How AI could create the next industry-transforming startups
By Andrew Gaule - CEO Aimava and Henley MBA (2000)
The dot-com boom saw visionary entrepreneurs use emerging internet technology to create new business models and value chains that disrupted entire sectors. Now Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution such as Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT could be the next wave of business transformation.
In the late 1990s I was doing my MBA sponsored by Unilever, a leading global corporate. At the time we started I did not have an email address on my business card and I was exploring using the early internet browsers Netscape and Mosaic. This was around the time that Jeff Bezos started Amazon. He was changing the business model for retail with the basic internet and starting in book retail. Amazon is now valued at $1.4 Trillion (22 Aug ’23).
Later on, I was leading a Corporate Venture Network of leading global corporates. My business Henley Incubator had an event in 2004 and Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese internet venture Alibaba, was a guest. Jack went on to use QR codes and the growing smart phone proliferation to create a financial digital platform for consumers and businesses called AliPay in 2004 but it really took off in 2011 with QR payments. This is the basis and core of Ant Financial which is valued at around $150 billion.
In 2008 I took a group of executives from energy, FMCG, transport, etc. corporates to Silicon Valley and one of the ventures we visited was Tesla. This was when their first Roadster electric vehicle was starting production after Elon Musk joined Tesla in 2004. At the time Tesla and I highlighted this was not just about a cool vehicle but about energy security and the whole value chain of new direct selling, charging infrastructure and as Elon Musk went on to create green energy and battery storage. Tesla is now worth $735 billion (22 Aug ’23) and more than the next 5 automotive companies combined.
It was the application of tech for new business models which cut across industries and traditional incumbents which creates what I term "Innovative New Value Chains” and this creates significant value.
Today, AI has similar promise to transform traditional industries in unprecedented ways. Here are examples of how AI could enable new products, services, and companies:
- AI Tutoring: Algorithms can already provide personalized learning content better than existing systems. Soon, AI tutors may teach specific academic subjects, skills, and even provide life coaching - adaptive to each student's strengths/weaknesses. Startups creating such AI tutoring platforms could transform education and combining with Virtual and Augmented reality.
- Intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants: AI-driven conversational agents that can provide customer service, concierge services, personalized information and recommendations.
- Legal and Intellectual Property work: AI can rapidly read and extract key terms from large volumes of contracts to highlight risks, obligations, and opportunities. This also enables fast drafting of new contracts with standardized terms. IP portfolio analysis - Analysing patents using NLP and data mining to assess scope, novelty, validity and infringement risks. Helps make IP filing and licensing decisions.
We will have executives driving change in these sectors at the AI for Business Summit.
Other sectors ripe for an AI shake-up include finance, healthcare, media, and customer service. Just like Amazon and Tesla built radically different business models on the back of the internet and electric motors, forward-thinking entrepreneurs could use AI's predictive power and automation capabilities to invent the future. They will reimagine value chains instead of blindly optimizing existing paradigms.
Incumbents also need to adapt or risk disruption. We are entering a new age of business creativity fuelled by AI. The question is - who will lead the next wave of transformative companies?
Aimava is leading the “AI for Business Summit: Navigating the Opportunities and Implementing AI” (details at Eventbrite Aimava) at Henley Business School, Greenlands on 28 September 2023. Contributors include Dr Christoph Burtscher, Andy Bruce of Softools, Yasmin Topia, Senior Visiting Fellow at Henley Business School and Prof Sharm Manwani, is the Executive Professor of IT and Digital Leadership at Henley and leading thinkers in the Henley World of Work Institute. Kirsty Parker and other Henley Business Angels will be at the AI for Business Summit.
You can see programmes we have done in many sectors on our Aimava YouTube Channel and Podcasts at Gaule's Question Time on Apple, Spotify, Google etc.
If you would like to discuss how Innovative New Value Chains are going to impact your corporate or venture do contact us.
