Artificial intelligence is the future of the world, according to many experts. With the rise of AI-enabled chatbots, voice assistants, and driverless cars, it’s hard to argue. Now that you have the chance to capitalize on this new-age technology, how do you get started?
It seems like a daunting task at first glance but doesn’t worry – we’ve got your back. This article has some of the handiest tips for launching an AI startup business.
The hottest AI trends for SMBs
Some odd years ago, artificial intelligence was a hot buzzword in the tech community. Everybody wanted a piece of the action, but nobody actually knew what to do with it.
That’s changed a lot though because the industry has a much better understanding now of what AI is – and isn’t – actually capable of. With that said, some of the best performing AI-based startup ideas in the recent past include:
- Language recognition and translation
- Tax document preparation
- Crowd-sourced knowledge
- Stock prediction
Right now, AI is mainly used in applications that require data and computers to recognize it – something like a CRM system. On the contrary, human activity can be repetitive and is likely to become more so as computers can eventually outperform humans on almost any task. This is where jobs of the future lie – automating repetitive manual work.
Steps to follow when creating an AI startup
An AI startup needs the right team to have a successful launch, including programmers, software engineers, a data scientist, a marketing manager, and others. It’s like any business venture, where initial success depends a lot on hiring the right individuals. There’s a bit more to it than that, so we recommend reading this guide for starting a small business, but putting together a crew of valuable workers will be a priority.
The most important roles you’ll need to fill immediately are for basic data science functions, and at least two to three people will be required for building prototypes. Additional roles for AI startups include a designer for product design and UX, product managers, user experience experts, and other marketing support staff.
Marketing will be the most important role after you have your AI platform, but you need a good product to market. That means your initial focus should be on hiring experienced, knowledgeable data scientists and engineers for training your AI platform to interpret, learn, and improve its performance over time. Be sure to check out this link on specific team roles for an AI startup.
Securing funding for your AI startup
With an AI startup, there are a lot of costs to factor in – data scientists most certainly don’t come cheaply. You’re going to need a lot more business funding than your average software startup. Not only do you need to build a product that attracts users and clients, but you’ll need to build a service that can help them implement it.
When it comes to funding for AI startups, you have a few options:
The bootstrap approach (self-funding)
Self-funding has the advantage of giving you total control over your firm. On the negative, in rare instances, it may expose you to the greatest financial danger.
Courting venture capitalists
Angel investors, sometimes known as venture capitalists, may be interested in supporting your firm in exchange for a seat on your board of directors or a share in the company. To secure financial investment, a thorough company strategy may be necessary.
Obtaining a small business loan
A loan may be beneficial if you don’t have enough money but desire complete control over your firm. Prepare a comprehensive business strategy for existing banks and credit unions, including projected costs and financial predictions.
You’ll want to research some success stories of AI startup funding, and how successful companies have gone about securing the cash they need to build their businesses.
Start with a small pilot project
Begin small. Before investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in your company strategy, it’s a good idea to start with a pilot project to see whether you can keep heading in the correct way or make some adjustments to enhance your chances of success.
Small pilot projects for AI would be something like building an AI-based email system that can pull out important information like dates and addresses from a message. It might not be mind-blowing tech, but it could help you establish your AI company.
Larger pilot projects could include using AI to help a product company automatically recommend other products based on a person’s browsing history, or analyzing the sentiment of your website to automatically come up with positive and negative keywords to increase sales.
These projects aren’t going to yield much return on investment if you’re unable to come up with good predictions and insights based on your data, but they could help you to prove that you’re on the right track before you invest significant resources in your AI business.
Marketing: Build a digital footprint via customer outreach
Marketing your AI startup to a consumer base is challenging for several reasons. The first is convincing consumers they actually need your product, or can’t get it elsewhere. The second is the challenge of brand advocacy in the digital landscape.
Most consumers can’t articulate what your company does or doesn’t do, let alone the specifics. The first step of the process is to have a communications plan that outlines the channels you’ll use, who you’ll engage with, and what you’re willing to reveal about your tech.
Establishing your startup’s approach to digital marketing can be tricky, but not impossible. Consider these three tactics to help you:
• Create a skeleton, or digital footprint, of your AI startup. Using analytics tools like Qualtrics, Drossos, or even Google Analytics, identify which data sets and analytics products your startup will need to use to build and execute a digital marketing strategy. Review your available data sets to see how you can reduce the confusion and retain clarity about what you’re doing, with whom, and why.
• List the channels you’ll be using to create a marketing strategy. What channels do you already have in place? How will your marketing strategy build on your current offerings and services?
• Develop an implementation plan that outlines the order you’ll use to create, execute, and measure the results of your digital marketing strategies. Establish your strategy to allow you to create measurable and accountable metrics to track your performance and progress over time.
By establishing a digital footprint, setting up processes to measure and measure, and outlining how you’ll evaluate your results and guide future efforts, you’ll establish a framework for creating brand advocacy and customer acquisition.
Source: analyticsinsight.net
