Everyone wants to start the next Uber. So how do you come up with a business idea that is innovative, unique, and feasible? It's a question that plagues every entrepreneur. And now, with the advent of AI software, robots might literally come up with the answer.
In the past 18 months, a plethora of free or low-cost AI tools have emerged that help aspiring entrepreneurs avoid brainstorming sessions and come up with great startup ideas (and even automated business names) in no time.
But is that really true? In the rapidly growing field of AI, skepticism is healthy. If you're going to base your business plan on a computer's suggestions, those suggestions had better be good.
I decided to test the most popular generative AI platforms on the market, as well as some promising newcomers, to see if their ideas would succeed or fail. As I discovered, robots love sustainability. But we might need to educate them about what piracy looks like.
Chat GPT
Business idea: “GreenGleam Home Cleaning is an eco-friendly home cleaning service that uses non-toxic, sustainable products to clean residential spaces.”
Image courtesy: chatgpt.com/
I was first impressed by ChatGPT, a generative AI platform owned by OpenAI: within 20 seconds, I had a full 2,000-word outline explaining why my cleaning business would be profitable, how I could scale, and a step-by-step breakdown of launching.
Thankfully, ChatGPT also provided me with a breakdown of how to most effectively spend my initial budget of £500 on consumables and marketing materials (although I could only spend £100 on travel, so my hypothetical customer might as well live on my street).
in the end Green Gleam It's an eco-friendly cleaning company based near Sacramento, California, that uses a suspiciously similar copy of a website from ChatGPT. Coincidence? Possibly. But it's more likely an unfortunate result of the platform's web scraping tools.
Still, having a little competitive analysis ready-made never hurts, and ChatGPT provided me with a well-founded, solid business idea that I could take and rework myself, as a completely free idea that took less than 30 seconds to generate.
Gemini
Business idea: “Micropitch offers small online business consulting focused on helping small businesses and solopreneurs with their specific marketing and social media challenges.”
Image credit: gemini.google.com/
Google Gemini is touted as one of the most advanced AI tools on the market, and its paid version is also called Gemini Advanced, to underscore its cleverness and cutting-edge features.
However, as an entrepreneur I don’t think I want to pay £20 a month before my business gets going so I stuck with the free version.
Like ChatGPT, Gemini outlined why the idea is low-effort and scalable, and also gave us some general, yet smart, business tips to follow (who knew consulting companies had to “deliver great consulting”?).
Gemini also understood the challenges that come with being on a tight budget and advised us on how to keep costs down by utilizing free video conferencing software.
And the best part? Micropitch doesn't exist yet! This means that in this very informal experiment, Gemini outdid ChatGPT and came up with its own business name.
First Officer
Business idea: “GreenLife Essentials sells reusable items (such as bamboo toothbrushes, fabric bags, and organic skin care products) online and at local markets.”
Image source: copilot.microsoft.com/
Humans may be worried that robots will take over the world, but it seems humans would rather save it. Following the eco-friendly trend, Microsoft CoPilot quickly came up with a long list of ideas, starting with a top-notch eco-friendly online marketplace.
I was hoping for some expert advice on what this would entail (mainly how to build a multi-product website on a shoestring budget of £500), but the proposal came with very little detail, and when I asked for clarification on cash projections, CoPilot wouldn't give me any figures.
Some of CoPilot's advice was confusing: It said that “sourcing from ethical suppliers” would keep startup costs low, but research shows that sustainable products are, on average, 75-85% more expensive than conventional products.
There were some positives: both CoPilot products (bamboo toothbrushes and cloth bags) fit modern shopping trends, and I think it could work as a low-cost dropshipping model, but I'm not as convinced as Gemini and ChatGPT's detailed answers.
And there are already two sustainable brands, Greenlife Essentials, both of which use Instagram to sell their products.Your brainstorming session with CoPilot may soon be drawing flak from intellectual property (IP) lawyers.
Strat Up
Business idea: “A smart plant care product with sensors that monitor moisture levels, light exposure, and temperature around the plant.”
Image credit: stratup.ai/en/generate-ideas
Moving away from conversational AI tools, let's take a look at Stratup.ai, a company that specializes in business idea generators, proposing a smart plant care app that would notify cactus owners when they needed to be watered, presumably to reverse the damage humans have done to the planet's plants (you get the idea, bots).
Stratup has a few handy features that set it apart from the big tech AI giants: For example, Stratup asked me to input the specific industry I wanted to work in, and it tagged each answer with areas it thought might warrant further reading, such as the Internet of Things (IoT).
But these tags left me with more questions than answers, questions I could have asked on a conversation platform like ChatGPT. Stratup offered three useful follow-up questions, but I don't have much room to test their suggestions here.
I was also overwhelmed by the instructions to choose the 'consumer goods' category and build an innovative technology-enabled plant monitor. Considering I said I had a budget of £500, the idea was way out of line with my wallet (and my tech skills, but let's not get into that).
Stratup.ai has also avoided naming its smart plant idea, likely due to the perceived minefield of name copyright, but the name Stratup might be for the best.
AI Business Idea Generator: What are the risks?
Would I recommend using an AI generator to design your business idea? 100%. A blank slate can be daunting. Using AI to come up with some initial suggestions can get your idea moving and become a useful brainstorming partner for solopreneurs.
I was particularly impressed by market leaders ChatGPT and Gemini, both of which presented niche and trendy ideas that they were happy to pitch to investors. But there were certainly gaps to fill: AI-generated business ideas should not be considered finished products.
For big tech companies, it's easy to follow Zuckerberg's famous mantra: “move fast and break things.” But startups need to be more careful. In the case of AI, that means avoiding trademark disputes.
Trademarks are legally recognised intellectual property that can range from names, logos and slogans to marketing strategies (known as trade secrets).
Given that AI tools “scoop” suggestions from the internet, unwitting entrepreneurs who copy the suggestions at face value could be accused of trademark dilution and face legal action.
Entrepreneurs should conduct thorough trademark research before moving forward with any idea, especially one created by a robot. We also recommend consulting a legal professional to review any AI-generated name and assess the legal risks associated with it.
Even big companies can get their trademarks wrong. The biggest piracy scandals Something that happened in business.
