Unlock AI’s Potential: Transform Your Business
Insights for Founders, CEOs, and Tech Leaders to Scale with AI-Driven Strategies
Hello, I am Saurabh Tandon and welcome to the free weekly edition of More than Buzzwords.
This newsletter is going to be helpful for founders and CEOs of early-stage businesses, CTOs and technology leaders, and data and AI specialists. It’s going to be incredibly valuable for SMBs looking to scale, as well as industry analysts and researchers. Overall, this newsletter will help anyone looking to transform their business by leveraging the power of AI.
In this newsletter, you’ll learn:
How to plan and implement AI in business.
Leveraging AI for long-term growth.
Identifying quick wins and prioritising tasks.
Selecting the best models for business needs.
Let’s Get AI-mazing!
The Dawn of AI in Business
Trust me when I say this: AI is no longer optional; it’s essential for competitiveness. It’s not just a tool anymore; it’s the competitive edge of tomorrow.
It’s no exaggeration that companies leveraging AI in their day-to-day operations are leading industries and creating a lasting impact. So, why stay behind when you can harness the magic of AI?
Businesses are increasingly incorporating AI to gain a competitive advantage.
Amazon is a prime example of AI in action, leveraging it in several impactful ways, such as personalized recommendations and dynamic pricing.
These intelligent applications of AI are major reasons why we turn to Amazon for a trusted e-commerce experience, helping it maintain its position as an industry leader while delivering a more tailored and competitive shopping experience.
As Sundar Pichai quotes,
"AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire."
Think of it in this way, just how electricity transformed almost everything 100 years ago. Today it’s difficult to name an industry that AI will not transform in the next several years.
As we see its immense potential, let’s dive deeper into how AI can power businesses, like never before.
AI’s Powerhouse Potential: The Game-Changer
Today, AI is everywhere. Most people have been using AI for years, even before generative AI became widely hyped — for example, through Amazon, Spotify, Google Maps, and the list is endless.
AI models have evolved significantly in the past two years. Since ChatGPT’s launch, there have been huge advancements in AI’s capabilities. What’s even more exciting is that the prices of some of the best models have dropped significantly.
It’s safe to say the progress of AI has accelerated dramatically. Six years ago, artificial intelligence was far behind humans and was significantly more expensive. For example, image captioning was not as accurate as it is today.
Now, AI can create human faces that look incredibly real, rivalling human-level performance. AI makes day-to-day tasks more efficient — it's faster, better, and cheaper.
A few years back, AI was exclusive to tech giants. However, today AI has become increasingly accessible for businesses of all sizes. Let’s explore how this democratisation of AI is levelling the playing field and revolutionising industries.
Democratising AI: Power in Your Hands
Today, there has been a shift from expensive, exclusive AI to accessible tools for businesses of all sizes. This is a big win for everyone! Whether you're an SMB or a startup, AI tools are now within your reach.
For enterprises just entering the AI landscape, one of the most exciting aspects of this democratization is the availability of "low-hanging fruit" — AI applications that are relatively easy to implement, deliver quick results, and have a high impact.
Here are a few examples:
Customer Support: AI chatbots handle routine inquiries, freeing employees for complex tasks. For instance, Zomato's quick customer support minimizes wait times and boosts satisfaction.
Marketing Automation: AI tools like Mailchimp and HubSpot personalize campaigns by analyzing customer data, making marketing more efficient and impactful for retention and acquisition.
Inventory Management: AI predicts demand and optimizes inventory. Companies like GreyOrange and LogiNext use AI to streamline operations and prevent stockouts.
Recruitment: AI platforms like HireVue and LinkedIn Talent Insights can automate candidate screening, saving HR teams time by filtering out unsuitable applicants.
Additionally, over the past 18 months, AI model guardrails (e.g., safety filters) have significantly improved, ensuring more reliable outputs for businesses. Companies can now leverage AI with greater confidence, knowing that safeguards are in place to enhance safety and accuracy.
Now that we've explored how AI is within reach for businesses of all sizes, let’s dive into how you can build an effective AI roadmap for your enterprise.
Building Your AI Roadmap: Starting with Momentum
Prioritise use cases that directly impact customers, such as automated chat support, as these not only deliver quick ROI but also improve customer satisfaction and retention.
Learn from these projects, gather feedback, refine models, and evaluate how AI integrates into your existing workflows.
Dedicate about a month to scaling these initial successes, and once you're confident in their effectiveness, it’s time to launch.
Here’s how to maximise AI’s potential in your business:
#1. Have a Plan and Align Leadership
Winning with AI starts with a clear plan. Without one, even the most advanced tools won’t deliver value. Your AI strategy should align with your business goals and clearly define how AI will address pain points or improve processes.
Once you’ve the plan ready, get leadership on board. Getting buy-in from your leadership team is critical. Educate decision-makers on the transformative potential of AI and align them to your strategy.
Show them how AI applications can drive results, whether it's automating repetitive tasks or improving customer experiences
#2. Demonstrate ROI Quickly
When it comes to proving the value of AI, small wins speak volumes. Instead of committing to large-scale projects that take months to implement, focus on 1-3 small and easily achievable deliverables. These could be small, repetitive tasks that AI can automate within a week.
For example, automating a mundane task like scheduling meetings can save hours for your team each week. Tangible outcomes like these prove that AI isn’t just theoretical but delivers real, measurable value.
In my personal experience I have got AI based agents to research on people and companies I am about to meet, they provide the person’s likes and dislikes and writes cold and warm emails, DMs, minutes of meetings in that tonality. My conversion rates skyrocketed 200% with such intervention
#3. Focus on Low-Hanging Fruit
Maximizing AI value starts with strategically prioritizing low-hanging fruit — those high-impact, low-cost, and low-risk tasks that can deliver immediate results. These are tasks that:
Have high frequency (e.g., daily repetitive processes).
Offer significant ROI (e.g., saving time or resources).
Require low investment or effort to implement.
Pose minimal risk.
The goal is to start with projects that are easy to execute and have a high likelihood of success. These quick wins build momentum, generate excitement, and help you prove AI’s value within your organization.
#4. The FIRE Formula
I recently read this formula online which can help you determine which tasks to prioritize. This is what FIRE stands for-
F – Frequency: How often is this task performed?
I – Impact or Investment: Is the task’s outcome impactful, or does it require significant investment?
R – Return: What is the potential ROI?
E – Effort: How much time, manpower, or resources will be needed?
Scoring tasks with this formula helps you objectively rank projects and focus on the highest-value opportunities.
We've been talking about AI tools extensively, let’s take a look at essential AI capabilities that businesses should focus on.
Essential AI Capabilities for Businesses
To begin with, let’s first understand what "capabilities" are. As you may know, many organizations collect data from their customers on a daily basis, whether it’s through an online platform or a CRM system.
What AI does is use that data to create capabilities, meaning it enables businesses to create new value for the organization.
In other words, AI capabilities refer to specific tasks and functions that AI systems can perform.
Here’s a list of capabilities AI can provide for your business:
Sense (see, hear)
Create (generate text, video, and sound)
Control (optimise and automate)
Predict (forecast)
Understand (classify and discover)
With the help of machine learning, algorithms, and data processing, these capabilities perform activities that traditionally require human intelligence.
Therefore, as a business owner in today’s digital age, you must leverage AI to make your life easier and your business more consumer-friendly. Here are some of the most noteworthy examples of how companies are leveraging AI to their benefit:
AI Recommends: A great example is YouTube Music. What does it do? It analyzes your playlists and listening habits, then uses that data to recommend songs you might enjoy playing next. This creates a great user experience and keeps the user hooked to the platform.
AI Speaks: Don’t have the resources for well-shot and produced videos? AI has got you covered. Synthesia, an AI-powered platform, specializes in generating synthetic videos with lifelike avatars. With a suite of more than 150 avatars speaking over 100 languages, video creation has never been easier!
AI Personalizes: E-commerce websites are stepping up their game! Today, several e-commerce platforms use AI to enhance personalization. For example, mirrAR offers AR and AI-based virtual try-on technology, allowing consumers to test products virtually, providing a sense of ownership before purchase, both in-store and online.
AI Organizes: It’s natural to get lost in the haystack of information as a business owner. AI can help organize and prioritize this information, saving lots of time and effort. For an e-commerce store, AI tools like MonkeyLearn can automatically categorize thousands of customer reviews by sentiment and key topics, helping you quickly spot recurring issues or positive feedback, and prioritize action.
Understanding these capabilities is very important. But with the multitude of AI tools available today, how do you choose the right AI model to fit your needs? Let’s see how.
Choosing the Right AI Model
When selecting an AI model, keep in mind the "fast-cheap-quality" trade-off. Different models excel in different areas.
Fast & Cheap: Models like Llama on Groq chips are great for speed and cost-effectiveness. Such models are ideal for tasks that prioritize efficiency over extreme accuracy.
High-Quality: Models like Claude 3 and GPT-4 excel at accuracy and depth. These AI models are suitable for complex tasks, but are quite expensive.
Finding the Right Fit:
Experiment: Try different models, starting with a balance like Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Iterate: Refine your selection based on performance and your specific needs.
Prompting Strategies:
When working with AI models, avoid over-engineering your prompts as you begin. Start with simple queries, assess the model’s response, and iterate from there. Sometimes, vague or imperfect prompts can yield surprisingly accurate results.
If handling large volumes of data, models like GPT-4 Turbo can process everything in one go, saving time on repetitive tasks.
Business Applications:
Content Creation: ChatGPT-4 and Gemini excel at generating high-quality content.
Coding & Math: Models like Code Interpreter and 01 Preview are ideal for complex tasks.
Multimodal Inputs: Models like Gemini and Llama can process various data types (text, images, video).
Scalable Deployment: Platforms like Groq ensure rapid and cost-effective deployment.
Combining Models:
Enhance Workflows: Use multiple models in a sequence for optimal results. For example, use one model for idea generation, another for refinement, and a third for finalizing the output. Why stop at one?
Leverage Platforms: Platforms like Hunch Tools let you use multiple AI models (like GPT-4, Claude, Llama) at once, helping you find the best one for each task. This simplifies the process and speeds up your AI adoption.
Cost Considerations:
When considering AI pricing, you'll encounter two main models: subscription-based (like ChatGPT) and API-based.
Subscription models are comparatively simpler as they offer a flat monthly fee, while APIs provide more granular control by charging per token (input/output data).
However, this pay-as-you-go approach can become expensive for large-scale operations.
For example, Llama's API is priced at $0.035 per million tokens (approximately 750,000 words), making it a perfect choice for cost-sensitive, high-volume tasks.
On the other hand, Claude 3 Opus costs $70 per million tokens, making it more suitable for complex tasks requiring high-quality outputs.
Ultimately, businesses should evaluate models not just on their capabilities, but also on their cost-effectiveness, especially when scaling up operations.
Finding the right balance between performance and budget is crucial for maximizing the return on your AI investment.
Now that we've discussed how to select models based on these trade-offs, it’s important to understand that successful AI adoption goes beyond just choosing the right tool. As we move forward, let’s look at the challenges businesses face with AI adoption and how planning ahead for 2025 can help overcome them.
AI Planning for 2025: A Blueprint for Successful AI Implementation
Current State of AI Adoption-
The current state of AI adoption isn't as widespread as many believe. Look at the following statistics and you’ll understand why-
Data Challenges:
55% of companies avoid implementing AI due to data-related issues.
77% of organizations recognize the need to improve data management systems to unlock AI benefits.
Poor data lifecycle management is a major hurdle, with 75% of businesses increasing their budgets for better data management.
The data infrastructure in many companies is outdated, preventing them from reaping AI benefits.
Also, do you know 70% of AI experiments do not move to production due to poor planning and execution?
Why AI Projects Fail:
There are also many AI-based projects that start but never see the light of the day.
Let’s take a quick look at the reasons-
Undefined Use Cases- Many companies start with technology in mind but lack clarity on use cases. This leads to confusion and inefficiencies.
Lack of Training and Change Management- Without proper training and clear processes, employees resist AI adoption. Change management involves creating excitement and buy-in among employees, which many companies overlook.
Data and Scalability Issues - Scaling AI from experiments to full implementation often fails due to inadequate data preparation, security, and system infrastructure.
Now, what should businesses do this coming year to reap the benefits of AI emergence and make their workflows optimized.
What Businesses Should Do:
Plan Now: Businesses must start integrating AI into their strategies. Start by incorporating AI-related investments into planning cycles, including budgets and HR development.
Focus on Training: Train employees across all levels of the organization, not just technical teams. Create processes and guidelines to ensure responsible and effective AI usage.
Define Use Cases: Begin with specific, measurable use cases aligned with business objectives. Then, incorporate these use cases to track progress and evaluate ROI.
Upgrade Data Infrastructure: Invest in data management systems that align with AI's requirements, including proper storage, lifecycle management, and security protocols.
Adopt a Risk Management Framework: Develop risk assessment protocols to address concerns around data privacy, compliance, and ethical use of AI.
Opportunities for Small and Medium Businesses:
Smaller businesses often face more challenges with data and scalability, but they can leverage AI for niche, targeted applications.
Focusing on one or two impactful AI use cases can yield quick results and build momentum for further adoption.
Approach to AI Implementation:
Start with off-the-shelf AI tools to minimize costs and quickly demonstrate ROI.
Gradually explore custom AI solutions if resources (financial and HR) permit.
“AI is moving faster than ever, and 2025 will mark a turning point for businesses that adopt AI strategically.”
Follow the above mentioned steps and principles, and you’ll be well on your to leverage AI to remain competitive in 2025.
Wrapping it up
As we explored the potential of AI in this edition, it's evident that AI is no longer just for tech giants. By strategically leveraging its capabilities, even small and medium businesses can unlock significant growth opportunities.
Whether it's streamlining operations, enhancing customer experiences, or gaining valuable data insights, AI can be a powerful tool in your entrepreneurial arsenal.
So, are you ready to embrace the future of business? I encourage you to explore the possibilities and see how AI can help your business reach new heights.
"AI will be the best or worst thing ever for humanity." Elon Musk
Thanks for joining me in this edition of the newsletter! Hope you found it informative and inspiring. Stay tuned for more insights, strategies, and trends to help you thrive through the ever-evolving startup ecosystem.If you’ve enjoyed this piece, do consider referring my newsletter to a friend. I write about startups, businesses, careers, and entrepreneurship—published every Friday!Also do provide your feedback or any questions that you may have on my email id: saurabh.substack.2407@gmail.com