If you plan to start a new business and you need advice on what to do, your first move should turn to an artificial intelligence chatbot tool, such as Openai Chatpt or Anthropic Claude.
It is according to Steve Blankwhich wrote four books on the subject of entrepreneurship. He helped build eight different technological startups, of which he co -founded four, before retiring more than two decades ago. His final startup, the Epiphany corporate software company, sold to SSA Global Technologies for $ 329 million in 2005.
Blank is currently a auxiliary professor at the University of Stanford, where he teaches courses on innovation and his Lean startup method.
For years, Steve Blank has advised students and founders whom he advises to “have entertained” from the office or the class to speak to real potential customers and to discover what they want and to build their potential companies accordingly. Now, he says, the generative technology of AI can make this process even more effective.
“Ai (is) a force multiplier to everything you do,” Blank told CNBC. “The AI could help you determine where to go out, probably faster than anything else. If you have a business idea, (ask) something like Chatgpt:” I have the idea X, someone did it? Why didn’t he work? Where should I do the best? “”
In addition to summarizing market studies and offering comments, some AI chatbots can write you a whole business plan. This free feature in Chatgpt, as well as in other platforms like Grammarly and Canva, can help you pay thousands of dollars For an independent sales consultant, says Blank.
“Just imagine that you have Steve Blank on your shoulder, helping you ask these questions,” said Blank. With AI, “you have a fairly good consultant (who) in the past you would have billed $ 10,000.”
AI is like “riffing” with a “fairly intelligent” friend “
Although they did Quick advances in recent yearsAI tools are still far from infallible. Their answers frequently include Errors called “hallucinations”. Blank advises that anyone turning to AI for a business plan takes recommendations with a grain of salt.
“Somewhere between 10% and 50% of their answers are bullshit, of course. And the problem is that you don’t know which ones,” said Blank. A 2023 study by the startup of IA Vectara revealed that hallucinous chatbots Up to 27% of the timeWhile a recent BBC study have found that around half of the responses of AI assistants to the questions related to the news contained errors.
Even if they are far from perfect, however, Blank argues that these tools still have a lot of value, especially for new entrepreneurs who wish to go ahead with a business idea and are not entirely safe from the steps to be taken. He compares to obtaining commercial comments from AI tools to “have a fairly intelligent friend who is a bit riffing”. Perhaps each suggestion they have is not shiny, but they could give you good starting points that you might not have thought by yourself.
“If you take everything at their nominal value, you could drive on the cliff, but they give you excellent ideas to think, especially if you have never really done this before,” says Blank.
Attach a few simple initial questions in an AI tool, he suggests: the answers generated can give you some clarity as to whether there is a “legitimate product market adjustment for your idea. For example:
- “I think about starting ‘X’. Can you find me a business model?”
- “Who should be my first customers?”
- “What are they most concerned with?”
- “Who should I test these hypotheses on (and) how can I find them?”
AI cannot replace real market studies
The ideas generated by AI -AI should never be a replacement for research on the boots in the field, known as Blank – Putting this work remains essential for any entrepreneur mapping a new business. The knot of the “Lean Startup” Blank method has taught for decades is to speak with a transversal cut of potential customers and customers from the start of the ideation process as possible, then use their comments to determine the viability of any concept.
AI “still does not eliminate the need to go out and test fundamental hypotheses”, explains Blank. “Whether it is a restaurant or a consulting company or a gardening store or something else, you have a set of assumptions. The most important is:” Well, who are my customers? “And the second is:” What do they want? “”
It is essential to answer these questions before moving forward with a business idea, because they speak of the fundamental orientation and the strength of any potential enterprise, says Blank. Not doing it is a major error that can condemn a new business before its launch.
That said, owners of potential businesses who do not want to use AI tools are also disadvantage, says Blank.
“You don’t want to compete with someone who has an AI on the shoulder because they act as if they had a team of 20 people causing them,” said Blank. In addition to testing the hypothesis of a business idea, after all, AI assistants can help the outdated founders manage the aspects of the finance of their business, administrative tasks and web design.
“If you don’t want to use it as a tool,” said Blank. “No one will prevent you from succeeding.”
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