Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
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Across industries, today’s entrepreneurs can capitalize on AI-driven products and services. With 1.7 billion people worldwide expected to use artificial intelligence by 2031, and an anticipated market value of nearly $1.7 trillion, this period of rapid technological transformation is an opportune time to start making money with AI.
The 20 AI business ideas for entrepreneurs here can help you earn money, and—with luck—gain a long-term competitive advantage by establishing an early presence in this new business landscape. For the most part, they also allow you to build upon existing APIs—which require small data sets and minimal technical infrastructure—instead of developing custom models.
AI automation tools are software applications that leverage artificial intelligence solutions to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Automated tasks can include data analysis, pattern recognition, writing, and more. The benefits of AI automation tools include enhanced efficiency and accuracy.
Examples of AI tool use cases include:
“An agent is kind of like a purpose-specific configuration of AI,” says Alex Pilon, Shopify developer and AI advocate.
“You have a system, or instruction, prompt that is tuned for a particular task or workflow, and then the agent can be configured with different types of tools—such as access to databases and third-party web services—and resources, such as a product knowledge base or training materials from your own business.”
The global artificial intelligence market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 31% over the next eight years, and the business world is taking notice.
A 2025 McKinsey & Company survey found that three-quarters of businesses already use AI in at least one business function, with increasing numbers reporting that the technology markedly reduces business costs.
Entrepreneurs can capitalize on the AI boom by starting businesses that harness the AI market’s growth potential. As tools continue to evolve and corporate adoption of AI technology accelerates, businesses and service providers that leverage AI startup ideas will be positioned to outpace the competition.
There are many ways to make money with an AI-based business idea. Use these profitable AI business ideas to help jump-start your brainstorming process:
Service-based businesses can be lucrative, as customers pay big bucks to access specialist expertise. The caveat is that you’re trading time for money—time that you can save by using AI.
Content marketing is the practice of creating and publishing content that provides value to your target audiences. The goal is to attract new customers and build trust with your customer base.
You can start a content marketing business with AI-based writing tools, which use NLP, machine learning, and predictive analytics to generate human-like language in response to user inputs.
AI content marketers help sales and marketing teams develop content marketing strategies, design prompts, and use AI-powered tools to generate content that meets the needs of a particular target audience. They can also help businesses publish content, monitor results, and adjust strategy based on performance.
Best for: Writers and journalists
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
AI-generated content isn’t always perfect, which means there’s an emerging need for AI content editors who can proofread and fact-check content generated by AI-powered systems like ChatGPT.
Although AI writing tools allow businesses to specify voice and tone, AI-generated content is still more generic than human-generated content.
The difference is particularly apparent if a company has a distinctive and well-defined brand voice. If you have a talent for creating voice-driven content, you can expand or amend AI-generated text to communicate a brand’s unique personality.
Best for: Professional writers or marketers
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰
Get started:
Life is full of mundane tasks. Starting an AI personal assistant business allows companies or individuals to offload some of these tasks to you.
Instead of taking it all on personally, you can leverage AI-powered software to efficiently complete tasks such as:
As an AI assistant business owner, you’ll be responsible for selecting appropriate AI solutions, configuring them to complete your clients’ desired tasks, and monitoring them for quality and accuracy.
Best for: People with great organizational skills
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰
Get started:
AI image generators can create branded images and other visual assets for companies, so that even entrepreneurs with minimal graphic design experience can create visual content.
As an AI graphic designer, you can help brands develop unique visual identities and determine the role of imagery in their larger marketing strategies.
For example, you might use an AI-powered logo maker to create a unique logo and accompanying set of brand guidelines.
You can also help companies create parameters around image type, tone, and use. Once a strategy is in place, you’ll be able to create images using an AI app and vet them for quality and consistency.
Best for: Creatives, including illustrators or graphic designers
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰
Get started:
💡Tip: Shopify Magic can transform product imagery with professional-grade AI editing. Customize the background to show your product against a plain background, in situ, or with a creative backdrop.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of refining website content and structure to generate high-quality traffic and push sites to the top of search results. You can start an AI business that uses AI-powered SEO tools to offer SEO services to companies.
These tools can:
Use these tools to help small businesses affordably optimize their on-page SEO, develop SEO content, and improve their technical SEO.
Best for: Marketing experts
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰
Get started:
AI-powered solutions can independently create, schedule, and publish social media posts—but companies still need to involve human social media specialists.
AI social media managers help brands develop social media strategies, configure AI tools, and oversee AI social media tools in the same way that a marketing manager might oversee a human employee.
For example, you might review scheduled content for accuracy and marketing value, and monitor social feeds to confirm successful publishing, review quality, and manage audience engagement.
Best for: Social media experts, influencers, or content creators
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰
Get started:
If you’re a skilled marketing strategist with knowledge of a variety of marketing tactics, you can use AI marketing strategies and tools to start a full-service marketing agency.
Cutting-edge AI technology can support multiple processes, allowing you to offer a wide range of services, including:
AI solutions also allow for scalable growth, enabling you to develop and implement robust marketing strategies with a relatively lean staff and bring on employees as your business grows.
Best for: Marketing experts
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
💡Tip: Shopify Magic can help with various types of ecommerce marketing, from writing product descriptions to email marketing campaigns—all from a single prompt.
Leveraging AI technology can increase business efficiency and provide a key competitive advantage—but the AI industry is also evolving so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up.
If you’re passionate about AI technology, you can offer AI consulting services via an AI implementation consulting business and help companies identify and embrace innovative solutions to stay ahead in a competitive business landscape.
Best for: Entrepreneurs with plenty of AI experience
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰💰
Get started:
If you have the technical knowledge to build your own AI platform, here are some business ideas to monetize your skill.
AI customer experience (CX) tools are becoming essential within the support space. According to a recent IBM report, almost half of brand executives surveyed have already implemented some form of automation in customer feedback and support. Some 71% aim for a completely touchless experience by 2027.
All this to say, AI-powered automation and chat tools can make a huge difference for CX teams and the customers they support.
There is growing demand for AI tools that can provide empathetic, human-like responses in real-time, perform quality assurance checks on tickets, tackle repetitive questions like “Where is my order?” and triage important requests that require human help.
Best for: Entrepreneurs with great customer service skills
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
💡Tip: Shopify merchants already have an AI-powered chatbot by default. Shopify Inbox works with Shopify Magic, using data from your store’s policies to provide instant answers to customers.
AI data analytics services use AI to process, analyze, and gather insights from data. They infuse traditional data analytics with AI capabilities, increasing efficiency and accuracy and offering businesses customizable solutions.
AI-powered data analytics services address a growing need across industries for actionable data-driven insights.
Your service can help clients automate manual tasks associated with data analysis, like processing data and building customized reports. Plus, AI can pull predictive analytics from customer data to help businesses make informed decisions.
Best for: Entrepreneurs with analytical chops
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰💰💰
Get started:
Recruiting is a tedious and expensive process. The average business spends roughly $4,700 to hire and train a single employee, but the recruitment process is largely research and evaluation based.
You can help businesses automate recruitment tasks with an AI-powered recruitment tool that handles:
Remember to train your AI model to anonymize each candidate’s data to comply with privacy regulations. This can also help your customers avoid hiring biases.
Best for: Recruitment or HR experts
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰💰
Get started:
From identity theft to credit card fraud, you could build an AI platform to detect fraud risks and educate people on how to protect themselves.
You’ll need access to fraud-related data, such as transaction logs, historical fraud cases, and user activity. Engineer the algorithm to detect suspicious indicators and flag them for your clients. Integrate their feedback—for example, if it was actually fraud or flagged incorrectly—into the model to retrain it.
Best for: Finance or cybersecurity experts
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰💰💰
Get started:
If you have a knack for storytelling, consider creating impactful video content for businesses using AI video generation tools. These platforms—many of which offer free plans—allow you to expand into video content production without developing an entirely new set of technical skills.
Much like any service business, it helps to choose a niche for your AI video production company. That might be:
An AI tool like Descript or Rev can automatically transcribe your AI-generated videos. Upsell access to these transcripts or repurpose them into blog content to make more money with this AI business idea.
Best for: Content creators or video marketing experts
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
If you have deep expertise in a specific industry, consider these AI business ideas to make money online.
Many people face barriers to accessing health care, while others are unsure whether they need to see a professional at all. Solve this problem with a symptom checker that triages patients before seeing a doctor.
While this online business idea does have revenue potential, it also comes with legal red tape and liability. You must keep health-related information secure and ensure that your AI platform is giving accurate advice.
Best for: Licensed medical professionals
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰
Get started:
Sales coaching is a service that’s relatively easy to sell, largely because you can demonstrate how the cost of your service will have a solid return on investment when the customer puts your advice into action.
Input your sales knowledge into an AI-powered coach that helps reps sell more. You could advise on:
Your AI-powered sales coach could also give real-time feedback as reps are out in the field. For example, it could display suggestions like “ask about timelines” or “reconfirm budgets” for reps to act on during sales calls.
Best for: Entrepreneurs with sales experience
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
Many business owners dread accounting, but it needs to be done.
Help reluctant accountants by building an AI accounting tool that can:
To succeed with this AI business idea, you’ll need clean, structured data from your customers’ banks and payment processors. You’ll also need reliable integrations to securely collect the data, as well as trust from your customers to access their information.
Industry expertise is also crucial. Accounting terms can be complex, especially in the world of tax planning. You’ll need input from qualified accountants or bookkeepers to train the AI model.
Best for: Qualified accountants and bookkeepers
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
How many times have you opened the fridge and faced a lack of inspiration on what to cook? Food creativity doesn’t come naturally to us all, but you can help people find things to cook by developing your own AI recipe generator.
Your AI recipe tool could retrieve ideas based on the user’s:
What’s great about using AI for this side hustle idea is that it can learn the user’s preferences over time. If they frequently choose sweet recipes over savory meal ideas, for instance, your AI platform can surface more of the former to personalize the user’s experience.
Best for: Cooking enthusiasts, professional cooks, and recipe developers
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰
Get started:
Turn your travel passion into a business by building an AI travel planner that creates personalized travel plans based on users’ preferences, time, and budget.
Your AI tool could also help with travel planning tasks like:
To make money with this automated business idea, consider joining travel affiliate programs. You’ll earn commission when users book a trip or experience through your affiliate links—a great way to monetize your AI travel planner if you’re not charging for access to the platform itself.
Best for: Travel fanatics
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰
Get started:
Online courses are a great way to package your knowledge into a digital product you can build once and sell forever. But they’re static and one-dimensional and only let you give personalized advice on a one-to-one basis.
Solve this problem with an AI-powered platform built for the education sector. It could include features such as:
Best for: Entrepreneurs with deep knowledge in a particular industry
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
Not everyone has access to a mentor they can go to for advice. An AI career coach, however, can help people find new jobs, build their skills, and help with professional development.
Consider specializing in a particular industry. For example, if you have tons of experience as an entrepreneur, you could launch an AI coach that doubles as a business mentor, enabling you to share your experience in an accessible way.
Best for: Mentors who want to share their expertise at scale
Revenue potential (out of 5): 💰💰💰
Get started:
The cost to develop an AI business tool varies widely depending on the complexity of the tool and the functions you expect it to perform. One source claims that startup costs can begin as low as $5,000, while another cites $20,000 to $500,000 or more as a common range.
AI business tool development costs depend on factors such as:
The cost of developing your AI tool is just one aspect of startup costs. You must also consider the general expenses that come with starting a tech business, like registration fees, insurance, marketing, and website development, and factor them into your business plan.
There are options available if you can’t cover your startup expenses upfront:
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Inspired to start an AI business? Here’s how to choose a business model and develop your business idea further.
The subscription model offers customers convenience and flexibility. They can sign up to have their bank account debited on a pre-agreed schedule, then receive orders at their door without the hassle of repurchasing.
The biggest advantage of a subscription business is that revenue is predictable. Minus a small percentage of customers who churn, forecasting revenue becomes easier when you know how many people have scheduled their next purchase. It also eases the constant pressure to acquire new customers when you’re able to retain those you’ve already got.
That said, subscriptions are bigger commitments than one-off purchases, so it can be difficult to convince customers to sign up. Consider a free trial or demo to let prospective customers experience your AI platform. Wowing them during the trial period can convince them to pay full price once it ends.
If you’re a creative entrepreneur who enjoys building more than selling, think about offering another business access to your software to resell. It’s a great business idea for introverts since you’ll only communicate with select partners—not hundreds (or thousands) of end customers.
There are two main ways to do this:
Both licensing and white labeling open up opportunities to sell to other businesses. The trade-off is limited brand recognition and heavy dependence on your partners.
The transaction-based business model charges customers each time they use your product or service. It’s most common with service-based businesses—for example, a customer pays $X each time they hire you to create an AI-generated video—but you can also apply it to AI software you’ve built.
Transaction-based pricing attracts customers because it’s fair; they pay only for what they need. This low barrier to entry can also influence new people to try your AI platform, since they don’t need to invest much to get started.
That said, although it can be fairer to your customers, you might lose out on revenue from customers willing to pay a flat subscription fee.
Training an AI model isn’t the only way to make money with an AI business. Data monetization means selling access to the information you’ve collected.
For example, you could use your AI data analytics platform to prepare a report on upcoming trends and sell that to other business owners. If you’re an AI content marketer, perhaps you could package your data into a “best practices” checklist other marketers can use when publishing their own high-quality content.
Data monetization often has a high profit margin because you own the data—you’re just charging for access to it. However, you must comply with data protection laws and ensure that the data your AI generates is accurate.
As an AI affiliate marketer, you’ll earn commission whenever somebody purchases something through your unique affiliate link. It’s a great revenue stream to add to your AI business, particularly if you’re giving free access to the platform itself.
If you’re building an AI travel planning tool, for example, you could earn money when customers do the following through your affiliate links:
AI businesses are booming, but they don’t come without challenges:
Inspired by this list of AI business ideas? It’s time to get started: Choose the niche that you’re most excited about and put the initial steps in place to break into this billion-dollar industry.
Shopify can be your innovation partner, bolstering your new business with its own suite of commerce-driven AI tools.
Transform product image backgrounds, learn answers to your FAQs, and get help with writing great product descriptions. Shopify can even generate personalized and relevant responses to customer questions—all with a little bit of AI-powered magic.
Follow these steps to start a successful business using AI tools:
A good AI business idea can help you make money by charging individuals or companies for products or services ranging from consulting to content editing to graphic design.
The cost of launching an AI startup depends on your industry and business model. In general, costs are higher for businesses that require extensive investments in research, development, and manufacturing.
Yes, businesses that leverage AI can be profitable. The global AI market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 28% over the next six years, reaching a total market value of nearly $1.7 trillion by 2031.
The best businesses to start with AI include:
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