Let me introduce you to one of the biggest business opportunities of the next decade.
AI agencies.
What is an AI agency?
An AI agency (often referred to as an AI automation agency) is a business model where you work with other businesses to help them implement AI in their processes and workflows.
If you’ve read our article on 5 different AI automation agency business ideas, you will already have an idea of the scale of this opportunity.
If you missed it, here’s the upshot:
- People are already making $45k / month after only a few months of starting out.
- We’re super early to AI (only one in three US adults has even used an AI tool) so there is no better time to start.
- This is a blue ocean opportunity. The target market is any business that can save money using AI tools and automation a.k.a every single business on the planet.
Got your attention?
A step-by-step guide to starting an AI agency
If you’re reading this, the chances are you don’t have any experience building an AI agency.
That’s because no one does. It’s a brand-new business model. Right now, you’re in the exact same position as the entrepreneurs who will make millions with their own AI agency in the coming years. The winners of this new industry will be those that learn the quickest.
Step 1: Pick your niche
Your first job is to decide your niche. In other words, who will your customers be? What type of business do they run? What industry are they in?
When we’re first starting out, we want our niche to be as specific as possible. This has multiple benefits:
- Being super specific about your target customer allows you to charge more for your services. Imagine you’re a massage therapist based in Texas. Are you likely to pay more for a general ad agency, or someone who specializes in finding leads for massage therapists specifically in Texas?
- If you choose a specific niche, you can very easily become the go-to expert in that field.
- When you know a niche inside-out, your service becomes easily replicable – allowing you to quickly scale. In other words, you can spend less time working out how to deliver your service, and more time finding more clients.
Okay, so how do I find a profitable niche?
There are two methods to finding the perfect niche for you.
1. Personal experience: If you have worked in a company for a long time, perhaps you have already noticed something that could easily be performed by AI. If you already have an understanding of the industry, you have a massive head start.
2. Use ChatGPT to find the perfect niche: If you’re still stuck for ideas, then ChatGPT is an insanely powerful tool that you can use to brainstorm niche ideas. Fortunately for you, we have already written 2 prompts you can copy and paste into ChatGPT to find your niche.
Prompt 1: Find your industry
Use this prompt to find a general industry you are interested in.
Prompt: Please create a list of small-to-medium businesses requiring automation in sectors such as lead generation, outreach, sales and onboarding, service delivery, customer support, and retention.
Arrange this information in a table, featuring the business type, its financial strength, accessibility, automation needs, and market size (number of potential businesses to target).
Strive for a balanced blend of contemporary online business models and more conventional industries in your list.
The table should be structured using the headers and notes below.
1. Business Type: Ensure your descriptions are super specific, i.e., 'organic food shops' instead of 'retail'. The businesses should not be too large, like corporate law firms, and brick-and-mortar stores are to be excluded. Strive for a balanced blend of modern online business models and more conventional industries in your list.
2. Purchasing Power: The listed businesses should encompass both digital and traditional industries, yet have the financial capacity to invest in AI solutions.
3. Ease of Targeting: They should also be readily accessible through various channels like specialized forums, networks, or social media groups.
4. Need for Automation: There must be a big opportunity to save time and money by automation certain tasks and processes
5. Market Size: It should be a large growing market... not a shrinking market (like newspapers etc.). I want to ride the tailwind of a growing opportunity rather than sail against the tide.
Prompt 2: Time to get specific
ChatGPT is a chatbot, and you can ask follow-up questions to dig deeper. If one industry in particular is calling your name, ask ChatGPT to get more specific and provide examples of specific sub-niches within that industry.
Prompt: I like the sound of [NICHE]. Provide 10 examples of sub-niches within that niche that I can target to provide AI automation services.
Step 2: Pick the service you will provide
When you know what niche you want to work in, you need to decide what service you want to provide.
If you don’t have any coding experience, then the best service is creating AI chatbots. That is because there are numerous no-code tools (like Botpress) that allow you to create customized chatbots with zero coding experience.
There are many businesses that could improve the efficiency of their services using an AI chatbot. Some examples include:
- Staff training chatbot: Many of the questions that new employees ask are repetitive and can easily be answered by a Staff Training ChatBot. If a new employee wants to know where to find old templates and documents, the chatbot will answer immediately. If a new employee wants to know the procedure if a customer files a complaint, the chatbot will answer immediately.
- Client onboarding chatbot: An AI-powered Onboarding Chat Assistant can simplify the process of getting new customers up-to-speed. A chatbot can accurately answer common queries, guide clients through forms and contracts, and offer immediate support throughout the onboarding journey.
- Airbnb Guest Support chatbot: By automating responses to the most common guest inquiries (“where are the keys?”, and “when do I need to checkout?”), hosts can focus more on enhancing their properties and guest experiences, while the AI handles the routine tasks.
To learn more about these AI automation agency ideas and how you can deliver the service, check out this article.
How do I actually make a chatbot?
Making a chatbot without coding experience has never been easier. To learn how to do just that, check out this awesome tutorial from Liam Ottley.
Step 3: Get your first client
Securing your first paying client will be a challenge. You have 2 major challenges:
- You need to learn how to actually provide AI services to clients.
- You have no proof that your service is high quality and will provide a great return on investment for your client.
A clever way to tackle both these issues simultaneously is to build chatbots for free. Let me explain…
First, use ChatGPT to role play as a fictional client
To sell your services, you’re going to need to learn how to actually make chatbots.
Let’s say you want to sell Airbnb guest support chatbots to Airbnb hosts. Ask ChatGPT to pretend it is an Airbnb host that is looking to save time and costs with a guest support chatbot. Ask ChatGPT to provide details of all the FAQs asked by guests, and what the common response is.
Use this information to build a chatbot. You can then use this chatbot as part of your outreach strategy.
Second, find a real-life client and provide your services for free
Now you have your demo chatbot, send it to 10 potential clients and ask them if they would be interested in a free chatbot that is similar to your demo.
Continuing the Airbnb example, find 10 Airbnb hosts that manage lots of properties. Send them the chatbot you created using fictional data and ask if you can create a similar chatbot for them on the house.
If you successfully follow these steps, you will be an experienced chatbot specialist with case studies that you can show to new potential clients.
You are ready to start making money.
Step 4: Time to scale to $10k+ per month
If you’ve followed the previous three steps, you are well on your way to running a profitable AI automation agency.
You have the experience. You have success stories. Now, all you need is paying customers.
First, create an irresistible offer
You need to create an offer that someone would feel stupid saying no to. To do that, you need to speak their language. Money.
Use your experience from creating free chatbots to work out how many hours your client will save by using your chatbot.
For example, let’s say you’re creating a staff training chatbot. If your client saves 2 hours of a manager’s time per new employee, and they hire 2 new employees every week, they are saving 4 hours every week. That’s 16 hours every month. If a manager’s hourly rate is $70 per hour, then your client is saving $1,120 every month.
You need to frame your offer in a way that your client can clearly see the benefit of using your services.
For tips on improving your offer, this video by Alex Hormozi is invaluable.
Second, you need to reach out to potential clients like your life depends on it
Now you have an irresistible offer, you need to be booking meetings with as many potential clients as possible.
To find those leads, head over to LinkedIn. Optimize your LinkedIn profile (which ChatGPT can help you with). Then try to find as many leads as possible by searching within your niche (using the filters for location, industry and title).
When you have a long list of leads, you’ll need to reach out to them. Remember, your goal is to book a meeting with them and not to sell your services from the first message. If you need help writing cold messages, you can find a number of powerful ChatGPT prompts for writing outreach messages in this article.
During these meetings, you will present your irresistible offer clearly and succinctly. Then, you watch the clients roll in.
I want to learn about more AI tools and business ideas!
If starting an AI agency sounds interesting to you, then it’s time to take action. You can use AI tools to help you with almost every area of your business (copywriting, writing emails, building a website, starting a blog, Instagram marketing, and much more).
If you want to stay up to date with the latest AI tips and tricks, make sure you are subscribed to the WGMI newsletter.
If you’re looking for more AI business ideas, then you’re going to want to check out our list of 100+ AI business ideas.
