How AI Is Opening Doors And Making Entrepreneurship Accessible For All
One day, you wake up with an idea for a business, and it consumes your thoughts. You catch yourself daydreaming about it at your 9–5 job as yet another boring meeting drones on. Why do they make you go to these?
It’s a great idea, but where would you even start? The time, cash, network, team with the specific skillset and information you need to make the dream into reality feels totally inaccessible. Before lunch, your brilliant business idea dies on the vine, and perhaps with it, the opportunity to create a better life doing something you love dies too.
I hate stories like this.
For far too long, entrepreneurship has been out of reach for so many. Yes, you need to be blessed with that entrepreneurial spirit that carries you past limited resources, a lack of capital and a scarcity of information. But for too many, great amounts of spirit are going to waste, as those barriers are just too high.
But there is hope.
A transformative force is sweeping across the entrepreneurial landscape, demolishing these barriers and ushering in a new era of opportunity and potential for socioeconomic mobility. Yes, I am talking about AI. And, yes, I know there’s been some doom-mongering, but we are already witnessing the AI revolution making entrepreneurship accessible to all, regardless of age, gender, experience or socioeconomic background.
AI Is Opening More Doors Than It's Closing
The dialogue surrounding AI is endless as we all try to grapple with the implications of this rapidly evolving, only-seen-in-movies (until now) technology. While concerns about its potential risks and ethical considerations are valid, I take an optimistic stance and believe that AI, when utilized correctly, ethically and safely, can expand our capabilities and transform society for the better. Bold? Yes. Contrary? A little. Naive? No, I don’t think so.
Now, I want to be clear. I am not an expert in AI, but I am passionate about building seamless experiences that create opportunities for people to lead better lives. Whether that is helping people access the right information and resources to live their healthiest, happiest life, making investing in the stock market more accessible or building a comprehensive solution that allows you to become a successful e-commerce business owner in a matter of minutes. As a leader at a company whose mission is to provide millions of entrepreneurs with a platform to build and grow their businesses risk-free, I have a unique vantage point on how AI is transforming people’s lives.
Right now, the desire to do something you are passionate about, to be time-rich and break free from the shackles of a corporate job or to ease the stress of income insecurity is inspiring a lot of people to explore entrepreneurship.
Younger generations have been brought up with values that challenge the very nature of work. They are redefining what it means to be fulfilled and seeking alternative paths to achieve financial security and freedom. But this wouldn’t even be possible without recent advancements in technology.
AI is giving people skills that once required years of honing or hefty student loan debt. Midjourney can create a beautiful scene from a picture book in seconds. ChatGPT could have created a skeleton for this article in even less time. And people are taking these newly acquired skills to market. It’s easy for publications like the Atlantic to label this production as junk, but whatever we might think of it, what we are seeing on online marketplaces is people seizing on the opportunity. Whether or not your Midjourney-made T-shirts and wall posters sell will depend on whether customers want to buy them. Who made them will only be a secondary consideration.
Lowering The Financial Barrier
For many low-income earners, coming up with enough capital to start a business is the largest mountain to climb. In fact, 66% of entrepreneurs use their own money to start their businesses, and online business owners spend an average of $35,000 during their first year.
To succeed, you need business knowledge, English skills (which bring access to the biggest markets), design ability and marketing strategy—expertise that you can acquire with time. But as we all know, time is money. Money for a course or simply to pay the bills while you learn.
Well, not anymore.
We’ve already seen the birth of Elon’s YouTube-powered knowledge revolution serving up learning for anyone hungry to consume it. And now AI is smashing down economies of scale by putting not just the theory but the ability to execute tasks into the hands of anyone with an email address. The information you need and the necessary skills to be successful are there for the taking for everyone with an internet connection.
At Prettify, we already see our print-on-demand merchants leveraging low or no-cost AI technology to support and grow their businesses. AI assists in design creation and automation, generating suggestions and analyzing trends. SEO-friendly descriptions are made by ChatGPT for people who aren’t even sure what either acronym stands for. AI speeds up the process, reduces manual work and expands your reach. AI can also optimize marketing and sales by analyzing customer data, personalizing campaigns and identifying upselling opportunities. By leveraging AI, our merchants tailor marketing efforts, boost engagement, improve conversions and grow their business in the competitive e-commerce landscape.
Ushering In A New Era Of Entrepreneurship
The AI revolution is ushering in a new era of entrepreneurship, where the barriers that once confined dreams to the realm of impossibility are crumbling. Time, money, access to information and networks are no longer insurmountable obstacles, and entrepreneurship is now a more accessible stepping stone toward a better future.
The democratization of entrepreneurship through AI technology is unlocking the potential of countless individuals, allowing them to turn their great ideas into reality. If used well and responsibly, AI has the potential to be a transformative force, and we can only imagine the abundance of innovation and creativity that will enrich our world, making it a better place for everyone.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/08/21/how-ai-is-opening-doors-and-making-entrepreneurship-accessible-for-all/?sh=6ee3a5c63c06
