Generally Productive Talks #6 - Ai and Home Business

Introduction

Starting a Home Business can be a daunting task, the level of different hats to wear, the skills to learn, and the level of rules, regulations, and paperwork you need to be aware of and follow can stop many people from trying or kill many businesses through simple mistakes. Ai is about to solve many of these problems

Today

Different Ai programs have and are being released to help with all aspects of business, to help anyone launch their own businesses easier than ever before, these are only the beginning and will develop quickly, below is a guide with available Ai tools for each step:

1. Identify your business idea What products or services will you offer and who is your target audience Google Trends helps identify trending search terms and topics IBM Watson Discovery aids in market research by analyzing unstructured data and identifying patterns

2. Develop a business plan Formulate a roadmap for how you will achieve your business goals, including financial projections, marketing strategies, and operational plans LivePlan offers a cloud-based business planning software

3. Setup your business infrastructure Setting up a website, social media accounts, and establishing communication channels with customers Hootsuite helps manage social media accounts and track social media analytics

4. Design and develop your product For new products, this is an area that is still being developed and is currently lacking but will be focused on in the future Concept rendering is available from sources such as Midjourney or Deep Dream Generator (tested in my 2nd blog https://www.jpproductservices.com/post/generally-productive-talks-2-ai-and-images) Concept Renders can be used for early-stage interest and to aid in showing the desired result, however, many businesses do not need this step

5. Patent/Trademark process Not relevant for all businesses and mainly linked to point 4, this step also is still in early stage development and requires researching and analyzing records to determine whether your product or service is protectable, drafting and filing an application, and analyzing record data to gain insights into the competitive landscape PatSnap platform offers patent searching and analysis, that can help you conduct a patent search and analysis Tools such as Writer use machine learning algorithms to analyze patent data, suggest keywords, and generate patent claims

6. Plan your marketing Develop and execute marketing campaigns to promote your products or services HubSpot offers a suite of inbound marketing software that can help you plan and maintain your marketing AdEspresso optimizes Facebook and Google ad campaigns analyses ad performance and suggests new ad-targeting options

7. Manage finances Creating a budget, tracking expenses, and managing cash flow QuickBooks can help you manage your finances and generate financial report

8. Manage operations Managing operations such as inventory management, order processing, and customer service ShipStation offers order management and shipping software which can aid in order processing and fulfillment

9. Analyse and improve performance Analyzing data to track business performance, identify areas for improvement, and optimize strategies Google Analytics provides web analytics and data visualization tools aiding in tracking website traffic and identifying trends in user behavior

The above are available today but are not all free, a significant stumbling block for many, they also do require learning for the user, checking and verification of information, discussion over results, and a combination of each aspect by the business owner along with paying outside experts to confirm and verify certain steps. Help compared to the past but many of these steps are still daunting tasks for many. This will change though as Ai develops and can automate and combine more and more of these processes

The Future

Services will constantly improve and automation will increase, we can expect:

5 Years

• Chatbots and Virtual Assistants will be the norm, acting as general assistants to all

• Customization and Personalization of tools will enhance to work better with each user

• Software to become more user-friendly and plug and play

• Company Setup and Financial Service Compliance will become effortless

• Ai tools will become more widespread in their use as competition drives down costs

• Ai tool capabilities will cover more areas and become more cross-functional linking between complementary programs

10 Years

• Tools will grow to be able to analyze, interpret and cross-reference more complex data

• Testing programs will be able to judge concept success chances with realistic results

• Tools will be mostly automated with limited human interaction required, mainly to direct and review

• Privacy and security will be legislated firmly with information controlled better to allay the fears that occur today

• Ai will become able to perform more human-like in interactions allowing them to better cover a wider range of support for entrepreneurs and deal with customers directly in many cases

• 3D printing and assembly or packaging processes will be able to be automated even in the home for some products

20 Years

• Ai Tools be completely personalized and adapt for each user based on held data from other programs

• Ai will run most steps within business operations automatically

• Ai will be able to innovate, create, review, and improve products and services to run businesses day to day

• Decentralized programs will be the norm with each system running essentially independently but able to access databases with incredible levels of shared information

My thoughts:

Ai has the potential to revolutionize business at all levels and provide a level of freedom for people to become entrepreneurs that has not existed since before the industrial revolution, this can allow people to follow their dreams without putting their livelihoods in danger and could fuel a new age of innovation

However, this could be a window that soon closes as Ai becomes so powerful human businesses become pointless as no one can keep up with what Ai can offer. How this affects work, life, the economy, and global politics and how we see our places within the world is an open question, but one given the speed of advancement, one we need to begin planning for...