Should I Start an AI Automation Agency?
Does the idea of starting an AI Automation Agency (AAA) excite you? If the answer is yes, then an AAA could be your next big entrepreneurial leap. But before you make the jump, let's explore what starting an AAA really involves and how it differs from the traditional 'agency' business model blueprint.
When we hear 'agency', images of digital or social media marketing often surface, along with other online businesses like dropshipping and Amazon FBA. However, when you start an AI Automation Agency, you're stepping into a more complex space, where complexity amplifies as your agency matures.
AAA vs Dropshipping: Navigating the Learning Curve
To show this complexity difference, let's compare a dropshipping business and an AAA, both six months into operation.
After six months of successful dropshipping, your operations are down pat: reliable suppliers, profitable products, and established marketing channels. Sure, there's room for innovation and expansion, but the core mechanics of your business remain relatively static.
Conversely, in an AAA, you're still scaling a steep learning curve six months in. You've deployed a chatbot, rolled it out across several customers, and referrals are flowing in. It's a promising start, but now your clients are inquiring, "What else can you automate with AI?"
Addressing this request, you have two choices:
Continue only offering your existing chatbot.
Venture into unexplored terrain, conceiving and implementing new AI solutions.
Beyond the Novice Attraction: Evolving from Chatbots
One of the reasons aspiring entrepreneurs are drawn to start an AI Automation Agency is the initial simplicity of creating a basic chatbot. As of July 2023, few people can deploy robust, ready-for-market chatbots for SMEs. However, the industry's dynamics are changing rapidly.
We're already witnessing an influx of new entrants offering chatbot services, evident from the number of YouTube tutorials on "how to build your own AI chatbot". So, how can you safeguard your AAA amidst this increasing competition?
The answer lies in evolution. Identify fresh pain points, bottlenecks, or business challenges and develop AI-powered solutions to address them. You must surpass the initial chatbot phase and tap into the vast potential of AI to address business pain points and challenges.
Unlocking AAA Potential: Capitalizing on Complexity
Many who start an AI Automation Agency will achieve initial success with their chatbots, which is a major positive. But as AI services become more commonplace, demand for these standard chatbots will decline. The forward-thinking AAA owners, however, will adapt and innovate, turning complexity into their competitive advantage.
The potential profitability of an AAA is directly linked to the complexity of the solutions you offer. If you only provide a basic chatbot — the same model every other AAA owner has learned to create on YouTube — your profits will plateau. But if you engage with business owners, decode their challenges, and devise unique AI solutions, you're setting the stage for success in a high-demand, low-competition environment. This environment will get us close to the holy grail of business, a blue ocean.
Embracing Uncertainty: Beyond Structured Learning
If you need a course or a detailed guide to start an AAA, the answer to "Should I Start an AI Automation Agency?" will be no. Successful AAAs in 12 months will not only be offering chatbots they learned to build on YouTube to clients. They may have started with that, but they will have quickly expanded into more complex and, as a result, more profitable areas where there is no guide or videos to follow.
AI tools and technology, especially their application to SMEs, are new. As such, there is little material to refer to in terms of courses, books and guidance. Those who rely on courses or copy-and-paste solutions will offer the same limited number of solutions as others who use the same material. Their AAA will fail. The successful AAAs will transform business tasks, processes and operations using novel AI approaches and will get handsomely rewarded.
In Conclusion
When you start an AI Automation Agency, you're signing up for a journey very different from running an SMMA dropshipping or Amazon FBA business, where a course gets you started and surviving the first six months is the major hurdle. AAAs present a continuous learning journey — there's no definitive course to ensure long-term success, and that's what makes it a compelling opportunity!
So, if you're driven, ready to delve into the intricacies of AI, eager to innovate and not deterred by complexity, the potential for you and your AAA is potentially limitless!