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Really confused to see the conclusion of "It's a good time to start a service business because of AI". AI can't perform, or even semi-perform, a single one of t

Really confused to see the conclusion of "It's a good time to start a service business because of AI". AI can't perform, or even semi-perform, a single one of the example services the author used except maybe "design agency". But otherwise, it does seem that starting a service business is sort of the ultimate "do things that don't scale" strategy.

dudus 2y ago
AI increases productivity. If you are selling your time that means higher margins. It doesn't have to do everything. If it increases your productivity by 10% that is all profit.
zachthewf 2y ago
Even if AI doesn't help with any aspect of the service itself there are a ton of efficiency gains to be had from "the rest" of the work, which will make service margins less ugly. Every business still neeeds some form of sales and/or marketing, support, and back office administration. And for a lot of services there'll be creative ways to squeeze efficiencies from tech/AI. For example roofing businesses used to send a guy to your house to give you an evaluation + quote; increasingly, they now send drones (https://www.roofer.com/ https://www.roofer.com/).
- hatefulmoron 2y ago
  The claim that there's a lot of efficiency to gain from _tech_ isn't interesting. I'm guessing when the author talks about AI, they're not suggesting to build a fleet of drones.
  - zachthewf 2y ago
    (I'm the author) The "why now" is any significant new efficiency gains that are available without a ton of cash.
- rco8786 2y ago
  Drones aren’t AI though?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
creer 2y ago
A service business is about selling employee time. Anything you can use to speed up the non-core tasks goes straight to the bottom line percentage. After that anything you can use to have management "run" more people also goes straight to the bottom line, as a multiplier. So there is tons of potential in AI-based tools. Is it there yet? I doubt it. But perhaps yes. Anyone here getting traction in AI for business routine efficiency? Back office? Accounting? Time-keeping? Task dispatching? Email requests dispatching? Audit? But also possibly, having a sales team running the simple cases (mostly) straight through an AI "junior engineer" before even talking to the more expensive guy.

dudus 2y ago

AI increases productivity. If you are selling your time that means higher margins. It doesn't have to do everything. If it increases your productivity by 10% that is all profit.

zachthewf 2y ago

Even if AI doesn't help with any aspect of the service itself there are a ton of efficiency gains to be had from "the rest" of the work, which will make service margins less ugly. Every business still neeeds some form of sales and/or marketing, support, and back office administration. And for a lot of services there'll be creative ways to squeeze efficiencies from tech/AI. For example roofing businesses used to send a guy to your house to give you an evaluation + quote; increasingly, they now send drones (https://www.roofer.com/ https://www.roofer.com/).

hatefulmoron 2y ago
The claim that there's a lot of efficiency to gain from _tech_ isn't interesting. I'm guessing when the author talks about AI, they're not suggesting to build a fleet of drones.
- zachthewf 2y ago
  (I'm the author) The "why now" is any significant new efficiency gains that are available without a ton of cash.
rco8786 2y ago
Drones aren’t AI though?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

creer 2y ago

A service business is about selling employee time. Anything you can use to speed up the non-core tasks goes straight to the bottom line percentage. After that anything you can use to have management "run" more people also goes straight to the bottom line, as a multiplier. So there is tons of potential in AI-based tools. Is it there yet? I doubt it. But perhaps yes. Anyone here getting traction in AI for business routine efficiency? Back office? Accounting? Time-keeping? Task dispatching? Email requests dispatching? Audit? But also possibly, having a sales team running the simple cases (mostly) straight through an AI "junior engineer" before even talking to the more expensive guy.