How To Use AI to Build Your Business (Or Just Work Smarter)

By now, we’ve all heard about how AI will change our work lives, but the truth is, for many of us, how to use it and practical applications are a mystery. I felt the same way until I started using it daily to build my business. But where do you start when the technology feels a bit overwhelming? Let me walk you through how AI became one of my most important tools in entrepreneurship.

Where to start

There are plenty of great youtube videos, newsletters, and documentation online. I google things a lot, and the resources are generally good enough to get going. Open AI’s documentation is pretty great (example of where you could start, example that’s a little more complicated). However, I wanted a big push / head start and ending up enrolling in No Code x AI bootcamp (here). It was not cheap, but it had great lessons / examples, live sessions with experts working on totally relevant use cases, documentation I still go back to, and got me confident in using AI tools. Highly recommend! 

Now that you know where to start, the next logical question is: What exactly can AI do for you on a daily basis? Let's look at some specific use cases I’ve found invaluable.

What do you do with it?

Copywriting: 

• From first drafts to fine-tuning social media posts, AI can help save hours.
• Example: Having it act as a copy editor, where I will tell it I mostly like it the way it is but want specific feedback (which I will take or leave)

Summarizing: 

• Shorten long documents or blog posts for quick consumption.
• Example: create a 50 word summary of my blog post for the website description

Brainstorming: 

• Need new / more ideas? Ask for business, product, or even design concepts.
• Example: Images for idea generation (“logo with no more than 2 colors for a business that connects people to the best accountant”)

Technical Assistance: 

• AI can help debug code, draft iframes, and troubleshoot errors—even with screenshots.
• Example: here’s a screenshot of my DNS settings and Webflow documentation. My website won’t publish, what’s wrong?

Administrative Tasks: 

• Use AI to convert files, input data, automate tasks (use Zapier!), or handle repetitive tasks like PDF-to-Excel conversions.
• Example: ever had a PDF of something (documentation, data table, etc.) that’s a tedious pain to work with? You need PDF to Excel and copy / paste doesn’t work? Screen shot to your favorite AI platform, ask it to make it into sheets or whatever.

Doing research:

• Use Perplexity to research most any topic, from technical problems to the nuances of a regulation. It will show you exactly what the sources are so you can pick sources you trust more and check for hallucinations. 
• Example: how do I add another user to G-Suite for business?

Custom agents: 

• Sounds complicated, it’s not. No code required! These are little bots you can build to do specific things for you, such as explain complex documents to you in simple language. It has endless patience for your stupid questions. 
• Example: explain my new insurance policy to me, what is covered, what do I have to pay out of pocket, etc.

I never use it for

• Producing blog posts (unfortunately too basic, no good jokes)
• Story telling (too basic and cheesy)
• Making “final” images, such as logos or photo-style images (too messy and weird, too creepy)
• Data analysis (still at the stage of stupid intern, where I have to tell it the same thing too many times)

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How’s it helpful in business building?

The biggest benefit these tools have is, they are approximately free leverage. It takes some getting used to to even remember you can use AI much less use it. But it’s so incredibly helpful! 

Using AI tools has helped me:

• Prototype products / businesses
• Research complex technical or business problems, like why are the DNS settings on my website not working or what does the S-1 of x company say about topic y or how big is the market for z in the US
• Create or troubleshoot code in products or prototypes
• Get administrative tasks done real fast
• Avoid hiring someone to do copy editing (my bot is fine)
• Understand or learn about a complex topic real fast (thanks, custom GPT!)

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My challenge to you is to just start. Get an account with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, whatever you want. Read the quick “how to” documentation or find a Youtbe video, jump in and just try. 

A few pro tips

• Keep your prompts organized in a document or spreadsheet for tweaking (and so you don’t have to remember what you changed). 
• Test the AI often with the tweaks you make, and see what the bot is good at / not good at. The AI really does get better quickly, so check back on tasks to see if they are better at them than before. 
• Try using AI for a different thing you do every day for a month. Just experiment and don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. 

This really just scratches the surface of how one might use AI today to build businesses, but the best way to learn is to literally use it every day. Don’t wait until you feel “ready” or have extra time (you won’t). The rule of thumb is to use it for 2+ hours each day (!). Using AI tools helps you get way more done with way fewer resources, and when you’re building a business, there’s nothing more valuable than saving time and money. It’s also pretty amazing to see what you can produce yourself with the added leverage of AI tools. After a month of using these tools, you’ll wonder how you’ve lived without them.