The “First Mile”: Where Projects are Won or Lost

The First Mile of a software project covers everything before functional code is written. Whether following Agile or Waterfall, industry benchmarks show that 25–45% of project effort is spent on:

  • Requirements analysis

  • UI/UX design

  • Architecture & planning

Direct Savings with AI

On a $1M project, First Mile costs typically run $250K–$400K.
If AI reduces this effort by 30%:

  • $250K → $175K (save $75K)

  • $400K → $280K (save $120K)

➡️ $75K–$120K in direct cost savings per $1M project.

Avoided Rework Savings

Industry data shows:

  • 30–50% of all effort is wasted on rework.

  • 70–85% of that rework stems from poor requirements.

  • Fixing a defect in requirements costs $1. The same defect in production costs $100–200+.

If AI helps catch even 30% of requirement defects early, that’s another:

  • $50K–$125K saved per $1M project.

Total Value Proposition

By combining faster First Mile execution with fewer downstream defects, Cogsentia delivers:

  • ≈$250K projected value per $1M project

  • Equivalent to ~25% of total project budget safeguarded

👉 AI doesn’t just make projects faster — it makes them dramatically less risky and more cost-effective.