In an era where innovation is paramount, generative AI (GenAI) is emerging as the (not-so) secret weapon for startups looking to disrupt the status quo. From automating mundane tasks to crafting bespoke customer experiences through AI agents and custom models, these cutting-edge tools are not just supporting startups; they are redefining entire industries.
This article delves into how various startups are harnessing the power of GenAI to revolutionise their operations, communication, design, and more to push the boundaries and redefine the future of business.
Communication and Content
GenAI tools used:
In the fast-paced startup world, effective communication and content creation are vital. GenAI tools are transforming how startups approach these tasks, offering both speed, creativity, and scale. Founders and teams are harnessing these tools to boost productivity, personalise outreach, and optimise their core business functions.
Aliaa Remtilla, co-founder and Chief Scientist at StoryTiling
“Generative AI tools have been a game-changer for us at StoryTiling. When you're building a startup, you have to be smart about where you focus your energy. That's where tools like ChatGPT come in.
“We use ChatGPT a lot for content creation. It's like having an extra set of hands in the room that helps us churn out blogs, social media posts, and articles way faster than we could on our own. This means we can put more of our time into the heart of our business – creating those personalised films that really make a difference in workplace relationships.
“And it's not just about cranking out content quickly. With AI, we can personalise our cold outreach at a scale that would be impossible manually. Imagine trying to write hundreds of unique emails that don't sound like they're just copied and pasted. AI helps us do that.
“Of course, AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It gets us to a mid-level of quality pretty quickly, which is great for a lot of our needs. But when we're aiming for top-notch, high-quality content, we still roll up our sleeves and get more hands-on. We use ChatGPT as a starting point - or to help with a sentence here or there - then tweak and refine to get it just right.”
Alex Millar, co-founder and CEO, Hudled
“Notion AI has become an indispensable generative tool for our startup, Hudled. We've built a write-first culture, and Notion AI fits perfectly into this by enhancing our communication with various stakeholders—customers, investors, and advisors. Its summarise functionality stands out by swiftly scanning our extensive documentation and extracting concise summaries.”
Productivity and Growth
GenAI tools used:
Operational efficiency and robust data analytics are the backbones of any successful startup. AI tools are increasingly being adopted to streamline these processes, from managing extensive documentation to optimising data consolidation across platforms.
Giorgio Baracchi, co-founder and CEO at RecycleSmart
“We leverage the power of Salesforce AI's Blip-2 vision tool coupled with GPT-4 to revolutionise our startup's scalability. This dynamic duo enables us to identify any item and define if we can collect them or not. This will drastically improve the user experience for all our customers from businesses to individuals.
“We are also looking into using Vision models to estimate volume with precision.
“These generative AI tools not only enhance our operational efficiency but also empower us to deliver tailored solutions and optimise resource allocation seamlessly.”
Norbert Herrmann, Founder of Liively
“We use a variety of tools including popular tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to support Marcomms and a variety of other purposes. We’re planning on using more complex tools including QuickchatAI and DialogueFlow to support the next phase of our ecosystem."
"Our focus is on enhancing the customer experience for all stakeholders involved - patrons, vendors, and event managers. For patrons, we're looking at AI-driven solutions to provide real-time assistance and support, making their experience seamless and enjoyable. For vendors, we're leveraging learning systems to streamline across order handling, reducing errors and improving efficiency and profitability. For event managers, these tools will provide valuable insights and analytics, helping them make data-driven decisions and ensuring smooth reconciliation."
"We believe that the integration of these tools will significantly improve our ecosystem, making it more efficient, frictionless, and profitable in the future."
Kelvin Htat, founder & CEO @ Licode
“I use ChatGPT-4 intensively for content and social media posts. I also use it with Canva for graphic design, which has been awesome. Since the announcement of Assistants API from OpenAI, we have built an AI Agent at Licode to generate a library of UI components to speed up frontend development. We integrated that AI Agent into one of our products, UiHub. We have been using it to generate UI components, which has been amazing! These tools are just saving countless amounts of time. I highly encourage everyone to leverage those tools and focus on what really matters!”
Davis Grainger, co-founder & CEO at Datalis
“We are pretty heavily using ChatGPT4 to help out with coding issues alongside GitHub Co-Pilot. However, lately I have been using an AI assistant I made using the GPT plug-in to help me with paid ads. I named it "ZuckerBot", and it connects to our ad accounts via an API and provides on-going optimisation. I love it!”
Industry-Specific Needs
GenAI tools used:
- ChatGPT / OpenAI
- Custom models and AI agents
Every tech sector is experiencing a transformative shift with the integration of AI in data analytics and personalised insights. Startups are leveraging AI for everything, from translating complex health data into understandable, actionable insights to connecting prospective puppy owners with ethical breeders, to increasing the precision and scalability of mathematical education.
Millie Marconi, co-founder, Yesterday (HR Tech)
“Generative AI tools, including OpenAI, have been integral to Yesterday's journey. They've empowered us to innovate and redefine recruitment processes. By combining the strengths of OpenAI with our planned custom-trained models, we're creating a platform that not only streamlines recruitment but also reduces bias, enhances user experience, and fosters transparency in the hiring process. Our use of OpenAI and our vision for custom-trained models continue to be driving forces behind our mission to revolutionise recruitment through the power of AI-driven innovation.”
Sugam Budhraja, AI/ML Lead at Sahha (Mental Health Tech)
“Sahha's explainability factors provide customised insights into the specific behaviours influencing each individual's health. With advances in natural language models, we can now convey these personalised insights in clear, easy-to-understand language.
“This enables new opportunities for our customers to develop interactive health coaches and assistants that utilise Sahha's analytics as a plug-in to fuel tailored recommendations and explanations unique to each user.
“Additionally, by leveraging generative image models, Sahha can transform population-level data into interactive data visualisations. This allows our business partners to generate custom plots and derive key insights through simple natural language queries catered to their objectives. The simplicity makes it effortless for partners to uncover trends and patterns within their user base.”
Nathan Olivieri, co-founder and CEO, RightPaw (Pet Tech)
"Dog breeders are time-poor, and often find promoting themselves challenging. To support them, we implemented ChatGPT into our onboarding flow. Breeders can now simply select a few relevant categories, and ChatGPT expands this into a detailed description of their breeding program and practices. It's a simpler experience for breeders, and provides puppy buyers with more substantial information, which RightPaw can verify."
