Today, we’re veering away from the usual web design talk and diving into the world of artificial intelligence (AI). Over the past months, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time—hundreds of hours—exploring different AI models, including language, image, video, and music models. In fact, I made a video diving into my thoughts on all of this, and you may prefer watching that over reading here – go for it, I won’t be offended.
About two months ago, I began using ChatGPT4. If you’re not familiar with AI language models, let me share with you why ChatGPT and others like it are invaluable, especially if you’re a solo entrepreneur or a small business owner.
The Value of a Different Perspective
The number one thing these AI language models can offer is a different perspective. They are incredibly good at processing language and providing insights that you, as a business owner or an entrepreneur, might not have considered. When you’re starting an agency or a company, particularly on the marketing or sales side, having an outsider’s perspective can be game-changing. While meeting with mentors and fellow business owners is undoubtedly beneficial, AI models can provide insights without being bound by schedules.
Imagine feeding a language model with the pain points you’ve discovered during your sales process or your proposed solutions to these issues. By asking the model if you’ve addressed all the necessary points in your proposal, you can gain invaluable insights and perhaps even stumble upon a perspective or idea that you hadn’t previously considered. Or think of that last email you wrote to a potential prospect or difficult client, could an outside perspective have helped your email to be more effective? Using AI in this way can be incredibly helpful.
Process Improvement and Expanding Services
Another area where AI excels is in process improvement. By sharing your existing process with the model, you can uncover potential steps to make your operations more impactful. Additionally, if you’re thinking of offering a new service, AI can help you determine which services might be a good fit for your current marketplace. It can even assist in coming up with a list of names for your new service offering, offering marketing advice, and much more.
AI language models, such as ChatGPT4, offer these insights for a minimal cost (currently $20/month as of this writing). With such a tool, you’re essentially getting access to a wealth of knowledge derived from trillions of pages of content. It’s as though you have an all-knowing business consultant available round-the-clock.
The Limitations of AI
While AI can be an invaluable tool for businesses, it does have its limitations. For instance, asking an AI model about the right price point for your products or services in your marketplace may not yield the most accurate or helpful results. For such inquiries, talking to fellow business owners or doing market research is still the better option.
Also, as of now, ChatGPT’s knowledge cutoff is in September 2021, which means it might not have the most up-to-date information on certain topics. However, for most businesses, this cutoff is not a deal-breaker as AI’s primary value lies in its ability to provide a fresh perspective, aid in process improvement, and assist in crafting effective proposals and pitches.
Trying Out AI for Your Business
If you’re curious about how AI can benefit your business, I encourage you to give it a try. There are even free options available, such as Bing’s AI model, which incorporates ChatGPT into its chatbot. You could also try out Google’s AI model, Google Bart, which is currently in beta. And while the world of AI brings many unknowns for businesses of all types, the one thing I can promise is that it won’t be a waste of your time to try a couple of different AI models out and see if you find value as I have.
