Turning AI Fear into Profit: Strategies for Entrepreneurs in the AI Era

Turn Your Fear of AI into Profit -- Follow These Steps to Transform Your Company and Boost Your Profits.

To all entrepreneurs who fear AI job displacement, it's important to remember that headlines only share a slice of the story but don't always call out exactly what you need to focus on. In the last year, numerous articles have been published about AI replacing jobs. While this is true to some extent, we also know AI is creating many new jobs. Journalists can choose to highlight either perspective. However, this article isn't going to focus on convincing you, the readers, if there is more job creation or loss happening at the moment because what can you tangibly do with that information? Nothing meaningful. Rather, this article challenges you to think inward and ask yourself if your thoughts are aligned with the first question in this AI boom or the second: "Why is this happening to my job?" or "How can I make even more money from this disruption?" If you're asking the first question, remember why you became an entrepreneur in the first place. The true spirit of entrepreneurship is about capitalizing on pivot moments, not running away from them. If you're asking the second question, your mindset is already on the right track. Keep reading, and best of luck on your AI-blended journey. I'm excited for you. Related: Entrepreneurs Are Rushing to Use AI. Here Are 8 Questions You Should Ask First. Let's be honest, though -- whether you are a business owner or a sole freelancer relying on the gig economy, it is delusional to think there will never be disruptions in an industry, especially as the pace of technology evolves and we continue to experience exponential growth curves -- generative AI is a prime example. I, too, was affected by generative AI abilities becoming democratized and publicly available, as various services we offer at OBIS are in the realm of data analysis, and various large language models can write queries and code, as well as troubleshoot and diagnose business intelligence related issues, etc. But instead of wasting my time wondering "why," I constantly challenged myself to say, "How can OBIS serve our clients today even better?" and most importantly, how can I use AI to our advantage and open up new ways to personalize the client experience, create new services and deliverables, and overall just become the best AI advisor to clients during this massive technological shift? After putting our strategic thoughts to paper, we are confident we can put our best foot forward in the age of AI, and we are excited about watching the outcomes unfold. Yes, AI is going to disrupt many opportunities for entrepreneurs and freelancers. Still, it's up to people in those roles today to determine if they want their jobs to be replaced or merely transformed by choosing to focus on what they highlight in their portfolios. For example, let's talk about the jobs that are at risk for automation since they are consistently brought up as an example of living within the crosshairs for elimination. My honest opinion for the at-risk roles is a bit counterintuitive -- it's time to raise market rates, not lower them to "compete with AI." You're not going to compete with AI because you are not AI. You are a creative human being capable of understanding nuances, context, and client needs, as well as performing more specialized work than a generalized model that doesn't know the existing needs of your prospects and clients. Lowering your rates to acquire jobs out of fear of displacement signals a lack of confidence in your own value. And yes, the shift we are seeing is significant. But it's also time to recognize that clients aren't coming to you anymore for the first pass, but rather the final one -- and the final one is what goes to market. This is where your expertise becomes invaluable. Your greatest assets are your unique perspective, creativity and ability to tailor solutions to specific client needs. These skills deserve a premium price tag. When clients use your work to represent their brand and grow their business, they're not just paying for a service but investing in your specialized knowledge and human touch. Your role isn't diminishing in an AI-driven landscape - it's evolving. You're becoming more of a strategic partner, an expert who can navigate both human and AI-generated content to create optimal outcomes. This evolution in your role justifies higher rates, not lower ones. With this mindset, let's explore how to reshape your portfolio to showcase your enhanced value in the age of AI. Related: How to Use AI to Identify Much-Needed Solutions for Your Business Here are five techniques you can use to market your services in an AI-generated content-saturated market -- a pivot strategy for your portfolio: Because, let's face it -- while AI is indeed transforming the job and gig economy landscape, it also presents incredible opportunities for those willing to pivot and adapt. By embracing AI and leveraging it to enhance your services, you can stay ahead of the curve and continue to thrive. The key to entrepreneurial success lies in your ability to capitalize on these technological shifts rather than fearing them. So, take these strategies to heart, adjust your approach, and let AI be the catalyst for your growth and innovation. And, of course, reach out to me if this strategy intrigues you and you want to discuss it further.

I Teach AI and Entrepreneurship. Here's How Entrepreneurs Can Use AI to Better Understand Their Target Customers.

Successful entrepreneurship and innovation have always required a deep understanding of target customers' needs, wants and goals. Traditionally, gaining these insights has been time-consuming and resource-intensive, but the emergence of artificial intelligence is changing the game. By leveraging AI tools, entrepreneurs can now analyze customer data at scale, extract valuable insights and make data-driven decisions. I'm an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College, where I teach future-focused courses on AI and entrepreneurship, and I lead our AI lab. While some in business believe AI is overhyped, the unfolding AI age will be a revolution for entrepreneurs -- and my students -- aiming to explore, understand and seize business opportunities. AI can accelerate human creativity and inquisitiveness, helping entrepreneurs unearth insights about what customers want and value. My research, industry work and teaching at the nexus of AI and innovation show that AI capabilities will only grow in importance. Here's why. Related: Generative AI Could Be the Best or Worst Thing That Happens to Your Company in 2024. Here's Why. One of AI's superpowers is synthesizing vast amounts of data and empathizing with customers more deeply -- quickly. Tools like Otter.ai can transcribe focus group sessions or customer interviews within seconds, allowing entrepreneurs to rapidly identify unmet needs, pain points and value-creators. Sentiment analysis APIs like those offered by Microsoft Azure can detect emotional cues and tones in customer conversations that humans might miss. By aggregating these data over time, entrepreneurs can get a deeper understanding of how customers feel about their brand, product or service. That's insight at scale. AI also can help entrepreneurs tap into the voice of the customer at scale. Customer feedback from various sources such as social media, product reviews and customer support tickets can be automatically collected and analyzed using tools like MeaningCloud. By setting up automated workflows using platforms like Zapier, entrepreneurs can streamline the process of gathering and analyzing customer feedback, enabling them to identify recurring issues and opportunities for improvement and innovation. AI also can assist in rapidly iterating on value propositions, such as for a website or important presentations to customers. Tools like Claude can help entrepreneurs quickly generate variations of their messaging based on customer feedback. These variations can then be fed into platforms like Copy.ai to create compelling product descriptions that resonate with a target audience. By continuously refining their messaging based on customer input, entrepreneurs can arrive at a winning value proposition much more efficiently. Real-world examples demonstrate the power of AI in understanding and engaging customers. One of my top undergraduate students at Babson, Chloe Samaha, founded BOND, a virtual water cooler app for remote and hybrid teams. The app's core purpose is to support culture-building, employee satisfaction and worker retention among distributed teams. Her company uses the latest version of OpenAI's ChatGPT to generate personalized, culture-specific daily questions -- answered by all -- that drive engagement and retention among employees. By analyzing engagement data, BOND continuously refines its AI model to deliver engaging content tailored to each company. Without ChatGPT, this level of customization would be impossible at scale. The results speak for themselves: BOND has facilitated over 20 million moments of connection between colleagues and achieved an impressive 300% year-over-year revenue growth, highlighting AI's potential to customize experiences that resonate with users and drive business success. BOND gets and seizes upon the insight-generation capabilities of AI. As AI continues to evolve, its potential applications for entrepreneurship are boundless, particularly for the rapid prototyping of entrepreneurial ideas. ChaptGPT's ever-improving ability to support text-to-code enables non-coders to prototype their software ideas simply by describing them to an AI. And those who already know how to code can now do so five to 10 times faster. Related: I Tested AI Tools So You Don't Have To. Here's What Worked -- and What Didn't. In our AI lab at Babson, we're designing new approaches to prototyping where students can 3D print a new product concept "extracted" from a 2D text-to-image model, such as OpenAI's Dall-E or Midjourney. Soon enough, I expect, students will only need to describe a prototype they wish to create, and AI tools will help rapidly embody those ideas in a voice-to-prototype experience. The barriers between the digital and physical world are dissolving, and we're entering an era of AI-augmented creativity that will both accelerate innovation and democratize entrepreneurship. I see the advances, quarter by quarter, across all areas of AI. To stay ahead of the curve, entrepreneurs must embrace AI as a tool for understanding their customers more thoroughly. By leveraging the right AI tools and platforms, entrepreneurs can gain deep insights into customer needs, preferences and sentiment. Armed with this knowledge, they can make data-driven decisions, iterate more quickly and ultimately build products and services that truly resonate with their customers. The future belongs to entrepreneurs who can harness the power of AI to build customer-centric businesses.