How Can You Use AI in Your Business

AI is rapidly revolutionizing the business landscape, offering a wide range of benefits from task automation to better customer service.

Despite concerns about job displacement and ethical considerations, I’m curious to learn what tools are out there and how we can best use them to work smarter and drive better results.

To help with that, I’ve crowdsourced some wisdom from Side Hustle Show listeners on how you’re using AI in your businesses, and you delivered big time.

Stick around to hear creative suggestions on how you can boost your side hustle using AI tools or ignite a new income stream altogether.

Ready? Let’s do it!

Ways to Use AI for Content Creation

Several listeners mentioned using AI to help with the writing process. What’s interesting is they all shared a slightly different use case, illustrating how powerful AI is for content creation.

1. Content Creation, Customer Support, and Email Marketing

Kelan Kline, owner of TheSavvyCouple.com, TheSavvyMama.com, and TheSavvyKitchen.com, has been using AI tools for almost three years now within his businesses.

AI tools like Jasper, ChatGPT, and Surfer SEO enable his team of writers to create outlines, write engaging content, and optimize blog posts for SEO more efficiently. They also use ChatGPT to create email templates for customer support and email marketing campaigns, which have resulted in faster response times and increased customer satisfaction.

Overall, Kelan found that AI tools allowed him to streamline business operations, save time, and provide better experiences for their customers.

2. Expanding Content

Anna from SpainInspired.com started her travel site after moving to Spain, and she’s been using ChatGPT to help get her site off the ground.

In particular, she uses the tool to summarize the different attractions in cities around Spain and the pros and cons of accommodation options. Once she has a draft going, she tidies it up and adds her personal touches.

Overall, ChatGPT has been a huge timesaver for Anna. “I’m able to get content out to a new audience, while also making sure that it’s still … me writing it, not a robot.”

3. Get Past Writer’s Block

For Mike McRitchie of MikeMcRitchie.com, ChatGPT is extremely useful for beating writer’s block.

Mike does resume and content writing for the telecom industry, so he started using ChatGPT to finish his projects more efficiently.

He found that ChatGPT helped speed up his writing process by giving him some content to work with, instead of him having to write everything from scratch.

4. Finding Content Blind Spots

Tami from TheTastyTip.com likes to use ChatGPT to find blind spots in the recipes she writes.

For example, after she writes a recipe, she’ll paste the ingredients and recipe instructions in ChatGPT. She’ll prompt the tool for feedback with questions like “What might be confusing in this recipe for beginners?” or “What questions would a beginner have about this recipe?”

Based on ChatGPT’s response, Tami will tweak the recipe or add clarifying steps.

She says this process has helped her find ways to improve her recipes for her audience. It also makes her more aware of any barriers that might prevent her readers from making the recipe. “It’s like asking a bunch of friends to try making the recipe and then give me feedback on it.”

She also uses ChatGPT to quickly and easily write Pinterest Pin descriptions of her recipes.

5. Writing Blog Post Introductions

Another fan of ChatGPT, investment blogger Fred Fuld of WStNN.com says he uses the tool to craft great blog post introductions.

For example, if he were to write a blog post on the top five stocks that Warren Buffett owns, he’d ask ChatGPT for a brief background on the business magnate, and then use its response in his introduction.

As a side note, Fred documented his process of working with AI in a book he wrote on AI for beginners. “One thing I do is every time I get involved in a side hustle, I will write a book about it,” he said.

AI for Organization

We’ve covered a lot of content creation tips here, specifically for website content, but that really just scratches the surface.

6. Managing Your Calendar

Single mom of two and full-time entrepreneur Tiffany from MoneyTalkWithT.com struggled to keep up with everything she needed to do to run her business.

So she decided to use Motion, an AI tool that intelligently plans your day, schedules meetings, and manages your to-do lists.

How it works is you plug in all the tasks you need to accomplish, indicating the deadline for each task and in what order you want to finish each one.

Motion will then take all the information you gave it and create a calendar for you. It will also automatically accommodate any new meetings or tasks you get during the day.

If you have a team, you can also plug your team members’ tasks into Motion, and the tool will create a calendar for them.

“It’s like having an executive assistant … I highly recommend it for full-time entrepreneurs because it has been business- and life-changing for me,” Tiffany said.

7. Personal Research Assistant

Speaking of assistants, David from AndersonFinancialCoaching.co.uk says he uses ChatGPT essentially as a personal assistant. That way, he can focus on moving his business forward without getting too bogged down in day-to-day tasks.

David uses ChatGPT for an array of tasks, from website content planning to email template creation. He’s also used it to write business plans, create FAQs for the site, and come up with a list of potential guests within his niche for his upcoming podcast.

AI for Creating Products

Another use case we touched on briefly during our AI side hustles episode with Matt Wolfe earlier in the year was using AI tools to create physical products.

8. Print on Demand Coloring Books

This next one is from Rob Cubbon, who previously appeared on the show in episodes 81 and 339.

Rob uses ChatGPT as an idea-generating machine when writing posts on his blog, RobCubbon.com, by prompting it for topics he may have forgotten to cover in his posts.

Recently, Robb has also been making print-on-demand coloring books using Midjourney, a text-to-picture AI service that launched in mid-2022.

He uses Midjourney for the cover art and the book’s contents. He also uses ChatGPT for ideas in the coloring book niche.

9. Print on Demand Coloring Books and Stories

Similarly, Nathan from SchoolApplicationsPrep.com uses ChatGPT and Midjourney to create and self-publish coloring books with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

For example, if he were to create a coloring book on popular dog breeds, he’ll prompt ChatGPT for a list of the 100 most popular dog breeds in the United States. He’ll then go into Midjourney and prompt it to create an image for each breed on that list.

Nathan also recently introduced a new AI class on Outschool where he teaches AI to children. One of the activities in the class involves writing a fairy tale using ChatGPT and creating illustrations that match the fairy tale using Midjourney.

Additionally, Nathan is experimenting with Beautiful.ai to quickly and easily create slide decks for that class.

10. Coding Little Tools

Books aren’t the only products you can create with ChatGPT. Pete from DoYouEvenBlog.com uses the tool to build and code his own little apps.

Pete had heard of people creating plugins and extensions using ChatGPT but found that it wasn’t as simple as just asking the tool to create an app.

He didn’t throw in the towel just yet. Instead, he played with the tool, explaining to it his ideas and asking it for the broad steps he needed to take to turn his ideas into reality. He gradually prompted ChatGPT for specific steps until he was able to put together a few new apps.

“You don’t have to be super techie and a developer to start developing small, simple tools,” Pete said.

So if you have an idea for a tool, explain it to ChatGPT and ask it what the next big steps are. Then, slowly move on to the more specific steps. You might be surprised by what you can build.

AI for Freelancers

Now, what if you’re a freelancer doing client work? Several listeners submitted some cool suggestions on how AI tools help with their prospecting or client workflows.

11. Building Prospecting Lists

Mathieu from MuditaComedy.com offers funny copywriting services to businesses.

He uses ChatGPT to build sales prospecting lists — a process that used to take him a lot of time to complete.

ChatGPT also enabled him to find businesses that he hadn’t found when he manually built his lists using Google.

12. Logo Design and Custom Images

Freelance writer and photographer Cara from AnatomyOfAdventure.com enjoys using DALL-E from OpenAI to assist with graphic design.

For example, when a client asks for a logo, she’ll describe her logo idea to DALL-E and use the images it generates as a starting point.

Cara says DALL-E is also excellent for generating clipart, photorealistic images, and digital art for print-on-demand products that she sells on her Etsy shop.

13. Marketing Campaign Assistant

When Monica Louie from MonicaLouie.com attended the Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing World mega-conference last month, she came away with two things.

The first was that marketers who use AI will replace marketers who don’t, and the second was that the better the prompt, the better the output. These takeaways pushed Monica and her ad agency team to embrace AI, particularly ChatGPT.

They’ve been using the tool in a variety of ways, such as to draft hooks, headlines, and copies for their ads.

But to differentiate themselves from other ad agencies doing the same thing, they make sure to feed ChatGPT more descriptive prompts and include a link to the landing page of whatever it is that they’re promoting in the ad.

Once they’re happy with the output, they’ll edit it to make sure it’s relevant to the brand’s voice and messaging.

14. Writing Sample Ads

Like Monica, Bobby Schwartz from HomeBusinessAdvertiser.com uses ChatGPT to write ads, complete with headlines, bullet points, and calls to action. Bobby says this strategy has helped him sell a lot more ads.

Other times, Bobby uses ChatGPT to improve his emails. When following up on new customers, for example, Bobby feeds his draft email to ChatGPT and asks it to make the draft more compelling.

AI for Social Media

Several listeners mentioned using AI to help with social media. I feel this is definitely a soft spot in my marketing game, so I was curious about these use cases.

15. Social Media Captions and Content Outlines

ChatGPT has been a huge timesaver for Michelle from MyPurseStrings.com.

Michelle actively posts on her social media accounts, but she doesn’t love putting a whole lot of time there. She uses ChatGPT to make that task less of a headache.

For example, she uses the tool to write Instagram post descriptions and come up with the right hashtags and emojis to use.

She also uses ChatGPT to write titles and descriptions for her product reviews on YouTube.

16. YouTube Headlines

Marcus Garrett from the Life After Debt with The Marcus Garrett podcast started using AI tools, particularly InVideo and vidIQ, to generate podcast episode and YouTube video titles.

He first writes a bunch of titles himself, then prompts the tools for 10-20 titles that people will actually click.

Marcus says he’s always sucked at creating clickable titles, so the AI tools have definitely been a game-changer.

17. YouTube Descriptions

Like Marcus, AJ from GreenshireHandyman.com uses AI — in his case, Google’s Bard — to generate descriptions for the videos on his YouTube channel, Handyman Process.

When he thinks of an idea for a video, he’ll type it into Bard and then modify the draft that Bard generates.

AJ also likes to experiment with Bard by prompting it to write estimates for the long list of handyman jobs that he does.

18. Writing Google Business Profile Updates

We’ve heard now from several sources that Google rewards those businesses that post updates frequently to their Google Business Profile page.

Brad from BradsCareerCoaching.com certainly used that to his advantage, enlisting the help of ChatGPT to write the actual updates.

He posts weekly, if not daily updates to his Google Business Profile page. Brad says this has resulted in an increase in organic traffic to his page without him having to pay for Google Ads.

Overall, ChatGPT has had a positive impact on Brad’s business by taking away the admin burden of regularly updating his Google Business Profile page.

“There are some people that are scared of AI, but I want them to think of AI as an enabler that gets rid of the admin busywork and allows you to focus on the important stuff,” he said.

AI for Marketing

AI has been used in marketing for years. All of Google’s predictive conversion optimization magic is just one example. But it’s just now getting a little more mainstream with tools we can all use.

19. Generating Marketing Plans

Christine Larson from CostaRicaInspirations.com uses ChatGPT to put together comprehensive marketing plans for her tourism company.

Ideas from those plans enable her and her team to create engaging content for social media and breathe new life into the site with blog posts.

Recently, Christine also decided to revamp the site, again using ChatGPT to do the hard work behind the scenes, like writing meta descriptions.

The site got more traffic as a result, which ultimately led to more bookings.

20. Google Ads

Andy from PPCPitbulls.com has been experimenting with ChatGPT for things like ad copies and blog posts. But what he and his team of digital marketing experts found to be most impactful were AI features that were built directly into Google Ads.

Basically, they provide Google Ads with product data from their clients’ sites, as well as text, images, and videos. Google Ads then uses its AI model to mix and match these assets to create the best ads possible and optimize keyword and audience targeting.

Ultimately, Andy says Google Ads’ AI features enable him and his team to achieve better results than they would have with manual approaches.

What’s more, these features should only become more powerful in the near future as Google integrates its Bard AI model into Google Ads.

21. Testing Headlines

R.J. Weiss from TheWaysToWealth.com likes using ChatGPT as a brainstorming tool, especially for testing different headlines on both organic and paid search.

Headlines are one of the most important elements of content, but R.J. says he can take 10-30 minutes crafting the perfect headline.

ChatGPT speeds up this process immensely, generating a list of headlines you can test with just a few clicks.

22. Images for Product Packaging

Phil from DeliciOats.com sells overnight oats for backpacking online. He wasn’t happy with the plain packaging that they had and wanted a beautiful landscape design instead to go with their outdoor theme.

He initially went to the designer they hired for their last packaging design, but he wasn’t happy with any of the new designs the designer came up with.

So Phil decided to try DALL-E 2. After spending several hours prompting it for images, he finally got one he was happy with and sent it to his designer, who then incorporated the image into the new packaging design.

Phil also says the great thing about DALL-E 2 is you own the images you create with it, including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise.

23. Junior Marketing Assistant

Brooks from BrooksConkle.com sees ChatGPT as the perfect junior marketing assistant.

Over the last 100 or so days of using ChatGPT, Brooke has found that the tool is awesome for brainstorming things like titles, ad copies, and podcast episode descriptions.

He’s even used it to summarize meetings and YouTube videos from transcripts, write job descriptions, and build simple tools like an HTML calculator.

24. Niche Research and Marketing Campaigns

Affiliate marketing coach John Wilson from HighTicketAffiliateCoach.com uses AI to help speed up the affiliate marketing process for his students.

In particular, he’s developed specialized AI prompts to help his students with everything from niche selection and affiliate product research to lead magnet creation.

John says he always encourages his students to put as much of themselves into their content as possible, whether it’s their stories, their experiences, or their humor.

“The content that will rise to the top is the stuff that has some humanity in it … because at the end of the day, people still buy from people,” he added.

25. Site Redesign Architect

Maryan Pelland from OnText.com says they’ve already been using AI tools to proofread content, make graphics for blog posts, and reach out to readers.

More recently though, they’ve taken on the task of updating their 20-year-old site using ChatGPT-4, reportedly the most powerful and impressive AI model yet from OpenAI.

ChatGPT-4 created a silo structure for the site revision — an incredible timesaver. It also suggested new posts, menus, and other site details that would have taken the OnText team forever to come up with manually.

Maryan says they rely on Bard and Bing these days to suggest and outline possible articles or newsletter content.

They use BlueWillow and Midjourney to generate illustrations for their posts and are experimenting with AI speech software ElevenLabs to create audio versions of articles.

AI for Public Speaking

Here are a couple more creative AI use cases to round out this list.

26. Creating Presentations

Family man, financial coach, and author Michael Quan from FinanciallyAlert.com enjoys using ChatGPT to create presentations quickly and efficiently.

It all started when he was recently invited to speak at the Real Estate Wealth Builders Conference.

Many of the other speakers presented on traditional and short-term property strategies, but Michael wanted to present on something unique that aligned with his tech background.

So he decided to use AI, particularly ChatGPT, to talk about AI in real estate. Here’s what he did:

1. First, Michael asked ChatGPT to explore the different ways AI can assist real estate investors.
2. He asked ChatGPT to consolidate that research into a comprehensive outline.
3. He prompted ChatGPT for 12 different titles for the presentation. He settled with “AI-assisted real estate: Tips and tricks for the modern investor.”
4. He plugged the title and outline into Word, making sure to put it into an outline format.
5. He imported the Word document into PowerPoint, which automatically generated the slides.
6. He formatted the slides using PowerPoint Designer, an AI-powered feature that creates professional-looking slides in seconds.

Michael says the entire process was incredibly efficient. With the time he saved, he found hands-on applications to share with his audience, ultimately creating more value for them.

27. Digital Thought Partner

For Amazon seller, Affiliate, and Influencer Liz Saunders from FluencerFruit.com, ChatGPT acts like a digital thought partner, helping her work through ideas that can be quickly fleshed out.

Liz says she used to struggle to get started with the writing process, but not anymore. ChatGPT has become a daily part of her process. It generates starting points — drafts that Liz takes and combines, edits, or rewrites.

She has also asked ChatGPT to write a product description for a Chrome extension she developed, prompted it for aspects of her expertise that would resonate with the audience she was targeting, and used it to write a letter of recommendation for a past employee.