The Smart Founder's Guide to Using AI

AI won't save your startup, but ignoring it will kill it. While you're manually doing tasks that take hours, competitors are using AI to do the same work in minutes—and using that extra time to focus on customers.

The question isn't whether to use AI. It's knowing when to trust it and when to take back control.

Here's what every founder needs to understand about AI in business:

1. The 80-20 Rule for AI

Here's how I think about AI: You need humans for the first 10% and the last 10% of any task. AI excels at everything in the middle.

Writing an article? You need to define the strategy, audience, and key message (first 10%). AI can research, create outlines, and write first drafts (middle 80%). Then you need to edit, add your voice, and ensure accuracy (last 10%).

Building a feature? You decide what problem to solve and why (first 10%). AI can write code, suggest implementations, and handle documentation (middle 80%). You need to test, refine, and ensure it fits your product vision (last 10%).

Customer support? You set the tone, policies, and escalation rules (first 10%). AI handles routine questions, categorizes issues, and provides initial responses (middle 80%). Complex problems, relationship building, and strategic decisions need human attention (last 10%).

This pattern works across almost everything in business. AI accelerates the middle work—the stuff that's important but doesn't require deep judgment or creativity.

2. Where AI Actually Helps New Businesses

Operations that don't scale: Customer support chatbots can handle basic questions while you focus on complex issues. AI can write product descriptions, social media posts, or email sequences. Tools like Cursor AI can help with coding if you're building an app, while Midjourney can create visuals when you can't afford a designer yet.

Decision-making at speed: AI can analyze competitor pricing, review customer feedback sentiment, or identify patterns in your sales data. It's not making the strategic decisions, but it's processing information faster than you could manually.

Creative starting points: AI excels at overcoming blank page syndrome. Need blog post ideas? AI can generate 20 options based on your industry. Writing product copy? AI can create multiple variations to test. The key is using AI as a starting point, not the end point.

The pattern across successful e-commerce stores, B2B lead generation companies, and consumer apps is the same: AI handles the repetitive, time-consuming tasks while founders focus on strategy, relationships, and core business decisions.

3. Context Is King

The difference between mediocre AI results and game-changing ones isn't the tool—it's how you use it.

Generic prompt: "Write product descriptions for my store." Contextual prompt: "Write product descriptions for eco-friendly kitchen gadgets targeting busy parents who care about sustainability but need convenience. Focus on time-saving benefits and environmental impact. Keep descriptions under 100 words with bullet points for key features."

The second approach gets you descriptions that actually convert because AI understands your customer, your positioning, and your constraints.

Simple best practices that multiply results:

• Always specify your target audience
• Include your brand voice and tone
• Set clear constraints (length, format, style)
• Provide examples of what good looks like
• Give context about your industry and competition

Understanding tool strengths matters: ChatGPT excels at reasoning and writing. Claude is better at analysis and following complex instructions. Midjourney creates artistic visuals while DALL-E handles realistic images. Using the right tool for the right task makes a massive difference.

The pattern: Founders who treat AI like a smart assistant with context get 10x better results than those who treat it like a search engine.

4. The AI Hallucination Problem

AI lies confidently. It will generate fake statistics, invent company names, or create strategies that sound logical but are completely wrong. This isn't occasional—it's systematic.

Example: I've seen AI tell a founder that their competitor raised $50M in Series A funding. The competitor was actually bootstrapped. The founder almost pivoted their entire strategy based on false information.

The fix: Always verify AI outputs, especially for anything customer-facing or strategic. Use AI to generate options and ideas, but validate them through real research, testing, or human judgment.

This is why AI works for the middle 80% but fails at the first and last 10%. It can't distinguish between accurate information and convincing-sounding nonsense.

5. Two Equally Dangerous Extremes

AI dependency trap: Some founders outsource their thinking to AI. They use AI-generated marketing strategies without understanding the logic. When campaigns fail, they can't diagnose problems or adapt. They've become dependent on a tool that makes confident mistakes.

AI avoidance trap: Other founders avoid AI entirely and fall behind competitors who use it strategically. They manually write hundreds of product descriptions while competitors use AI to create and test thousands. They spend hours on research that AI could do in minutes.

Both approaches hurt your business. The first makes you fragile—dependent on flawed automation. The second makes you slow—manually doing work that could be automated.

The Bottom Line

Keep humans in the loop: AI suggests, humans decide. Let AI handle initial drafts, data processing, or option generation. You make the final calls on strategy, quality, and customer interactions.

Measure actual impact: Track time saved, quality improvements, or cost reductions. Don't assume AI is helping—prove it. Sometimes manual processes work better than automated ones.

Avoid the extremes: Over-relying on AI makes you fragile—dependent on flawed automation that confidently makes mistakes. Under-utilizing AI makes you slow—manually doing work that could be automated while competitors move faster. The smart approach is strategic integration where AI amplifies your capabilities without replacing your judgment.

AI won't build your business for you, but it can eliminate busy work that keeps you from focusing on what matters: understanding customers, improving your product, and growing revenue.

Disclaimer: AI technology evolves rapidly. Use this article as a starting framework, but stay updated on the latest developments relevant to your industry.