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AI technologies should always be viewed as a lever amplifying the skills or productivity one has already got, allowing a person to replace several…
AI technologies should always be viewed as a lever amplifying the skills or productivity one has already got, allowing a person to replace several people in the process, rather than as a viable business model. In most cases, nobody would pay for "AI" itself per se – they would pay for a completed project or piece of content or even a tool, which happened to have been produced with the help of some AI tools. The people who manage to earn real money in this area always apply AI to something they were able to offer before, whether it was writing, designing, programming or customer support, and just use it to do more of it, faster.
More and more freelancers and small agencies begin using AI to draft the initial versions of writing, coding, and design pieces, spending the time they save in the process on checking, polishing, and approving these projects. Such approach allows a person to handle more clients or bigger projects in the same amount of time, which is where the income increase usually occurs. Since the clients are still interested in getting the work done faster while keeping the quality high, it would work better to present the work done with the help of AI as a faster version of something one has been offering all along.
The print-on-demand shops, stock photo providers, and websites producing the different types of content more and more often turn to the AI tools to create the drafts of various designs, product mockups, or articles, and then refine them and publish. Such approach would usually work well where volume and iteration are crucial, rather than in case the customer is interested in purchasing some unique design created by a specific human artist. If such approach is applied, then the fact that the content or designs have been made with the help of some AI technologies has to be mentioned openly, in case there are certain requirements in place.
The growing number of people build small and useful web apps, browser plugins, and automation scripts calling the AI models under the hood and thus solving some specific recurring problem for some specific group of people. Such tools usually do not have to be technically complex to sell well – a simple user-friendly interface around the properly chosen prompt might bring a lot of real value. Here, the actual challenge is not so much in knowing how to apply AI but in knowing what problem worth solving and who could pay for it.
There are plenty of local businesses willing to improve their efficiency with the help of AI, whether it concerns routine customer communication, content creation, or reviewing the feedback. Yet, the owners of such businesses do not always have the time or necessary technical skills to implement something like this by themselves. Thus, offering to help a small business implement some simple chatbot or automated workflow powered by AI technologies is a viable solution they may be willing to pay for, especially when it is presented as something bringing the hours back to them.
Explaining how to use AI efficiently with the help of tutorials, newsletters, or courses remains one of the more dependable ways to make money in the area, as many people still have difficulties with this aspect. It works best when it is focused not on some general overview of the field, but on some specific workflow people have tested. As with any type of content, such activity usually requires time to build the audience around it and rewards those who are honest about what they know and do not pretend they know everything.
Before deciding to build a complete service or product based on any of the approaches mentioned above, it is highly recommended to try them out in a small scale – for instance, to work with one client or one tool or to produce one piece of content, so as to find out whether the economics works out. In many cases, people invest their efforts into something completely new to them before finding out whether there is actually someone interested in buying this or not. At the same time, a small test reveals the real bottleneck faster than any amount of planning would.
In case one plans to offer the work with the help of AI tools to his or her clients, they usually carry some subscription fee or usage costs. These costs have to be taken into consideration when pricing the offers, as many people underestimate the number of attempts needed to finish a task. Treating these costs as a normal expense like software or any other material costs makes one's pricing more accurate and helps to maintain reasonable margins.
Since the raw, unedited output from AI tools is quite easily noticeable, and more and more people are able to produce it on their own for free, the true value of any offer lies in its editing and context which are not provided by an AI. Thus, fact-checking the AI-generated content before passing it to the customer, especially if it contains any figures, quotes, or other statements, is a good idea to protect the reputation and avoid any issues connected with this process. The people building something durable in this space always use AI to generate the first drafts and spend a lot of time verifying them.
The copyright laws concerning the AI-generated content are still quite vague in many areas, and therefore, it is necessary to understand how the protection works in the country you are doing business in. Moreover, it would be better to mention in case you use some AI technologies in the creation process, as long as some platforms require this information to be disclosed. There are still some unresolved legal questions concerning AI in the process, which is why it would be wise not to rush into anything.
Promoting the "AI-generated content" or "AI services" as the key selling point of your product makes your offer quite weak and provokes the price comparison. The attempt to sell the completely unedited output of AI tools is probably the fastest way to ruin the reputation you are trying to build. The chase after the newest AI tool or trend, which does not imply mastering some technologies really well, yields less income than specializing in something known.
The durable money in this space always goes to those who have some skill or audience or understanding of the specific business problem and use AI to do more of it, faster. The efficiency boost due to the use of AI is real and valuable, but it compounds with the already existing skills and competencies, rather than replacing them. The difference between the sustainable source of income and a temporary trend lies in the attitude to the AI technologies as tools.