Source: n8n
This is the most hyped AI product: automating processes using AI. A lot of AI agencies are selling these apart from chatbots: personal assistants, lead generation, email management, calendar scheduling. I set up a few automations for myself but I’m yet to close in on what I actually need agents for. And it seems like every day there are new AI agents with more advanced functionalities. Very interesting and entertaining space.
I would compare this to graphic design tools in the 90s or social media management in the 2000s. While these tools were all the rage, the real value remained at the macro-strategy level.
Anyway, I bet most influencers, are making more from their Skool communities than actually selling these agents. But there’s still scope for specialisation.
What Actually Sells
The intelligent chatbot is actually the easiest and most sold product. It takes some back and forth with the client to understand what the customer is looking for, but programming a simple meeting scheduler or AI assistant is not the hard part. The challenge is building the appropriate knowledge base and user experience. If someone wants to buy for their business, it can be built.
What we need to do first is create ‘ecosystems’. That is an offering.
Strategic Thinking
We must start by asking: what is valuable to my business that I need? Then create it. The cut-paste solutions of just automation crafts are just tools. Showing a demo of an ecosystem, now that’s a working use case.
Example of an automation: a social media agent that emails you content it’s going to post for you. You reply “approved” and it’s done, on all your platforms. Or reply with “make these changes” and it sends back revised content.
Example of an ecosystem: builds a business solution that uses multiple digital avenues to transform outputs for business. Here the focus is on evolving technology. Build versus buy. Evolving tech like real-time data use. Basically, for businesses, return on investment, efficiency and ease of use and user interface that will matter eventually.
Where We Are Now
Creating AI Agents or “digital workers.” These are software applications designed to do tasks and share the workload. For example, that social media agent I mentioned. Once set up, all you need to do is approve the content. Like an agency model, understanding the basics of how you can use AI and keep selling it. The next step would be to create a SaaS.
Models have almost plateaued with slightly better efficiency than the last wave of AI-models.
The gap is closing fast. While with some AI, you can’t even tell anymore. The intelligent use of AI as a tool, that’s what separates those who orchestrate from those who get orchestrated.
The big LLM companies continue dominating the game. Now it’s open season for low to no budget builders. But are the builders the farmers or are they being farmed?