Business

How to use AI to start an online business

Published

2 months ago

July 15, 2025

Nearly every online business now touches artificial intelligence at some point. Research from 2025 shows 78% of companies worldwide use AI for at least one business area. Smaller businesses report higher usage, with 89% saying they use AI each day. Over 280 million businesses worldwide now run at least one AI tool, and many use them for three different functions on average. In the United States, private investment in artificial intelligence reached $109.1 billion for 2025.

AI platforms can manage many repetitive or time-consuming parts of building and running a business. Here is how new founders use them:

Automating tasks such as billing, emails, and order fulfillment
Generating product descriptions, marketing content, and blogs
Providing support through chatbots and helpdesk systems
Handling customer and sales data, so owners see where to improve
Tuning online store content for better search engine ranking

Automate operations and cut costs

Automation suites like Zapier AI and Make fold into online shop tools, email platforms, and marketing systems. These let founders set up triggers for actions. For example, a new order in the store can start a workflow: send a confirmation, log the sale, and update inventory. The owner does not need to touch anything. This reduces manual work, speeds up tasks, and can lower costs.

Email marketing and analytics also work better with AI. Mailchimp AI and Klaviyo can predict which emails each customer is most likely to open. The tools then send messages at the best times and segment users by what they want to read. SurferSEO and SEMrush help with keyword research and content optimisation. Founders can attract more visitors by following their recommended strategy.

Recent studies show that businesses using AI in marketing and sales see up to 50% more leads, spend 60% less time per sales call, and reduce overall costs by up to 60%. In email marketing, 41% of marketers report earning more revenue when they use AI.

Content generators make publishing easier

AI content platforms such as Jasper, Copy.ai, and Gemini can write product pages, advertisements, and help guides in minutes. Store owners do not need to hire a large writing team or spend hours creating new articles. These platforms use information given by the founder to write content based on keywords, brand tone, or target questions.

A direct-to-consumer skincare brand increased its revenue from $100,000 to $2,000,000 by using Jasper AI for product descriptions, blog content, and email copy, along with SurferSEO for search growth. The company published three times as much content and lowered its costs by over 75%.

Many founders rely on AI-generated support tools as well. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Intercom can answer common customer questions, process refunds, or recommend products based on a shopper’s past orders. This keeps response times quick and frees up the business owner to focus on other work.

From market research to launch: A step-by-step to using prompts

Owners use AI throughout the business process. Here are practical prompt examples used by successful founders:

Find a business idea: Ask the AI to suggest new business ideas based on what is selling on Amazon. For example: “Suggest ten online business ideas based on current bestsellers and size of those markets.”
Validate interest: Ask the AI to read one-star reviews and summarise what people complain about in your product category.
Write a business plan: Ask: “Create a one-page plan for a subscription fitness app for Millennials. Include key features, pricing, and launch plan.”
Make content: Request: “Write a 500-word blog post on AI in ecommerce, ending with an offer to join a newsletter.”
Welcoming customers: Use: “Write ten onboarding emails for people who bought a productivity tool. Answer likely questions and offer support links.”

Choosing the right tools for each stage

When you start an online business, it is common to test different tools side by side. For example, someone may use Jasper to write product pages, SurferSEO or SEMrush to adjust keywords, and AI Website Builder platforms to quickly assemble storefronts. Many people try several options before they find a set that works for their goals.

Some founders also mix in unique AI solutions, such as using Gemini for blog articles or Tableau Pulse for early-stage analytics. Trying a range of tools early on helps you build a process that fits your needs, budget, and skill set.

Case studies of small teams using AI tools

Smaller businesses and solo founders gain an advantage from AI. A SaaS founder built a niche app by using ChatGPT for customer questions and Notion AI for automated help guides. Gemini wrote landing pages. This owner offered around-the-clock support and content like bigger rivals, all without hiring a large staff.

A digital marketing agency switched to AI for project management, using Make for automation, ChatGPT for campaign ideas and reports, and analytics bots for real-time campaign data. They doubled their client count.

Data and analytics: Smarter decisions

Google Analytics AI, Tableau Pulse, and Microsoft Power BI Copilot help founders turn site clicks, sales, and customer messages into charts and reports. These tools find trends, spot gaps in the sales funnel, and let owners see which ads work best or why users quit a checkout process.

Experts suggest using these insights before spending heavily. For example, new founders can run AI-powered market research with prompts to summarise Amazon complaints or social media comments. This finds problems to solve or gaps left by competitors without running focus groups or big surveys.

Avoiding common pitfalls

AI can replace many manual tasks, but experts such as top incubators warn that automation can hurt if it removes all human touch. Clear branding and direct customer support are still important. Owners should blend AI with real staff to keep support personal and branding unique.

Ethics also matter. Founders who train AI tools with their own brand voice, customer questions, and up-to-date data will stand out. Avoid over-automation that leaves users confused or alienated.

Building a process that works

Owners now run smarter shops with fewer staff. Workers using AI report a 66% daily productivity gain. Investment in generative AI added $1.4 trillion in market value and raised profits by 45% in four months for global firms. Mastering AI prompts and keeping the customer at the center of decisions leads to faster launches and more efficient growth.

A founder named Sarah Kim, who built a large ecommerce company, says clear prompts, rapid testing, and keeping a true brand voice are keys to leading in online business. Owners who spend time learning their AI platforms, fine-tuning prompts, and responding to user feedback can build and scale new ventures with less capital and less risk.

Author: Musfiqur, founder and CEO, Rankpa.com

(Image source: Unsplash)

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Business

AI company Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion in landmark settlement

Published

2 hours ago

September 6, 2025

The Editors

Big numbers often get thrown around in the aftermath of legal battles, as judges hand down judgements—or attorneys arrange settlement amounts—in the tens, or hundreds, of millions of dollars. Still, even jaded legal observers can occasionally run into a genuinely daunting number while parsing this stuff. Like, say, the $1.5 billion settlement that AI company Anthropic has agreed to pay in the ongoing class-action suit against it, launched by authors who said the company infringed on their copyrighted works by feeding them as training data to its “AI assistant” Claude. Sure, parts of that sum (calculated at $3,000 per work for a staggering number of works, and with its first $300 million installment due just five days after the settlement is approved) might potentially vanish in a puff of future bankruptcy. But it’s still the “largest publicly reported copyright recovery in history,” according to legal documents from the authors’ attorneys.

That being said, the win here on the wider AI front is quite a bit less clear than “hand our clients the annual estimated GDP of Grenada” might suggest. Yes, U.S. District Judge William Alsup set the stage for Anthropic to eat that massive price tag by ruling that the company clearly violated copyright agreements via how it acquired the books it fed into its own personal woodchipper. (I.e., downloading pirated datasets of millions of books that had been floating around the internet.) And, yes, the settlement will require Anthropic to destroy those “shadow library” datasets in its possession. (But notably, with no actual changes to the Claude large language model itself.) Most critically, though, back in June, Alsup also ruled that “reproducing purchased-and-scanned books to train AI” falls under fair use, calling the case “exceedingly transformative” as a justification for the designation.

As such, both sides in the fight issued statements claiming a form of victory today, with the authors’ side focusing mostly on the massive size of the settlement amount. Anthropic, meanwhile—which has been backed in the past with more than $6 billion in contributions from Amazon and Google—focused its statements on the legal precedent it achieved in the case: “In June, the District Court issued a landmark ruling on AI development and copyright law, finding that Anthropic’s approach to training AI models constitutes fair use. Today’s settlement, if approved, will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims.” What this likely means is that AI companies aren’t going to slow down—especially with, say, a $1.5 billion mortgage suddenly hanging over their heads—but simply become a lot more choosy about how they get their training data.

[via Deadline]

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Business

Runway founder Cristóbal Valenzuela wants Hollywood to embrace AI

Published

4 hours ago

September 5, 2025

The Editors

At 84, veteran mogul John Malone is still a power broker, hinting at “further consolidation in the media industry” following a recent sit down with David Ellison. Should we be on the lookout for a Warner–Paramount merger? Meanwhile in Vegas, the Sphere’s $100 million Wizard of Oz reimagining leans on AI to expand the visuals and even slip in cameos of David Zaslav and James Dolan. The Directors Guild did not take kindly to the stunt. Partners in Banter Kim Masters and Matt Belloni pull back the curtain on the Sphere’s Emerald City sideshow.

Plus, Masters speaks with Runway co-founder Cristóbal Valenzuela about the role of artificial intelligence in Hollywood. The Chilean-born developer acknowledges that AI may lead to some job losses, but he argues it will ultimately benefit filmmakers. He explains why studios including Lionsgate, Netflix, and Disney are already using Runway’s tools. Plus, he compares the current backlash against AI to the upheaval that followed the introduction of sound in film.

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