Generative AI is no longer exclusive to big enterprises. Today, small businesses and budding entrepreneurs are leveraging this advanced technology as a “digital co-founder” to streamline operations, boost productivity, and innovate at an accelerated pace. According to Gusto’s 2023 New Business Formation report, over 20% of new businesses are already using generative AI (gen AI) to manage everything from content creation to market analysis. By adopting these tools early, small businesses can access a level of sophistication previously reserved for large corporations with dedicated resources and substantial budgets.
For a closer look at tech trends impacting small businesses, explore Times of Tech’s innovation section.
Generative AI: The Digital Co-Founder
Entrepreneur and professor Sean Ammirati, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University, has witnessed firsthand the transformative potential of generative AI for startups. Generative AI tools have empowered Ammirati’s students to develop robust products, gain early traction, and onboard customers in a fraction of the time compared to past years. Ammirati believes that generative AI can act as a “co-founder,” providing valuable insights, automation, and strategic support across ideation, validation, and scaling.
In 2023, Ammirati participated in Carnegie Mellon’s GenAI Fellows program, an initiative aimed at expanding knowledge of generative AI’s business applications. His paper, “Applications of GenAI for Entrepreneurs,” emphasizes that AI can do much more than assist; it can serve as a crucial tool for entrepreneurs, allowing them to handle complex tasks without dedicated teams. Read more on the broader implications of AI in business at IBM’s Think Insights.
Content Creation and Marketing Support
One of the most popular uses of generative AI among small businesses is content creation, especially in marketing. AI-powered tools can craft social media posts, SEO-optimized blogs, e-commerce product descriptions, and ad copy, giving small businesses a professional online presence without the need for large marketing teams. Furthermore, gen AI can help create compelling email campaigns with effective subject lines and calls to action, improving customer engagement.
Small businesses also gain a competitive advantage by using gen AI in multimedia marketing. For instance, generative AI can draft video scripts, podcast outlines, and webinar content, making multimedia outreach accessible for entrepreneurs who may lack marketing expertise. To learn more about AI’s impact on digital marketing, visit Times of Tech’s AI section.
Streamlining Operations Beyond Marketing
Generative AI has far-reaching applications that extend beyond marketing. For example, AI tools can assist in creating essential business documents, such as business plans, investor presentations, competitive analyses, training materials, and policy documents. They are also useful for customer relationship management (CRM), enabling automated chatbots to improve customer experiences while reducing operational costs.
Using generative AI to manage these tasks gives entrepreneurs more time to focus on strategic decisions and higher-level functions, making it an invaluable resource for startups. Additionally, small business owners can harness AI for project management, allowing them to track tasks, manage deadlines, and streamline communication within teams.
Generative AI as a Research Assistant
For entrepreneurs, one of the biggest challenges is navigating unknowns in a new market. Generative AI is particularly effective as a research assistant, helping founders answer questions and identify relevant market trends. For example, AI can analyze regulatory impacts on a product or assess global demand. Although language models like GPT are not entirely foolproof, advancements in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) enable these AI tools to pull real-time data from the internet, making research more reliable and informative.
Still, Ammirati advises that AI should complement, not replace, human expertise. By reducing time-intensive tasks, AI provides preliminary information that founders can build upon with insights from human experts, such as legal and compliance specialists.
Empowering “AI-Native” Startups
The integration of generative AI has led to a rise in “AI-native” startups, businesses that leverage AI from inception to streamline operations, innovate, and achieve rapid growth. According to Ammirati, the real value lies not only in the foundational models like ChatGPT but in the applications built around these models. This trend has inspired the development of user-friendly AI applications tailored for specific tasks, such as competitive analysis, R&D strategy, and technology assessment.
One notable example of these “AI-native” tools is Growth Signals, a startup co-founded by Ammirati. Growth Signals helps researchers and executives leverage AI to analyze competitive landscapes, summarize technological advancements, and perform validation studies. Venture firm Sequoia Capital noted the value of LLM-based applications, stating in an October 2024 report that applications built around AI models have evolved from simple “wrappers” to sophisticated “cognitive architectures.”
For further insights on AI-native startups and technology development, visit IBM’s Think Insights.
The Future of Generative AI in Entrepreneurship
The potential of generative AI as a “digital co-founder” is reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape. Small businesses and startups can now leverage AI to extend their capabilities, cut costs, and accelerate growth, enabling them to compete with larger enterprises. As new applications emerge, the “picks and shovels” products of generative AI will give entrepreneurs the momentum needed to launch their ventures with efficiency and confidence.
As AI continues to evolve, small businesses that adopt these tools early are likely to see substantial benefits, positioning them for success in an increasingly competitive market. For the latest updates on AI in business and tech innovation, explore Times of Tech.
