The opinions expressed by the collaborators of Emprenderos are their own.
As a multi-decade entrepreneur in various industries, including marketing, finance and technology, I have spent most of my career starting businesses without the help of artificial intelligence technologies. Although I leaned on my invaluable friends, professional network, and mentors, I can’t say I ever had ChatGPT or an AI program to help me.
But I wish I had it! Business owners today don’t know how easy they have it in comparison. Today, I leverage a multitude of cutting-edge AI technologies, many of which are completely free, to help me grow my businesses and deliver excellent customer satisfaction.
A recent IBM survey found that 35% of companies use AI, and an even higher proportion are exploring the possibility of using AI technologies. If you want to stay competitive in tomorrow’s entrepreneurial landscape, it’s time to get on board with AI, too.
In this article, I will share my favorite AI technologies (which they are not ChatGPT) to help you take your entrepreneurial projects to the next level.
Related: 8 Reasons Using AI Will Improve Your Content Creation Process
1. Gen-2 per track
My favorite AI technology of the day is Gen-2 from a lab called Runway Research. This is not a single technology, but a massive set of AI-powered tools that can completely transform your creative output. Here’s just a brief glimpse of what Gen-2 is capable of doing for your business, instantly and with a click:
-
Text to image generation
-
Text to video generation
-
Instant photo colorization
-
Instant audio transcription to English
-
Image correction indicated by the text
The best use cases for Gen-2 are:
-
Creating realistic or cartoon-style videos for marketing campaigns
-
Creating social media friendly images for social marketing posts
-
Generating human-like text for written marketing projects
-
Transcribe audio recordings of meetings or interviews into written text to save time
I personally use Gen-2 almost every day. As a marketer or creative worker, it is practically indispensable.
2. Stable broadcasting and ControlNet
If you want to use mind-blowing images in your marketing materials, social profiles or advertisements, I a lot I recommend Stable Diffusion magic. In my opinion, this technology is probably the best text-to-image AI service on the Internet, but it comes with a much steeper learning curve, especially if you use its plugin, ControlNet, which expands its possibilities.
I use Stable Diffusion for super realistic images, which in my opinion is always a better option than relying on stock images. From an SEO perspective, stock images (especially common ones that have been used in thousands of other pieces of content) can have a detrimental effect on your search engine rankings. This is why I prefer to use all-original image content generated with Stable Diffusion rather than stock image services.
3. Quilbot
This is a lightweight Chrome extension that anyone can use without any fast engineering skills. Quilbot is an excellent paraphrasing tool that can take any text and rewrite it almost perfectly in seconds.
Now, it’s important that you don’t use this tool to plagiarize or steal someone else’s ideas. Rather, this tool is best used for two legitimate purposes:
-
As a grammar replacement that checks and corrects tone and grammar
-
As an SEO tool for updating or repurposing old content
Google’s PageRank algorithm favors content that is updated frequently. I use Quilbot to rewrite portions of old blog posts or pages, and quite often, the result is that the content sees an increase in SEO ranking within a week or two of the new content.
Related: The Complete Guide to Effectively Using AI Writing Tools in Content Marketing
4. SEO Surfer
Surfer SEO has been around for years, long before ChatGPT started the consumer AI revolution last year. However, it is only now that it is receiving the praise it deserves. Basically, Surfer SEO is an optimization tool to ensure that page elements (i.e. text, metadata, titles, formatting and images) are used perfectly to improve search engine performance.
This tool is quite affordable and has been used by many SEOs since 2019. I can personally attest that this tool is the real deal, and I run every blog post I publish through the SEO Surfer Content Editor before it goes live. Keep in mind, however, that Surfer SEO tends to “over-optimize” in some cases, so don’t be tempted to apply all of the tool’s recommendations to each and every blog post you write.
5. GraphMaker
Any written or social content offers way more value if there are charts, tables and graphs that help visualize numerical data. The problem is that it’s a pain to create original charts and graphs, especially if you’re not exactly a math whiz.
Fortunately, GraphMaker makes it very easy for me to quickly create visually captivating graphs that add a ton of value to my readers. For example, if you plug inflation rates over time together with, say, the US exchange rate against the British pound, you get a wonderful line graph that represents how inflation affects the strength of the US dollar.
One thing is to say your readers on the topic at hand, but it is far superior to show them. I recommend using this tool to help show and demonstrate numerical phenomena to your readers, which is always a great idea to grab their attention.
Related: Top 5 Ways AI Can Improve Your Content Creation Process
Diversify your AI technology
If you think a simple OpenAI account and the ability to order ChatGPT will cut it in the market tomorrow, think again. Your competitors are using a wide variety of AI technologies and I suggest you adapt to these changing circumstances if you want to stay afloat as well.
My advice is to use the technologies I listed above as simple starting point on your trip New AI tools are being released every day, so I recommend keeping up with the industry and experimenting with new AI software as they come out. Early adopters of these technologies will, more often than not, find themselves with a competitive advantage in their industry.
