ROI case study: Google Vertex AI at Proton

Proton achieved an ROI of 232 percent and a 9.5-month payback period after implementing Google Vertex AI as its machine learning and generative AI platform. This implementation delivered productivity gains across multiple departments, with machine learning and AI development efficiency improving from approximately 15 percent in the first six months to about 40 percent by year three, while chatbot automation handled the majority of support inquiries. By transitioning to Google’s integrated AI ecosystem, Proton eliminated manual support processes, enhanced development capabilities, and improved real-time customer service delivery. The implementation provided teams with no-code and low-code development options, automated anomaly detection, and natural language processing capabilities for data summarization. Combined with integration across existing TensorFlow and PyTorch frameworks, these capabilities enabled Proton to efficiently scale AI operations, reduce service desk staffing requirements by three employees, achieving a 25-30 percent cost reduction equating to about $12,000 annually, and accelerate time to value for AI-powered features.