Startup: AI Alone Is Not Enough
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The American startup Here Now Health said it used artificial intelligence tools to accelerate the early stages of its business growth.
Founder Michelle Turner openly admitted that she had no business experience, so she relied on AI to better understand how the startup ecosystem works, develop the company's business plan, and manage the fundraising process.
Through its smart use of AI, Here Now Health, which provides mental health services for children in foster care, grew to sixteen employees in less than a year and also secured authorization to operate in three U.S. states (source: "For One Small Business, AI Was Key to a Quick Start and Expansion," Reuters).
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from This News
Focus on Solving the Problem First, Then the Tools
Every time we read an article about how artificial intelligence contributed to the success of a company, whether large or small, our first thought is always: "See? I need to start using AI to make money!"
Unfortunately, if it were that simple, we would see millions of entrepreneurs asking artificial intelligence every day to build a company for them and make them millionaires in no time... but clearly, the real world doesn't work that way.
Artificial intelligence does not generate profits for a company, because the real driving force is always, and only, the problem you are able to solve for someone (source: "It's All About Business Model Innovation, not New Technology," The Wall Street Journal).
AI can certainly help you do that better and faster, but it remains a tool in the hands of an entrepreneur who must know - or learn - how to use it effectively.
Artificial intelligence cannot create a company because it is incapable of truly understanding people's needs and, as a result, cannot develop an entrepreneurial vision.
A business idea comes from the ability to observe reality and identify a genuine market need.
This uniquely human ability cannot be replaced by any machine. Michelle Turner's story is a perfect example.
She created Here Now Health to provide mental health services to children living in particularly vulnerable circumstances, addressing an urgent market need.
The company did not succeed because of artificial intelligence: AI was simply one of the tools that allowed her to achieve her goals more quickly, but the direction on what to create and how to do it came from Turner.
Unfortunately, many aspiring entrepreneurs, blinded by the prospect of making money and shortening the path to success, do not start with a problem to solve but instead ask artificial intelligence to come up with "the next big business idea."
The result is always the same collection of business ideas that appear across hundreds of blogs and videos online:
- Start a marketing agency.
- Launch an e-commerce business.
- Sell online courses (one of the most saturated business models with one of the lowest success rates).
- Build a subscription-based software product.
And so on.
The problem with choosing one of these businesses without having any relevant expertise or real knowledge of the industry, while hoping to succeed by relying entirely on AI-generated content, is that it's like pretending to be a doctor just because you've watched videos of surgical procedures on YouTube.
Building a company is not about chasing money.
I know, it may sound paradoxical, but entrepreneurs who start a business with the sole goal of making money often end up creating nothing of value.
An entrepreneur's primary goal should be to improve people's lives by using their skills to solve a problem better than anyone else (fonte: "CEO Andy Jassy's Letter to Shareholders", Amazon).
Understanding what value to offer requires market research, marketing, and a deep understanding of people's needs.
As mentioned earlier, these are not things that can emerge from a simple free conversation with artificial intelligence.
It is also important to remember that people's problems have been the same since the dawn of time.
The way they are expressed or the context in which they arise may change, but the underlying needs remain the same:
- Save time.
- Make more money.
- Improve personal well-being.
- Feel safer.
- Simplify everyday life.
- Achieve goals with less effort.
If you want to build a company that stands the test of time, you should always start with one of these timeless problems and only then choose the technology best suited to solving it.