15 Best AI Business Ideas in 2024 That You Can Start Working on Today

Are you exploring tech investments that could increase your bottom line? Make sure to reserve the first spot on your list of priorities for AI development.

AI technologies were an uncontested investment champion in 2023, enabling organizations that tried and adopted them to perform in new and powerful ways.

According to a 2023 McKinsey survey, a third of all respondents used generative AI alone in at least one business function. Forty percent planned to increase overall AI investment, specifically in advanced generative AI.

In 2024, AI is poised to fundamentally change how businesses operate, engage employees, and interact with customers. Moreover, AI itself will speed up the pace of business transformation.

McKinsey claims that organizations could increase productivity by between 0.5 and 3.4 percentage points using AI-powered solutions.

Let’s dive deep. Below, we discuss the AI market and trending AI business ideas that you could use to:

The AI market encompasses various technologies used to implement AI business ideas. The most significant AI domains include:

They can help businesses:

Statista estimates that the value of the entire AI market will reach almost $306B in 2024 while growing to $738B in 2030 through innovative AI business ideas. 

Machine learning is expected to be the biggest driver of this growth, outpacing competing tech and attaining an impressive $204.30B in global market value. Remaining AI technologies, such as AI robotics, computer vision, NLP, and autonomous and sensor technology, are expected to be valued at $101.61B combined:

Still, the numbers may be higher. According to an alternative estimate by Bloomberg, generative AI is drastically transforming the AI market’s structure and value.

With the growing number of solutions based on generative AI startup ideas, the generative AI market could explode from an estimated $40B in 2022 to $1.3T in 2032, growing at an incredible 42% CAGR.

According to the abovementioned Statista report, AI companies could boast 254M users in 2023. This number is projected to grow to 314.4M in 2024 and 729.1M in 2032.

ChatGPT alone has over 180M users who generate 1.5B visits monthly.

AI business opportunities are gaining ground across many industries. According to the AI executive’s playbook by McKinsey, the potential total annual value of these opportunities could reach between $9.5T and $15.4T based on a study of 400 use cases across 19 industries.

The AI revolution is not limited to big players. Small teams and solopreneurs who think innovatively can join the race with an uncommon vision and some knowledge of how to create AI software.

While the venture market cools and “traditional” startups face funding shortages, venture funds continue investing in AI startup ideas. According to a Crunchbase report on the largest startup deals in 2023, AI startups received $16B in funding in the ten biggest rounds alone. The total amount of funding AI startups raised in 2023 reached $49.8B.

This trend is continuing into 2024: 62.2% of venture capital investors believe AI has the greatest innovative potential among emerging technologies.

The number of AI business ideas is big and will grow throughout 2024. Here are some of the most common AI use cases:

Predictive analytics

AI is taking over routine analytics. It collects and processes vast volumes of data that would be impossible or impractical for humans to handle. Then, AI generates context-aware forecasts of demand, required inventory levels, and future workloads. 

AI marketing & sales

AI helps marketing and sales teams understand their customers, prepare and optimize campaigns, and improve content based on acquired insights. Marketing and sales teams can use AI to maintain structured communication and estimate the probability of a purchase for single prospects.

Customer chatbots

AI chatbots and robo-advisors can conversationally answer common questions, saving work hours for support teams. They can also provide personal advice, suggest products, and cross-sell.

Automated trading

High-frequency trading operations, such as algorithmic trading, are only possible when automated. Trading bots enable humans to focus on strategic solutions while tuning and improving AI-powered trading sessions.

Cybersecurity enhancement

AI and ML are widely implemented in trading, finance, and commerce to protect user accounts from unauthorized access and block malicious activities in real time, eliminating financial losses.

Source: Statista

Process automation

AI technology lets machines retrieve information from visuals. Among other use cases, computer vision is applied to autocomplete forms with details from document scans, enable biometric authentication, and analyze radiology images.

AI startups have many opportunities in 2024. The dynamic, constantly changing environment provides AI business opportunities for creating new experiences and improving existing ones across many industries and use cases. 

Let’s examine some value-generating use cases and artificial intelligence startup ideas:

AI customer support augments human support agents’ capabilities, helping agents cope with a growing customer base without compromising the quality of services.

Virtual support assistants also unify the efforts of marketing, sales, and customer success teams, creating consistent customer experiences. Two-sided communication can be improved through: 

• Chatbot solutions – simplify creation, tuning, and maintenance of virtual assistants
• Knowledge extraction and analytics systems – help companies collect customer feedback and improve support on its basis
• Localization solutions – boost communication between support agents and customers by translating each other’s responses in real time

AI enables retailers to help tech-savvy customers who do not like human interaction: 40% of consumers prefer self-service to contacting a human agent, making the company’s website the main point of consumer–retailer interaction.

By providing an AI assistant, businesses can decrease the time users need to find an answer or make a purchase. Or, the AI assistant can immediately connect users to human support if required. 

AI assistants can help businesses offer:

• Personal recommendations – suggest products based on input information, customer preferences, and purchase history
• Product and purchase information – provide information on product price, availability, delivery terms, possible discounts, and more
• Customer support – suggest unpacking videos, provide recommendations on product use, help with troubleshooting, etc.

AI can bring trip planning and ticket search to the next level, providing a detailed itinerary based on a user’s prompt.

An AI-powered app can find destinations based on planned travel dates and schedules, users’ diets, lodging preferences, and reviews. It can iterate on a user’s requests and direct the user to a booking platform when they’re happy with the result. 

AI travel planners can provide the following functionality:

• AI travel agent – generate a travel plan accompanied by timing and costs
• Travel insights – provide up-to-date links on video reviews from social media to let users evaluate future destinations
• Route and stay optimization – help users optimize travel time and receive the best deals from local hospitality service providers

High-profile text generators and writing improvement services are among the best 2024 AI tools for business, and demand is only growing. The AI writing market is predicted to grow from $432.8M in 2022 to $2.2B in 2032.

Users want friendly tools that can produce, adjust, improve, and repurpose texts, decreasing marketing costs and letting them respond flexibly to emerging trends.

• Social media post generators – adapt copy to a specific social media platform (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more)
• Item description generators – produce unique item descriptions that work for different marketplaces
• Niche text generators – prepare accurate texts for a narrow niche, such as the beauty industry or home devices

Video and image generators enable small businesses and solopreneurs to update their YouTube/Vimeo channels with fresh and useful content for which they previously had no resources.

A great AI app can turn text into an image or video, restore and improve visual content, add details, or apply the aesthetics of a specific era. 

• Image/video improvement service – enhance a low-quality video by upscaling resolution, stabilizing the frames, and removing noise
• Smart filters – can be used for advertising, virtual try-ons, or just for fun
• Content adaptation – adjust video for social media to improve its chances of going viral and provide improvement recommendations based on emerging trends
• Brand and asset generation – help small businesses create a logo and related assets that they can use as a basis for their brand evolution

Businesses already use ChatGPT and similar solutions to assess and improve their business strategy. However, because of privacy concerns, AI services can often be used only in the initial steps.

A secure AI advisor could process business information internally or in a private cloud while being powered with the newest AI models. 

• White-label solution – provide AI software that boosts the productivity of managers at consulting companies
• Custom integrations for AI advisors – ensure sensitive information remains secure and isolated from the outside world
• Industry-specific software – focus on an industry where the founder has experience and demand exists

AI in healthcare has become the new normal, improving clinical and administrative workflows. Business ideas for using AI include ambient dictation, task management, workload balancing, and clinical decision support.

Doctors can use AI to receive a comprehensive view of a patient’s state. Clinic administrators can use it to prevent a decline in service levels and maintain customer satisfaction.

• Disease detection – analyze test results, improving detection of impending serious illnesses
• Smart workforce management – clinics can detect staff under- and overload and prevent burnout
• Preventive care – promote a healthy lifestyle among different age groups by providing personalized nutrition and activity plans

AI tools help not only with natural languages but with programming languages too. The use of AI in software development can speed up developers’ work by 20% to 40%.

However, more improvements are required to solve specific problems, such as dealing with sensitive user information and eliminating inconsistencies in programming experiences. A new AI programming tool could be: 

• A solution for a niche language – provide help with rare programming languages where current AI apps do not offer perfect suggestions 
• Software for legacy software transformation – improve and tune translation of legacy software, such as COBOL applications
• Compliance checkers – examine generated code for possible intellectual property rights violations

AI can be a big help for self-learners. It can adjust a learning program depending on initial skills, available learning time, desired pace, etc.

AI apps can train specific skills, check assessments, and generate training tests. It can also provide explanations and find related materials on the internet. 

• Smart interviewer – practice meaningful conversation in a foreign language; assess and improve public speaking skills
• AI tutor – explain new materials on different subjects while providing related materials on a topic, such as videos, exercises, or articles
• Test checker – check students’ tasks and offer recommendations for improving skills

Teachers can use AI to efficiently prepare or adapt teaching materials. In particular, teachers can adjust tasks to a learner’s level, ensuring students do not get bored with a task that is too easy or overwhelmed by a task that is too complex.

AI can also assist in examining responses — such features as AI writing and plagiarism detection are crucial to help teachers give fair assessments.

• Interactive exercises – prepare tests and quizzes; reshuffle questions for improved content repurposing
• Curriculum and lesson plan generation – create a custom, ready-to-run program for a specific group of students
• Writing inspector – improve detection of plagiarism, AI-generated responses, and cheating in students’ work (existing services are bad at this)

Sustainable energy management is easier with an AI assistant, which can help reduce energy consumption by 20% to 30%.

When combined with sensors for measuring inside and outside parameters, an AI engine can help balance maintaining a comfortable climate inside a building with lowering energy bills. It can also detect patterns and adapt to weather changes.

• Energy consumption balancer – maintain optimum temperature and humidity depending on time and space occupancy
• Consumption forecast – predict heating demands and energy costs; provide recommendations on cost savings
• Leak detection – identify spots where energy leaks occur, such as through open windows, and notify responsible managers

AI generators can boost designers’ and business analysts’ productivity in preparing prototypes, app mockups, and visual presentations. Business users will appreciate features that boost productivity by producing comments and instructions or generating supplementary content.

More importantly, an AI planning assistant that translates mockups into milestones, creating tickets and estimates, is likely to be the next big thing.

• User flow generation – create a visualized user flow based on prompts; provide suggestions on flow elaboration
• Project estimation – evaluate the project timeline with consideration of the team’s experience level and possible project complexity
• Prototype repurposing – turn a visual prototype or mockup into a presentation

Legal professionals can already simplify their workflow with AI help. AI tools can be used for drafting, reviewing, and analyzing legal documents and improving search in the legal domain.

Accuracy and privacy concerns are among the biggest challenges — legal AI startups must keep a constant focus on software compliance and enhanced security.

• Knowledge search – context-aware search through documents, rules, and regulations
• Automated communication – generate and send reminder notifications and emails; adjust tone of voice
• Document review – automatically check amendments, detect inconsistencies and terms violations, and prepare contract summaries

Effective optimization of supply chain management is highly dependent on artificial intelligence business opportunities in 2024. AI helps address concerns related to strategy and planning, search, order monitoring, and performance analysis.

Among other benefits, AI tools enable organizations to achieve visibility, improve forecasting, increase resilience, and respond flexibly to supply chain disruptions. 

• Supplier search – find an alternative supplier on quick notice; automate quoting and contract negotiations
• Scheduling – identify optimum schedules and alternative slots in case rescheduling is required
• Supplier management – engage the best supplier for a specific order based on complex parameters, including quantity, cost, deadline, and more

Good question. For a successful AI startup, you must acquire expertise in a business domain, technology, sales, and marketing.

However, like many entrepreneurs before you, you can start small with your available skills and engage experts who enrich your team with skills you’re missing through AI consulting services. 

Now, let’s focus on the essential steps: 

1.  Start with an idea intersection: 

• Identify the gap in user experiences you want to address.
• Check out products that have already identified the gap, and examine their strengths and flaws. 
• Think about what makes your concept better than your competitors’ products. This helps you formulate your value proposition.
• Check revenue streams and monetization models. Will you acquire a large enough user base to make your product profitable?
• Dissect your cost structure (software development, business operations, user acquisition). Identify key metrics that enable you to monitor your startup’s health.
• Focus on core functionality and put the rest on your nice-to-have list

2. The next step is idea validation. You must build a prototype of your future software, show it to your target audience and industry experts, and iterate on their feedback.

Also, you must build and promote a landing page for your AI product to study the market response and spark engagement.  

3. Once you identify users in an underserved niche, you can launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The MVP has only core functionality and a basic design to save your budget.

Ensure that nothing blocks your customers from immediately using the MVP.

4. Scaling is the next step once there is stable interest in your AI solution and a growing user base.

Your AI consulting team helps you add new and refine existing functionality, ensure constant uptime, protect sensitive data, and comply with emerging AI regulations.

AI business ideas can help you build an effective response to a disruptive business environment and economic downturn.

There are opportunities for implementing AI startup ideas in any industry or domain, while venture funds clearly see their technological value and are ready to finance. 

You can use your AI business ideas to:

and much more.

Remember the hidden but essential part of project success: an expert team. Your team of AI experts can help you with careful implementation, which is needed for your idea to become the next big thing.