Most of what I have read about AI is how it is being used in corporate environments, so I was excited to see this post on LinkedIn that talked specifically about how entrepreneurs are leveraging the technology. 

Ben Sherry is a staff reporter for Inc. Magazine and he was clearly thrilled to get this exclusive with Ronnie Chatterji, OpenAI’s chief economist. Below is Sherry’s LinkedIn post. 

I was not surprised to see that the primary use case for AI was for marketing and copywriting, but the 26% number in the article was shockingly low to me. Every entrepreneur I have spoken to uses some AI program to help with writing. Maybe they are using something other than ChatGPT? 

Pro tip: You would be well-advised not to just post what AI writes. Your copy needs a human touch to work effectively. That was one of the top takeaways from HubSpot’s recent marketing survey. Here is a link to my article on that.

The other popular use cases for active entrepreneurs were improving customer communication (11%) and legal and compliance purposes (10%). Once again, those numbers seem really low to me, but both are a good use of the technology, in my opinion.

Here is the link to Sherry’s full article, “Exclusive: OpenAI Says This Is How Entrepreneurs Are Actually Using ChatGPT.” There was a big gap between how much active entrepreneurs vs. prospective entrepreneurs were using the technology:

Surprisingly, says Chatterji, OpenAI found that there are far more active entrepreneurs using ChatGPT to run their business than there are prospective entrepreneurs. Of the four million American entrepreneurs who used ChatGPT in March, OpenAI says 71 percent were active entrepreneurs, while 29 percent were prospective entrepreneurs.

So, how are aspiring entrepreneurs using AI? According to Sherry:

Aspiring entrepreneurs have mostly used the platform to develop and flesh out their business ideas, with 15 percent of the group using the platform for both marketing and for determining a brand identity. Thirteen percent of prospective entrepreneurs used ChatGPT for product and software development, 10 percent for legal & compliance issues, and 6 percent for validation of business ideas.

I thought these statistics were really interesting, but given how low the percentages were, I found myself wondering if entrepreneurs use different platforms for different aspects of their business. I will keep an eye out for that. 

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash