know what you did wrong? You microwaved the times you were let off the hook, and turned. You radiatively took away the context, and translated efficiency into ineffectiveness.’ The way clients were paying for the work versus the time they took was not serving them, it could have been the case. When [Tracey Shirtcliff] talked more about value in projects, the line between #time-based and #outcomes became clearly defined."
Michael argued that the billable hour was a fundamental barrier to the growth of his law firm. The softening of his approach allowed his firm to focus its expertise on charging for the services they provided rather than for the time they took. The shift from billable hour to a value-based model not only attracted top talent but also created new kinds of clients who wanted to pay for outcomes rather than hours.
3. The Legal Firm as an Example of Outcomes-Based Pricing
Shirtcliff offers an explicit example of how outcomes-based pricing works. She explains that legal firms are indeed currently being scored on multiple levels for risk, compliance, result, and so on. The concept of Value-Driven Pricing (VDP) is more about upfront, transparent assessment and measurement of outcomes rather than future Dollars.
“Historically, when we were too focused on time-based pricing, teams were apportioning hours based on the Público of their plateau, not the desired outcomes,” explains Shirtcliff. But as they moved to outcomes-based pricing, clients no longer need to constantly justify the time they spend; instead, they can validate the high-quality outcomes they are delivering.
In the end, Michael reports that his law firm has seen an increase in inquiries, particularly from startups looking to build their own legal practice in a highly competitive space. These startups were ineffective under billable hour pricing, but price insensitive conducted in outcomes-based, VDP—therefore, directly informs and validates the value generated each project.
4. MiaXa’s Rise as a Digital Pricing Platform
MiaXa emerged as a new iteration of what’s now known as an outcomes-based pricing system. By combining direct customer communication with an AI-powered platform that models the expected outcomes, the application now delivers a detailed picture of each project’s value. MiaXa was acquired by [$50m firm] via $10m for an intra-6 months period and now operates differently, realizing a 25% retention rate.
Michael notes that MiaXa, by providing metrics for each client, allows them to realistically price work forward. “If MiaXa is telling me that a project is worth $1 million but each line requires 7 hours of developer time, then it equates to a 141-hour project, but the end product isLoading at $1 times something,” she says. “ clients pay attention to the quality and value, but not about the time it takes to achieve it.”
The success of MiaXa is not merely a technical breakthrough; it’s a radical shift in how they measure the value of their work. It_confirms example that businesses should not be measuring time or effort, but rather what truly makes a client happy and expresses the effort they put in.
5. FIG Agency and Its Approach to Client-Friendly Pricing
FIG Agency has evolved its customer-centric approach with the client-facing outcomes-based pricing model. Established over the past five years, it transitions clients from a traditional billable hour to a senior-by-design structure. This approach allows the agency to capture value by benchmarking all of its operations and identifying, at the start of each project, what is truly valuable and not just building up a team of technical writers.
Michael interviews Client Partner Richard Tan to understand the shift at FIG. “FIG’s mission was to give our clients the best price, but now we’ve had to reframe the way we think,” he says. “Instead of just giving dollars and hours, we’ve moved to understand the客户的 expectations and business needs and construct a value-driven pricing strategy that ultimately delivers what our clients are paid for.”
As a result, the law firm’s creative data system that was售 to StoryData now produces 48 hours of results for the expected work. FIG demonstrates that even as companies move toward Transparent, Fair pricing, they must focus on delivering the value they think they should get, through the measures that result in clients paying more than they spend.
6. The Future Road ahead: Blending Time and Value
FIG’s approach is just one example of a continued shift in business pricing. Michael connects these data moves to the broader trend of AI’s impact: it’s transforming the relationship between business value, time, and costs. Moving forward, companies will likely see smoother ground—one where billable hour transparency is overtaken by outcomes-based transparency.
Amale Ghbouni ofFIG explains：“That’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re not trying to avoid the concept of time. We’re just offering a different way to understand and measure it. Our model is not about letting people pay tomorrow—our model is about letting them pay now and know what they’re getting.”
As the world continues to embrace AI and automation, businesses must take stock of their value-based pipelines. If they don’t commit now to creating the kind of outcomes-based systems we’ve seen in MiaXa and FIG, they may be setting themselves up for failure in the years yet to come.
In the end, this is not about the end of billable hours but a fundamental change in how businesses measure their value, time, and outcomes. The future of business is ready to take this shift as one of the major turning points of our time.
