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Can You Use ChatGPT to Write a Business Plan? Yes, Here’s How

Posted april 17, 2023 by noah parsons.

The new generation of generative artificial intelligence(AI) tools, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, are fundamentally changing how we create. They can competently write, generate ideas, develop recipes, and even help plan vacations. 

I’ve been looking into how these tools can help with business tasks, specifically business planning. Can generative AI take an idea for a business and transform it into a comprehensive business plan ? Can it be used as a business plan generator?

The answer is “yes”, but it’s not as simple as pushing a single button and getting everything you need. You have to follow a process. Even then, ChatGPT can’t do everything necessary to create a complete business plan. Even more importantly, these tools can’t help you implement the plan and manage your business (yet!).  

In this article, I’ll guide you through using ChatGPT to help you write each section of your business plan. You’ll learn how to quickly create a business plan using AI, understand its limitations, and forever banish writer’s block. 

For more on using ChatGPT to grow your business, check out our guides for creating a financial forecast and advanced ChatGPT prompts for better forecasting .

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model developed by OpenAI. It’s designed to simulate human-like conversations by processing text inputs, understanding the context, and generating appropriate responses. While not perfect, recent advancements have significantly improved its ability to provide accurate, relevant, and context-aware information—making it more effective in various personal and professional applications.

How to create a business plan with ChatGPT

1. create a simple business plan outline.

Don’t go straight to ChatGPT and ask it to write you a complete business plan. This task is a bit too big for it—at least right now—and you’ll end up with a simple, shallow, and generic overview of your business. 

Instead, divide the business plan into bite-sized sections and use ChatGPT to help you write one section at a time. This approach generates far more detail and the combined results are much more impressive. To divide your business plan into sections, or chapters, you need a business plan outline.

Not sure what sections you need? Ask ChatGPT to create a business plan outline.

Overall, the plan outline ChatGPT provides is decent. It includes most of the sections you should include in a business plan. However, it isn’t organized very well and places topics like “legal structure” and “ownership and management” in positions that are too prominent. If you’re trying to raise money, or just exploring your business strategy—your plan should highlight your idea and the market opportunity instead.

To see better results from your ChatGPT business plan, try using this business plan outline instead:

• Executive Summary
• Products & Services
• Target Market
• Competition
• Marketing & Sales
• Milestones & Metrics
• Company Overview & Team
• Financial Plan

Need even more detail? Check out the complete, expanded business plan outline .

Using this outline will help you focus on defining what your business opportunity is and why your idea deserves funding. 

I’ll be using this structure for the remainder of this guide to help influence my prompts in ChatGPT and better organize my plan.

A quick note: You should write your executive summary last, so I’m skipping that section for now and will tackle it at the end.

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2. Write about your product or service

In this section of your plan, you describe your product or service and the problems that it solves for your customers. You’ll also describe any initial traction, intellectual property, and future products or services that you plan to offer. 

To use ChatGPT effectively, start your prompt by describing what your business does. The more detail you can provide, the better. Then ask it to help write the products & services section of your business plan. You can see my prompt and part of the initial response here:

The initial output is honestly impressive, but also a bit generic (there’s a link to the full output at the end of this article). In this example, that’s caused by my generic prompt. I didn’t describe my business in much detail or explain what makes the business unique. 

If I had added those details to my prompt, I may have received a more specific output. Regardless, the text from ChatGPT will almost never be a straight cut-and-paste for your business plan. You’ll have to review it carefully and customize it for your business and your product offering. 

To get better results, I would add information to the product description in my prompt that includes the types of waterproofing technology my business is using and what makes my products stylish. I would also include some information about initial customer feedback that I’ve received on my prototypes.

As with all ChatGPT prompts, describing the output that you want is also important. I asked ChatGPT only to cover the problem that my business solves and future product offerings. I could have also asked it to describe our initial traction and intellectual property, assuming I’d provided that information in the product description.

Weakness: ChatGPT might not fully understand unique, niche, or complex products/services, leading to incomplete or inaccurate descriptions. As long as you’re aware of this, the text it generates is a good starting point.

3. Develop a market analysis

A market analysis provides an overview of your target market, total market size and segments, market trends, and an industry analysis.

To make the most of ChatGPT, provide a brief overview of your target market and any additional information you may have. If you’re unsure who your target market is, you can also ask ChatGPT for ideas. 

This is a great starting point but lacks a lot of detail. It doesn’t provide any real market size numbers or specifics on the growth of the ski industry. If you were starting this business, you’d want to know what your potential market size is in order to make some educated guesses about the potential revenue you might generate.

Investors will also want to know these details and a generic plan without facts and numbers is not all that useful. ChatGPT will politely decline to answer if you ask for more details, citing its lack of capabilities in this area. These current limitations are likely to change soon thanks to additional plug-ins that grant up-to-date web access to gather information.

For now, what ChatGPT is good for is generating some decent writing and structure for the market analysis section of the plan. At this stage, you’ll have to do a little bit of work on your own and go find some facts to plug into the paragraphs that ChatGPT has written. Our market research guide can help you learn where you can find these numbers and plug them into your business plan .

Weakness: ChatGPT’s knowledge is limited to information available up to September 2021 (as of March 2023), so it may not recognize recent market changes or emerging trends. You’ll need to fill in the details with your own research.

4. Provide an overview of your competition

A good competitive analysis reviews the current alternatives on the market and describes your advantages. You should also review any barriers that your company can create to prevent competitors from seizing your opportunity.

If you know who your competition is , provide ChatGPT with that information as well as a summary of why your business is superior. If you don’t know who your competitors are, you can ask ChatGPT for ideas. 

But, be careful to double-check the output that ChatGPT provides. It sometimes will invent information and confidently present that information as facts. Be sure to double-check everything and don’t assume that it’s true.

ChatGPT does an admirable job of comparing our product to the competition as well as summarizing the competitive advantages. Of course, it’s a bit generic and should be edited to add more specifics, but it’s a solid place to start. 

Weakness: ChatGPT isn’t a full-blown competitive research tool at this point. You’ll need to do some of your own research to understand who your competitors are and what their value proposition is in the market.

5. Develop a marketing and sales plan

A good marketing and sales plan will explain your market positioning, and unique value proposition, as well as outline your marketing, sales, and pricing strategies.

Again, providing ChatGPT with as much detail as you can yields the best results. The more you can describe the business you’re building and the type of marketing and sales strategy you plan on using, the better writing it will do for you.

If you’re short of marketing ideas, you can ask ChatGPT to list marketing and sales ideas tailored to your business. Provide your target market, product/service offering, and desired marketing channels, then ask the AI for suggestions. If you like the ideas, you can incorporate them into your prompt when you ask the AI to help write the marketing and sales strategy section of your business plan.

In your prompt for ChatGPT, be sure to ask that your marketing and sales strategy section includes:

• Market positioning
• Unique value proposition
• Pricing strategy
• Marketing plan

As a useful follow-up, you can ask the AI to generate some advertising copy, social media posts, or promotional materials based on the marketing plan that it generated.

Weakness: The AI-generated strategies may lack creativity or industry-specific insights, potentially limiting their effectiveness.

6. Operations

The operations section of your business plan describes how your business functions. If you have physical stores or manufacturing facilities, you’ll describe them here. If your products are manufactured in a different country, you’ll describe that process. 

Once again, to get the most out of ChatGPT, describe as much as you know about your operational plan and then ask the AI to flesh it out. Describe your location, manufacturing process, customer service, sales channels, fulfillment, and any other aspects of how your business runs on a day-to-day basis. From there, ChatGPT can craft the operations section of your business plan.

If you’re not sure about what your operations should look like, you can ask ChatGPT for ideas. Ask it, “How should I operate my [ski clothing] business?” and it will give you ideas based on your specific business. It might have suggestions around supply chain, customer service, sales, and more.

That said, every business is unique. Your location will be unique and how you choose to do your manufacturing and customer service will likely be different from your competitors. Use ChatGPT for ideas, but then fill in the details that you know specifically.

Weakness: You’ll get out what you put into this section. There’s not a lot of creativity that ChatGPT can add, so you’re really just using it as a writing assistant. Make sure to include as much detail in your prompts as possible.

7. Company overview & team

This section offers a detailed description of your company , including its history and ownership. To use ChatGPT for this section, summarize your company’s background and ask the AI to expand on it, focusing on aspects such as the business structure and core values.

You’ll also want to define your company’s organizational structure and management team. To use ChatGPT, briefly describe your management team’s roles and responsibilities, and ask the AI to create an organizational chart and expand on each role’s duties. You can even ask it to list out any role gaps that you should be aware of.

Weakness: The AI may generate generic content or fail to portray your company’s unique characteristics accurately. The AI may also not grasp the specific intricacies of your company’s hierarchy or be able to recommend the ideal structure for your business. Again, you know your company better than ChatGPT does, so make sure your prompt is detailed and you follow up with additional editing.

8. Financial plan

Using ChatGPT for this section was the real test. Investors and lenders need to understand your company’s potential for growth and profitability, so a detailed financial plan is important. 

Even if you’re not raising money, working on the financial projections is crucial. You need to understand how your business works from a financial perspective and what it’s going to take to be successful. While ChatGPT did a fairly good job at writing the strategy sections of the business plan, producing a viable financial model turned out to be a challenge. 

To test it out, I provided a brief overview of what I thought my revenue forecast might look like and asked the AI to generate financial statement projections for the next five years.

It turns out that ChatGPT just isn’t capable of helping very much with this section of the business plan, and it says as much in its response. 

I was hoping for a detailed financial forecast, with at least 12 months of detailed statements, followed by 4 years of annual detail. I was also hoping for a detailed expense budget and calculations on profit and cash flow over time, all formatted as standard financial statements.

Unfortunately, ChatGPT just is not ready to do that quite yet. In part, this is because the tool is a generative text tool and is not designed to create financial models in Excel or any other spreadsheet format.

That’s likely to change in the future as AI gets integrated into Excel, Google Sheets, and other spreadsheets. But, for now, it’s just not ready. 

That said, ChatGPT can help you come up with ideas to help you flesh out your financial plan. I asked it to suggest some ideas for revenue streams and it provided ideas I hadn’t thought of. I would do the same—ask for suggestions—for the expense forecast to make sure I didn’t miss anything when building my financial model.

Your business plan needs a full financial plan. It helps you determine how much money you need to start the business and keep the business afloat as you grow. You’ll also want to be able to easily change the numbers and see how that impacts your profitability and cash flow.

A good Excel spreadsheet or a business planning tool like LivePlan is likely a better option than ChatGPT for your financial plan. However, ChatGPT can help you think about how you’ll make money and what your key expenses will be.

Check out this article for a more detailed step-by-step guide for using ChatGPT to create useful financial forecasts .

Weakness: ChatGPT does not have the expertise to produce accurate financial projections or offer nuanced financial advice. The AI can also not currently produce a financial model that can be easily adjusted to help determine the key information you need to start and run your business successfully.

9. Simplify your plan into an executive summary

Wait until you’ve completed your business plan to have ChatGPT help you with your executive summary . You’ll get a much better result by asking the AI to summarize your plan rather than going the other way around and asking it to write the summary first before you’ve fleshed out the details.

Once you’ve completed your plan, you can cut & paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to create the summary. Or, if you’ve been getting help with your plan in a single chat session, you can just ask ChatGPT to summarize what you’ve created so far. You can even ask it to limit the summary to a certain number of words. 

Another tip is to tell ChatGPT to write in a certain style. For example, if your business plan is for a complex medical device, you might want your executive summary to be simple and jargon-free. In that case, you can ask ChatGPT to write in a simple, non-scientific style.

Be aware of ChatGPT’s weaknesses

ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for drafting a business plan but it’s essential to be aware of its limitations and weaknesses before you delegate your business planning task to AI.

• It can lack creativity
• Industry-specific insights may be hard to get
• You’ll need to do your own market research
• Only you have an understanding of your business’s unique position in the market.
• It may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.
• As of March 20, 2023, it only knows about the world up until 2021.

But, these weaknesses don’t mean that it’s not a useful tool. ChatGPT is a great writing assistant and it can help brainstorm ideas, even giving you new perspectives on your business that you may not have thought of. And, if you’re in need of a business name, it can do that too:

Should you use ChatGPT to help you with your business plan?

A business plan helps entrepreneurs in three core areas: 

• Figure out your strategy
• Understand the numbers behind your business
• Run a better business

ChatGPT can really only help with your strategy. 

It can take your ideas and expand on them, even providing new ideas that you might want to incorporate into your strategy. However, it cannot develop a full financial plan or assist you with ongoing analysis. A dedicated tool, like LivePlan, is really the better choice for these tasks.

Understanding the numbers that drive your business is crucial

A business can only be a business if it eventually makes money. The planning process helps you figure out the sales that you’ll need to make to cover expenses and what kind of cash you’ll need to get your business off the ground and keep it running. 

Without this knowledge, failure is a real possibility. ChatGPT can’t develop a full financial plan, but it can help you think through your revenue streams and key expenses. It can’t really do the numbers for you, but it can certainly help you get started.

Planning helps you run a better business

As you get up and running, tracking your results compared to your financial plan is an important part of running a responsible business. Using your accounting data, you can compare your actual spending to your budget and see where you’re on track and where you need to make adjustments. You’ll also see which sales channels are working well and which you’ll need to grow further. 

The process of using your plan to track your progress and refine your strategy is called growth planning . Turning your plan from a static document into a tool to run your business is one of the most important things you can do to improve your chances of success. In fact, businesses that track their growth against their plan grow 30% faster than those that don’t.

Unfortunately, ChatGPT isn’t really set up to help with this kind of detailed, ongoing analysis. A dedicated tool, like LivePlan , is really the better choice here.

The bottom line, ChatGPT can be a valuable helper in the business planning process. It’s like having a smart assistant at your side that can take your ideas and flesh out the details. But, it does have limitations, especially with the financial plan, and can’t help with the entire planning and business management processes just yet.

So, it’s not quite an AI business plan generator. But, when used correctly and with the right prompting it can help you break past writer’s block, think through each section, and ultimately write a solid plan.

Here’s the complete Ski and Snowboard Clothing Company business plan that ChatGPT helped write.

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Noah Parsons

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How to Write a Business Plan with ChatGPT: Step-by-Step Guide

Read to learn how to write a business plan with ChatGPT to craft a comprehensive business plan efficiently.

by Mortuza Hossain • 17 May 2024

A well-structured business plan is the foundation of any successful venture. It helps to run an organisation smoothly guiding their business goals, marketing, and financial strategies. 

And, ChatGPT can help you to make a successful business plan. It can create a detailed business strategy to align with your company's vision and values.

Well, then how to write a business plan with ChatGPT? 

In this write-up, we’ll show the step-by-step guide to  using ChatGPT  as a business planning tool and craft a comprehensive business plan efficiently. 

Let’s get started! 

Understanding the Components of a Business Plan  

A business plan is a well-defined and structured framework of goals, strategies, and financial projections for a company. So, making a proper business plan is crucial to setting a company’s vision, and effective direction, securing funding, and guiding successful operations. It has several key components and each component serves a specific purpose.

The key components of a business plan should include the following factors: 

1. Executive Summary: Overview of the entire plan, highlighting key points

2. Company Description: Details about the company's history, mission, and structure

3. Market Analysis: Assessment of target market and competition

4. Products/Services: Description of offerings and unique value

5. Marketing & Sales Strategy: Plan to promote and sell products

6. Operational Plan: Day-to-day business operations

7. Organizational Structure: Company's hierarchy and roles

8. Financial Projections: Forecast of revenues and expenses

9. Funding Request (if applicable): Amount and use of funding

10. Appendix: Supporting documents and data

How to Write a Business Plan with ChatGPT: Step-by-Step Guide  

ChatGPT can assist you in writing a compiling a business plan, but it needs prompts to understand the context and the intent. You need to guide it with relevant queries to generate clear and coherent responses effectively. 

To illustrate the business planning process, we’ll use "Green World Solutions” - an imaginary startup specializing in eco-friendly tech products.

We'll demonstrate how to create a business plan using ChatGPT that paves the way for Green World Solutions' growth and opportunities in the online platform. 

1. Preparing to Use ChatGPT   

Before you start, make sure, you’ve gathered all essential information about your business. You should organize all the information about the mission, target audience, market research data, financial projections and  marketing strategies  to ensure a smooth conversation with ChatGPT.

You need to create an account to use ChatGPT. ChatGPT 3.5 is free to use. But you have to pay if you want to use ChatGPT premium plans, powered by  GPT 4 .

As we know, ChatGPT will generate the answers based on your prompt, you should be good at  prompt engineering . 

Remember while using ChatGPT: 

• Be specific in your requests
• Use clear and concise language
• Be patient as ChatGPT is still under development

 👉 Related Read:  How to Write ChatGPT Prompts Properly

2. Crafting the Executive Summary

The executive summary is an overview of your whole business plan and your prompt must reflect it. You can write the prompt including:

• A concise description of your business
• The problem your business solves and its target market
• Unique selling proposition (USP) and business strategy
• Future growth projections and goals

ChatGPT Prompt Example: 

Write an impactful Executive Summary for Green World Solutions. It’s an eco-friendly tech e-commerce startup, providing sustainable products to environmentally-conscious consumers. Our future goals include market expansion, product innovation, and global outreach.

Based on our prompt, ChatGPT has created an executive summary highlighting the purpose of your startup business, target market, product Innovation, global opportunities, company's growth objectives, and other key financial properties.

3. Developing the Business Description   

Next, develop an extensive and clear business description with ChatGPT. To do so, define the purpose, core values, and business model in the prompt.

You can expand on the business overview by providing more details like the following:

• Mission and vision of the company
• History (if any) and the founders' background
• Legal structure (e.g., LLC, Limited company, Corporation) and location of the business
• Any patents, trademarks, or intellectual property

Help me develop a compelling Business Description for Green World Solutions, established in 2024, a sister concern of Green World LLC, showcasing its commitment to sustainability and innovative product offerings.

ChatGPT generates a well-descriptive business description including the company history, type, vision, mission, sustainability, and product offerings.

4. Conducting Market & Competitor Analysis  

Market research and competitor analysis in a business plan are vital for informed decision-making. At the same time, it’s important to identify opportunities and gain a competitive edge. 

To conduct market research and competitor analysis, your ChatGPT prompts may include: 

• Brief of your target market and its size
• Market trends and growth potential
• Detailed analysis of your competitors and their strengths/weaknesses.
• Your market entry strategy and competitive advantage

ChatGPT Prompt Example:  

Assist me in analyzing Green World Solutions' target market, growth opportunity, industry trends, and potential competitors as an eCommerce platform for eco-friendly tech products.

The generated output contains market research, and future opportunities, mentions the names of potential competitors, and their strategies to get competitive advantages in order to differentiate Green World Solutions effectively.

5. Defining Products and Services   

Using ChatGPT, you can outline the products or services your business offers. You can mention the names of the products and take different insights about their possibilities to the tagged audiences. 

Or, you can ask ChatGPT to suggest the product or service line for your business with their unique features, and market opportunities. Then you can choose your targeted product that can meet customer needs. 

ChatGPT Prompt Example

Define and suggest Green World Solutions’ product line, highlighting their eco-friendliness and innovative capabilities.

ChatGPT categorizes the product suggestions for Green World Solutions as well as describes their unique features. It also defines how these products address consumer needs and contributes to a greener future.

After selecting your preferred product or service, you can write a clear description of each product or service. For example, you choose solar-powered chargers as your primary product. You can analyze the following factors using ChatGPT to define your business goal more accurately. 

• Features and benefits of the products or services
• Manufacturing or sourcing process for physical products
• Quality assurance and customer support measures
• Target market and customer demographics
• Market demand and potential growth opportunities
• Potential scalability and expansion strategies
• Future product/service extensions or diversification plans

6. Developing Pricing Strategy    

You can utilize ChatGPT's insights to develop a competitive pricing strategy for your business. With ChatGPT, determine an appropriate pricing strategy considering the following factors:

• Factors influencing your pricing decisions like lifecycle, quality assurance, etc.
• Comparison with competitors' pricing
• Target market preferences
• Profit margins and sales volume expectations

Assist me to establish a pricing strategy that balances Green World Solutions' affordability with its commitment to sustainability for solar-powered chargers, considering the USA market and potential competitors.

You will get a clear idea of pricing strategy by considering the necessary factors. ChatGPT suggests pricing models maintaining a balance between profitability and customer appeal.

7. Creating the Marketing and Sales Strategy   

You should have a proper marketing and sales strategy to promote your products and services. To do so, you need to explore digital marketing channels, partnerships, and sales tactics to reach a wider audience.

However, ChatGPT makes this process easier. You can utilize the AI power of  ChatGPT in outlining an effective marketing and sales plan. 

Include the following factors in the prompt to get a better marketing and sales strategy. 

• Marketing channels and strategies to reach your target audience
• Sales tactics and approaches to convert leads into customers
• Marketing budget and ROI projections

Provide ideas for an effective marketing and sales strategy to propel Green World Solutions' products into the market. My target is to promote solar-powered chargers among teenage and old people in New York City at first and my plan is to sell around $500,000 in year 1.

For marketing and sales strategies, ChatGPT suggests implementing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase organic traffic. Also, For establishing, you can utilise social media platforms, run campaigns to engage with the target audience and run targeted ads.

8. Establishing Management and Organizational Structure   

Your business must have an established management and organisational structure. Clear roles, responsibilities, and hierarchy are important for effective decision-making, efficient operations, and running a cohesive and productive work environment. 

You can use ChatGPT to define the key roles and responsibilities within your organization:

• The management team's background and qualifications
• Organizational hierarchy and reporting structure
• Any strategic partnerships or key external stakeholders

Green World is an online platform to sell eco-friendly tech products. Please help me outline the structure and the roles and responsibilities of the management team.

ChatGPT provides an overview describing the roles and responsibilities of key management personnel in the eCommerce platform, such as the CEO, COO, CTO, head of marketing, project managers, etc. It also explains their expertise and how they contribute to the company's success.

9. Requesting Funding (if applicable)  

A funding request is needed in an online e-commerce business to support initial setup costs, market analysis, and ongoing operations. Funding is also beneficial for successful market entry and growth.

So, if you need funding, ChatGPT can help you create a compelling case:

• How much funding do you need and how do you plan to use it
• Potential funding sources (e.g., investors, loans)
• Projected financial documents, including cash flow statements and ROI for investors

I'm looking for investors for my sustainable eco-friendly eCommerce platform. Can you help me create a compelling funding request for Green World Solutions showing the growth prospects and long-term sustainability?

ChatGPT creates a persuasive funding request that includes the growth prospects, the purpose of the funds (e.g., production, marketing strategy), projected financial plans, and the potential return on investment for investors.

10. Adding Supplementary Information   

Apart from these components, you can enhance the business plan with specific details, additional data, analysis, and visuals to highlight the key points. At the same time,  it’s important to provide a complete outlook for potential stakeholders.

You can generate any relevant additional details for your business plan using flexible prompts in ChatGPT such as:

• SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Table and statistical data representation
• Risk assessment and mitigation strategies
• Legal and regulatory considerations, etc.

Conduct a SWOT analysis for my sustainable eco-friendly eCommerce platform - Green World Solutions. Can you assist?

You’ll find the SWOT analysis by identifying the company's strengths (e.g., unique selling proposition, user-friendly interface), weaknesses (e.g., limited product range), opportunities (e.g., international expansion), and threats (e.g., supply chain challenges).

FAQs  

How does chatgpt work.

• Trained on a large dataset of diverse text
• Adapted to specific tasks with fine-tuning
• Uses the Transformer architecture for natural language processing
• Learns to predict the next word in a sentence using pre-training
• Converts prompt into tokens and generates responses based on learned patterns

Is ChatGPT Suitable for all Types of Business Plans?   

Yes , you can use ChatGPT for making various types of business plans, including startups, established businesses, non-profits, and more. Its advanced language model and versatility allow it to create more specialized plans for different industries and sectors.

If you need help with business plans, check out our blog on the latest and best  online business ideas  for more insights and inspiration.

Can ChatGPT Help with Financial Projections for the Business Plan?   

Yes , ChatGPT can assist you to make financial projections for a business plan. It analyzes historical financial data, market trends, and relevant industry information. Plus, it can provide insights, expenses, revenue projections, and cash flows to make informed financial projections for the business plan.

Does Using ChatGPT for Business Plans Require Technical Expertise?   

You don't need technical expertise to use ChatGPT for your business plan. However, having a sound understanding of your business and the ability to review/customize the AI-generated content is helpful for making a successful business plan.

What are the advantages of using ChatGPT over traditional business plan writing methods?   

Using ChatGPT offers several advantages over traditional methods such as: 

• Speeds up the writing process
• Offers creative ideas and perspectives
• Provides a wealth of information
• Saves cost and effort

Are there any limitations to using ChatGPT for making a business plan?   

Though ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it has some limitations while making a business plan including

• Lack of domain expertise
• Limited validation
• Bias in data
• Risk of over-reliance
• Security and privacy concerns
• Difficulty handling ambiguity, etc.

What are the ChatGPT Alternatives to writing a business plan?   

Some of the  alternatives to ChatGPT  to write a business plan include 

• Perplexity AI

Final Words  

A business plan is more than just a document; it's a roadmap to success, guiding you through challenges and opportunities on your entrepreneurial journey. ChatGPT has offered valuable insights and creative assistance in making business plans. 

Here, we’ve depicted a step-by-step guide to using the AI capabilities of ChatGPT to outline every business plan component. Hopefully, now you can create a business plan with this comprehensive discussion on “How to write a business plan with ChatGPT”. 

So, why are you waiting? 

Go forth, be bold, use AI power to build successful business plans and turn your dreams into reality. 

Mortuza Hossain

Mortuza Hossain is a content writer and editor at Dorik with expertise in SaaS, SEO, WordPress, eCommerce, and Technology. He writes to deliver reliable and valuable information that solves people’s problems worldwide. Apart from work, he loves to travel, read, watch movies, and spend time with his family and friends.  

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The 10 AI Prompts You Need to Write a Business Plan

Noah Parsons

25 min. read

Updated March 18, 2024

We’ve all been there. The ideas are swimming around in your head, but you’re stuck staring at a blank page and trying to figure out how to turn those ideas into something presentable.

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have that same feeling of “writer’s block” when I sit down to write – even this article didn’t start flowing right away.

The writer’s block is even more intense when writing a business plan .

Think about the stakes involved: Is the idea any good? Will the plan be compelling enough for a lender or investor to consider funding it? Even though I’ve written plenty of business plans, it’s always a challenge to figure out how to best present an idea.

This is where AI’s potential is so revolutionary.

The newest chatbots like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Bard are excellent helpers, especially for business plan writing . They can take rough ideas and help transform them into cohesive plans that investors are going to want to read.

Instead of figuring out how to present your ideas, you can spend time on your business strategy, refining your marketing plan, and ensuring that your business solves a real problem that potential customers have.

In this article, I’ll share my favorite prompts to use and pitfalls to avoid when writing a business plan with AI.

These AI prompts are tested and generally work well with any chatbot. That said, there are real differences between some of the free, more basic chatbots — ChatGPT 3.5, for example — and the most modern, often paid, versions (as of February 2024) like ChatGPT 4 or Gemini Advanced. The paid versions are just better at writing and better at generating ideas.

Let’s go step-by-step through the process of using AI to help you write your business plan .

Be sure to read the warnings about over-relying on AI at the end of this article. You won’t want to make one of the most common mistakes and end up with a subpar business plan.

• Executive Summary

Don’t use this prompt until you’ve finished building out the rest of your business plan.

Your executive summary is just what it sounds like—a summary. You can’t really create a summary until you know the full details of your plan.

AI is really helpful here —it’s excellent at summarizing longer documents and creating shorter versions.

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Core Prompt:

Help me write a powerful Executive Summary for my business plan. My company is [company name], offering [products/services] in the [industry]. The executive summary should cover the following points:

• The Problem & Solution: Concisely describe the pain point my business addresses and my unique solution.
• Market Opportunity: Summarize the target market size, growth potential, and key customer segments.
• Business Model: Explain how we will generate revenue (pricing strategy, sales channels).
• Competitive Advantage: Highlight what sets us apart and how you’ll win in the market.
• Team: Briefly mention the key experience and skills of our management team.
• Financial Highlights: Provide a snapshot of our projections ( revenue, profit margins).

I’ve already completed the following sections of my business plan, which you can utilize for details: [complete plan content]”

Additional Prompt Elements:

• The Ask: “Include our fundraising ask. We are seeking an investment of [$] which will be used to [describe your use of funds].”
• Target Audience: “Our business plan will be presented to [describe your audience] so the tone should be [business like, casual, etc.]”

Imagine you are starting a meal delivery service business:

“Help me write a powerful Executive Summary for my business plan. My company is “Sunshine Meals,” offering healthy, pre-portioned meal delivery in the [city, state] area. The executive summary should cover the following points…”

• Clarity is King: Use simple language and avoid jargon.
• Data Wins: Quantify your potential with relevant figures.
• Tailor to your Audience: If the plan is for investors, heavily focus on market size, competitive advantage, team credentials, and financial outlook.
• Proofread Carefully: Make sure the AI draft of your executive summary matches what you say elsewhere in your plan.
• Embrace your voice: Beyond proofreading, edit and change the AI-generated words to make sure they sound like your voice and your business.
• Opportunity

The opportunity section of your business plan is where you provide an overview of the problem your business solves for your customers. It’s essentially an overview of your products and services and how your customers use them to solve their problems.

Your opportunity is the core of your business strategy and an area to spend a good portion of your time on. The most successful businesses solve a real problem for their customers, so it’s important to think carefully about the needs your customers have and how your product or service fits into their lives. 

AI will help generate a lot of ideas in this area.

Once you’ve run the prompt, sift through the ideas to find the best ones and perhaps dig deeper into the most promising ones. The better you describe the problem you are solving, the more focus you’ll have as a business owner.

It’s this kind of focus and understanding of customer problems that attracts investors and drives success.

I am starting a [business description]. Help me craft a strong “Opportunity” section for my business plan. Clearly articulate the problem I’m solving, my unique solution, and any traction achieved. I need to demonstrate why now is the right time for my business, [business name]. Describe the significant pain point or unmet need experienced by my target customers, [target customer description]. Explain how my product/service directly solves the problem, detailing its key features and benefits. How is it innovative or different from competitors?

• Describe my initial traction that I have with my customers, which includes [description of any early successes including sales figures, user growth, partnerships, positive testimonials, or awards.]
• Explain what makes this the ideal time to launch my business. Are there favorable market shifts, technological advancements, or gaps my solution is poised to fill?

Let’s say you’re developing a platform to connect freelance writers with businesses:

“I am starting a business that provides an online platform that connects freelance writers with businesses. Help me craft a strong “Opportunity” section for my business plan. Clearly articulate the problem I’m solving, my unique solution, and any traction achieved. I need to demonstrate why now is the right time for my business, The Written Word. Describe the significant pain point or unmet need experienced by my target customers, small business owners who need blog content, product descriptions, and marketing materials. Explain how my product/service directly solves the problem, detailing its key features and benefits. How is it innovative or different from competitors?”

• Storytelling: If you can, try and infuse this section with a brief story illustrating the problem’s impact on potential customers and how your product or service helps solve their problem.
• Simplicity: Keep things simple – don’t go overboard with too much detail about your solution. If your plan is too long, people won’t read it.
• Data: If you have data that backs up your problem description, be sure to include it. Don’t rely on AI to get that data, though—it likely won’t be accurate or sourced correctly.
• Make it Yours: AI might come up with some interesting ideas for describing the problem you solve. You need to filter and edit to ensure that the content accurately reflects your business.
• Market Analysis

This section of your business plan describes the market you are selling to.

Typically, the market analysis explains how many potential customers you have and a detailed description of your target customer. It’s important to stress that AI chatbots (as of March 2024) aren’t very good at this task.

The data they provide is often wrong.

You’re much better off doing your own research and finding reputable data sources instead of relying on AI. We are providing a prompt here, but be very careful to double-check any data that the AI provides.

You’ll typically find that AI will generate a lot of target market ideas .

Similar to the “Opportunity” section of your plan, it’s important to narrow down your target market to a few specific ones to start. The best strategies are usually very focused, so pick one or two core target markets to get started.

As Michael Porter, the famous Harvard Business School professor, once said, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

Help me write a comprehensive market analysis for my business plan. My business is [business name], and we offer [products/services] within the [industry] sector. Cover the following key areas:

• Market Size & Growth: Quantify the current market size in terms of value or volume. Identify and discuss trends influencing market growth (or decline).
• Target Customers: Create detailed customer profiles of my ideal segments (demographics, psychographics, needs, buying behaviors).
• Market Segmentation: “Break down the market into smaller segments – are there lucrative niches to target?”
• Data Sources: “Suggest reliable sources for industry reports, market statistics, and competitor insights.”

Let’s say you’re opening a plant-based meal delivery service:

“Help me write a comprehensive market analysis for my business plan. My business is ‘Nourish’, and we offer healthy plant-based meal delivery within the prepared food industry. Cover the following key areas…”

• Be Specific : Avoid overly general target markets. Successful businesses target very specific customers initially.
• Visuals Aid Understanding: Use charts or graphs to visualize market data or segmentation.
• Support Your Claims: AI often does not give you reputable sources or will even make them up. The output may look impressive and accurate, but you must double-check everything and cite reputable sources for all your market data.
• Competitive Analysis

Like the market analysis section, be careful using AI for the competitive analysis section. It may invent potential competitors or miss out on key competitors that you know exist.

You can use AI to get the overall structure of this section, but you might be better off writing your own competitive analysis.

When you think about competitors, remember to not only think about direct competitors, but also indirect competitors. Indirect competitors are alternate solutions to a customer’s problem, while direct competitors are companies that offer a similar service or product as you do.

For example, a gym might compete against other gyms (direct competitors), but it also competes against running trails and people doing exercise at home (indirect competitors). 

A strong understanding of your competitors is important for developing your strategy. So, it will be worth looking beyond what AI generates for you and doing some of your own research.

Help me craft a strong “Competition” section for my business plan. My business is [business name], offering [product/service] in the [industry] sector. Cover the following key areas:

• Competitor Analysis: Identify my top 3-5 direct competitors and analyze their strengths, weaknesses, pricing, marketing strategies, and target customer overlap.
• Indirect Competition: List companies offering alternative solutions or partially addressing the same customer need.
• Competitive Advantage: Clearly articulate how my product/service is unique, better, or fills unmet needs compared to the competition.
• Barriers to Entry: Outline challenges new competitors would face (high startup costs, patents, customer loyalty to existing brands, etc.).
• Opportunities & Threats:
• Identify potential weaknesses in competitor offerings that I can capitalize on.
• Predict any competitive shifts that could threaten my business (emerging technologies, consolidation, etc.).
• SWOT Focus: “Summarize my competitive analysis in a SWOT framework specifically tailored to my business compared to the competition.”
• Future Outlook: “Analyze how the competitive landscape might evolve and how my business is positioned to adapt.”
• Customer Perspective: “Assess the competition through the eyes of my target customer – What influences their purchasing decisions?”

Let’s say you’re launching a sustainable clothing brand:

“Help me craft a strong “Competition” section for my business plan. My business is ‘ConsciousThreads,’ offering ethically sourced, sustainable clothing in the fashion industry. Cover the following key areas…”

• Be Honest: Don’t underestimate your competition; acknowledge their strengths.
• Differentiation is Key: Emphasize what truly sets you apart and makes you a compelling choice.
• Stay Up-to-Date: Monitor competitor activity even after your plan is written.
• Research your competitors: AI has been known to invent competitors, so don’t just take AI suggestions as truth. Look them up online, find their websites, and take time to get to know them through their online presence.
• Marketing and Sales

Use the marketing and sales section to describe the marketing tactics you’ll use to reach your target customers and what your sales process looks like.

AI shines for this type of task and will help you brainstorm marketing strategies and quickly generate a lot of ideas.

That can be a huge help to expand your thinking about your sales and marketing strategy. But, similar to other areas of your plan, you’ll need to narrow things down and get specific.

Your job will be to focus and pick the marketing and sales tactics that you think will work best for your business and your customers. Think about starting with one or two core ideas and then list ideas that you may explore in the future.

Because most new businesses don’t have endless budgets or people, a narrow marketing focus is a more realistic approach.

Help me develop a detailed “Marketing and Sales” plan for my business, [business name].  My target customers are [describe ideal customer profile] within the [industry]. Outline the following aspects:

• Market Positioning: Define how I will position my brand and offerings within the marketplace. I want to be perceived as [luxury, budget, etc.]
• Marketing Channels: Where does my target audience spend their time? List potential online and offline channels to reach them (website, social media, content marketing, trade shows, etc.).
• Sales Process: Outline the steps from lead generation to closing a sale. I will use a [direct sales team, online store, distributors, or a combination]. Describe the customer’s sales journey.
• Pricing Strategy: Explain my pricing model [premium, competitive, etc.] and the rationale behind it. Consider costs, market comparisons, and perceived value.
• Budget: “My preliminary marketing budget is [$]. Suggest marketing channels and marketing tactics that align with this budget”
• Metrics: “Identify key metrics to track the effectiveness of my marketing and sales efforts.”

Let’s say you have an online course business teaching creative writing:

“Help me develop a detailed “Marketing and Sales” plan for my business, ‘The Write Path’.  My target customers are aspiring writers seeking to improve their craft within the online education space. Outline the following aspects:…”

• Specificity Wins: Detail your channel strategies – don’t just list social media, outline the specific platforms and content types you’ll leverage.
• Test & Adapt: This section should be a living document that evolves as you gather real-world data.
• Actionable Plan: Include timelines and who’s responsible for executing different strategies.

Be Selective: Don’t just cut and paste all AI suggestions. You have a better sense of what will work for your market, so pick and choose what make sense for your business.

The operations section of your business plan goes over your basic business logistics, such as your location and facilities, the technology you are using, and any other operational specifics important to communicate in your business plan. 

You’ll need to customize this prompt quite a bit for it to work for your business as AI can’t guess at your location, the technology you’re using, or who your suppliers are. For each of the bulleted sections below, customize the content for your business before using the prompt.

Help me write an “Operations” section for my business plan. My business is [business name], offering [products/services] in the [industry] sector. Cover the following key areas:

• Location & Facilities: Describe my business location (physical/virtual/hybrid). Detail any specialized facility needs (manufacturing space, storefront, etc.).
• Technology & Equipment: Outline essential software, hardware, tools, and specialized equipment required. Specify any technology unique to my industry.
• Production/Workflow: Map out the process for creating my product or delivering my service. Identify potential bottlenecks for optimization.
• Suppliers & Inventory: If applicable, describe my sourcing strategy and relationships with key suppliers. Explain any inventory management systems in place.
• Regulatory/Legal: List any critical permits, licenses, or regulations that impact my operations.

Let’s imagine you’re starting a small-batch skincare company:

“Help me write an “Operations” section for my business plan. My business is ‘Radiant’, offering handcrafted skincare products in the beauty industry. Cover the following key areas:

Location: Our business offices are located in Brooklyn, NY and we have contracted with a third-party-logistics provider for packing and shipping in St. Louis.

Technology: We are using a Shopify store to sell online.

Research and Development: We work with an R&D that specializes in skincare and cosmetics in the Boston area.

Production: Our products are produced by a skincare producer located in the Philippines.

Regulatory: Because our products are organic, we need to be certified as an organic producer and have regular inspections of our production and ingredients”

• Be Realistic: Acknowledge any operational challenges or constraints
• Focus on Efficiency: Highlight processes designed to save time or minimize costs.
• Connect to Financials: Ensure operational choices align with your budget and projections. Remember, AI tools won’t be able to help much since they do not address financials and projections very well.
• Milestones & Metrics

Milestones are important dates for your business—essentially a roadmap for how you plan to build your business. You’ll focus just on key milestones, not every task that you need to complete. You’ll also want to review the key metrics that you will monitor to ensure that your business is successful.

AI can be helpful and give you some ideas for key milestones, but you’ll need to customize this section to match your business, your schedule, and your own timeline.

Milestones are all about goals and accountability.

It doesn’t matter how great your idea is if you can’t execute and make it happen. Milestones are all about coming up with a plan to turn your idea into reality, so spend a little time here thinking about a realistic timeline and plan.

Core Prompt

Help me craft a strong “Milestones and Metrics” section for my business plan. My business is [business name], offering [product/service] in the [industry]. Break it down as follows:

Key Milestones : Outline 5-8 of my most significant goals over the next 1-3 years. These should be specific: Avoid vague goals; state precisely what needs to happen. Time-Bound: Include a target date for completion. Relevant: Goals should directly support business growth and vision. Examples: Secure funding, launch product, reach a revenue target, open a new location, etc.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): List 5-8 metrics that will best measure the progress towards those milestones and my overall business health. Consider the following categories: Financial: Sales revenue, gross profit margin, customer acquisition cost (CAC), etc. Customer-Related: Net promoter score (NPS), customer retention, website traffic, etc. Operational: Production efficiency, order fulfillment time, etc. Explain why each KPI is important and how I plan to track them.

Let’s say you’re launching a subscription box service:

“Help me craft a strong “Milestones and Metrics” section for my business plan. My business is ‘Curated Delights,’ offering monthly themed subscription boxes in the lifestyle niche. Break it down as follows…”

• SMART Goals: Make sure milestones adhere to the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound).
• Regular Review: Use this section as a tool; revisit and adjust milestones and KPIs as needed.

Pitfalls: 

• Customize: This prompt will generate ideas for milestones and metrics, but you’ll need to customize them for your business to get the best results.
• Company Overview

Similar to previous sections, AI can help provide you with writing ideas and structure for the company overview section of your plan. It can’t describe your specific situation unless you provide it with the details.

You’ll need to know who the company owners are, what share of the company they each own, and what the legal structure is.

This section is less about strategy and more about just providing the facts. Use AI as a helpful copywriter here to turn your notes into polished text.

Help me write a “Company Overview” for my business plan. My company, [company name], operates within the [industry] sector. Cover the following essential details:

• Legal Structure: My company is a [Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, LLC, Corporation, etc.]. Briefly explain the reason behind this choice.
• Ownership: [List the owners/founders, their titles, and percentage of ownership]
• Company History: Summarize my company history based on the following information: [Founding date and location, major milestones achieved to date (if existing business), etc.]

Let’s say you’re a freelance web designer starting an agency:

“Help me write a “Company Overview” for my business plan. My company, ‘Creative Web Solutions’, operates within the web design and development industry. Cover the following essential details:

• Legal Structure: Creative Web Solutions is registered as an LLC for liability protection and potential tax benefits.
• Ownership: I, [Your Name], am the sole owner and founder.”
• Keep it Brief: This section is just about communicating the facts; other areas of the plan will provide more depth.
• OK to Skip: If you aren’t seeking investment, you likely don’t need this section.
• Management Team

Once again, without your input, an AI chatbot won’t have much to go on. That said, AI can take your rough notes about your team and turn them into polished writing. Just be sure to double-check everything to make sure your team’s skills haven’t been represented incorrectly.

Help me write a “Management Team” section for my business plan. My company is [company name] operating in the [industry]. Include the following:

• List titles and roles of the core management team (founder(s), CEO, CMO, etc.).
• Provide a brief bio for each member, focusing on relevant experience, skills, and accomplishments that demonstrate their suitability for their role.
• Summarize the collective strengths of the management team and how they complement each other.
• Highlight any specific industry knowledge or expertise.
• List any formal advisors or board members.
• Outline their backgrounds and how they add strategic value to the business.
• Acknowledge any current gaps in expertise within the team and your plans to fill them (future hires, consultants, etc.).

Imagine you’re starting a tech startup with a co-founder:

“Help me write a “Management Team” section for my business plan. My company is ‘Innovatech’ operating in the software development industry. Include the following:..”

• Showcase Passion : Briefly mention what drives each team member and their commitment to the company’s vision.
• External Validation : Awards, past successes, or notable affiliations of team members add credibility.
• Be Honest : Investors appreciate transparency about potential shortcomings and your plan to address them. Make sure you edit what AI writes, that it accurately reflects the gaps in your team, and that it sounds like you.
• Financial Plan

Unfortunately, AI help can only take you so far with your business plan, which is the biggest pitfall in using AI to generate your plan . While it’s great at brainstorming and turning notes and ideas into polished text, AI is just not capable of pulling together the complete financial forecasts that businesses need and investors expect.

To create a financial plan , a spreadsheet or a business planning tool are the right choices for the job. Here’s why:

• Flexibility: Creating a financial plan takes some experimentation. As you adjust your expected revenue and expenses, you’ll want to see in real time what the impact is on your profitability. AI Chatbots don’t provide that kind of interface and require slow regeneration that often introduces unwanted changes and surprises.
• Cash Flow: Forecasting cash flow can be challenging, especially if you’re dealing with inventory or customers that don’t pay you right away. Business planning tools have these calculations baked in so you can adjust your assumptions about when you think you’ll purchase inventory and when customers will pay and immediately see how your cash is impacted.
• Accuracy: As it is, chatbots like ChatGPT aren’t known for their honesty. You don’t want to apply for a loan or present to investors with a forecast built by AI because you can’t be sure all the math is 100% accurate. You’ll want to be confident in your numbers to run a successful business.
• Know your business: When you build your own forecast, you develop a deep understanding of how your business works. AI can’t give you this knowledge . And without a solid understanding of how your business works from a financial perspective, it will be challenging to be successful.
• It’s what investors want: Lenders and investors expect financial forecasts in a specific, standardized format. While AI can help you with the basics, it can’t develop an accurate balance sheet or cash flow forecast for you.
• Better Business Management: The key to running a successful business is paying attention to the numbers: are you getting the revenue you expect and are your expenses on track? A good planning tool, or at the very least a spreadsheet, will help you keep track of your numbers so you can know exactly how your business is doing and what changes need to be made.

All of that said, AI can help you understand how you might want to start your forecast.

It can suggest common revenue streams and expenses for your business so you can make sure that you’re not overlooking anything. AI might even give you some new ideas for how your business might make money. Here’s how you can get AI to help:

Help me generate a comprehensive list of potential revenue streams, cost of goods, and expenses to include in my financial forecast for my business, [business name].  My business operates in the [industry] sector and offers [products/services].

Let’s say you’re a freelance graphic designer:

“Help me generate a comprehensive list of potential revenue streams and expenses to include in my financial forecast for my business, “Visual Designs.” My business operates in the creative services industry and offers logo design, branding packages, and website design services.

• Don’t Get Too Specific: Think about broad categories for revenue streams and expenses – things that you’d want to track and pay attention to over time. Don’t list every minor thing.
• Pay Attention to Profits and Cash: For most businesses, profit and actual cash in the bank are different things. Your forecast will help you spot future cash problems that might happen even when you’re profitable.
• Revisit Regularly: Successful businesses track their performance compared to their revenue goals and expense budget, just like you track things with a personal budget. 
• Don’t try to use AI to generate your numbers: You will need to use a financial model and take the time to put together a full financial forecast.
• Important Advice and a Warning for Using AI for Business Planning

There are two points I want to stress as you think about using AI to help write your business plan.

1. You need to know your business

The first is that good, healthy businesses grow because owners and entrepreneurs deeply understand their business.

Yes, you can use AI to help you write a business plan, but that plan needs to be yours — the ideas, how the business works, your competitive advantage. If you’re not 100% behind the ideas in the plan, you’re much less likely to be successful.

The most valuable benefit of business planning is not the document that you end up with, but the ideas that you generate through the process.

The planning process helps you focus on a winning business strategy, a marketing plan that will bring customers in the door, and a detailed understanding of your customers. The document is just a byproduct of the process.

The knowledge that you gain is what’s truly valuable.

2. AI isn’t perfect

Second, as impressive as AI is, it makes mistakes. It invents things. So make sure to double check any “facts” that AI presents. AI is better at ideation and brainstorming than doing detailed market research and creating financial models. 

To use AI successfully, it’s important to understand its strengths and weaknesses .

It’s a tireless business partner that you can bounce ideas off of. It’s always ready to brainstorm and help you generate 100 new ideas. But it’s not a great research assistant or number cruncher — at least not yet.

For those parts of your plan, use the tools that are best for those jobs.

If you’re looking for an AI-powered tool to improve your writing, suggest revenue streams and more, I recommend you check out the LivePlan Assistant . It’s the only AI business planning tool backed by over 30 years of business planning and forecasting expertise.

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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Home » Tips & Tricks » Can ChatGPT write a business plan?

Can ChatGPT write a business plan?

Why not try ChatGPT to help with a business plan? It is very capable

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Are you an entrepreneur or a future business owner looking to write a comprehensive and strategic business plan? You might have heard that ChatGPT can help you with that. The release of GPT-3 in early 2023 has made ChatGPT capable of doing and assisting in many things. Writing a business plan is one of them. In this article, we’ll discuss how ChatGPT can help you create a business plan and provide you with a customized prompt. However, keep in mind that ChatGPT cannot come up with a viral product or service for you. It can only provide structure and guidance by putting together a draft business plan based on the information you provide.

Using ChatGPT to write a business plan

Writing a business plan is an essential task for any entrepreneur, as it provides a roadmap for the future of the business. ChatGPT can be used to write simple and customized business plans that can be helpful to startups. You can feed the bot with information about your business, just as you would with a person. The first step in using ChatGPT to write a business plan is to define your vision and mission statements. These statements serve as the foundation of your business plan and should be clear, concise, and inspiring. You can use ChatGPT to generate ideas and refine your statements.

Start by answering questions such as:

• What is the purpose of your business?
• What problem are you solving?
• What makes your business unique?
• What are your values and beliefs?
• What is your long-term goal?
• How will your business make a difference in the market?

Once you have defined your vision and mission statements, you can move on to creating a simple outline for your business plan. The outline should include an executive summary, a business description, a market analysis, marketing and sales strategies, a financial plan, and a management team section. You can use ChatGPT to create a customized outline that suits your business needs. ChatGPT can also help you with the financial plan section of your business plan.

You can provide information about your expected start-up costs, projected sales and expenses, and funding requirements, and ChatGPT can generate a draft of your financial plan.

A customized business plan prompt

For a personalized business plan from ChatGPT, start with a customized prompt that includes all the necessary information and all the questions answered that we elaborated in the previous section. Here is our Prompt for creating a business plan with ChatGPT: “Based on the following information, please write a comprehensive business plan for [Business Name]. The business is in the [Industry] industry and will offer [Products/Services]. The target market is [Target Market] and the business will operate in [Location]. The founders are [Founder Names] and they plan to generate revenue through [Revenue Streams].

The business aims to solve [Problem] and differentiate itself through [Unique Selling Point]. Please include an executive summary, market analysis, marketing strategy, operations plan, and financial projections in the business plan.”

Limitations of ChatGPT for writing a business plan

ChatGPT is great for helping write a business plan in many ways but there are some definite limitations which you should be aware of.

• Outdated responses – ChatGPT is trained on data from before 2021. This means that it may not include the most up to date information in your specific industry or field.
• Lack of specificity – ChatGPT will often make suggestions based upon generalized business principals and this might not be right for your business.
• Lack of functionality – ChatGPT is a chatbot first and foremost and therefore lacks the same functionality of a spreadsheet or a dedicated business planning tool. This might make working out the finances of your business more difficult in ChatGPT.
• Only responds to prompts – This is sort of a given but if your prompts aren’t specific enough you won’t receive responses with the level of nuance you may be looking for.

Can I use ChatGPT to write a business proposal?

Yes, ChatGPT can write a business proposal with the write prompts.

Can you use ChatGPT to write a business plan?

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to successfully plan out and write a business plan, as long as you provide it with the right prompts.

Shaun Conroy

Shaun, with a computer science degree and 15 years of computer experience, has been passionate about competitive FPS gaming since the mid-2000s.

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9 Essential ChatGPT Business Plan Prompts (2023)

Planning a business can be overwhelming. From figuring out your target market to launching your first marketing campaigns; there are seemingly new business plans to be created at every step.

In this article, I'll share 9 incredibly simple (but powerful) ChatGPT prompts you can use to outsource some business planning brainpower to AI.

Why? Well, planning happens to be one area where ChatGPT excels. It already has a deep understanding of all the best practices and frameworks for business planning--and with a little bit of tweaking, prompting and context, it can tailor these frameworks to help you map out your specific projects.

Note: The more context you provide ChatGPT, the more accurate and useful the outputs will be. If you don't want to keep repeating yourself (e.g. "My business sells consulting services, my target market is law firms in the US, my product offerings and prices are X, Y, Z... etc.) then I would recommend either:

• Adjusting your custom instructions in ChatGPT to include some basics about your business; or
• Doing your business planning in Bizway, so that all your details are stored and referenced in any business planning docs you create.

So, with that out of the way, let's dive into the prompts.

1. Market Research Prompt

Understanding your market is crucial to the success of your business. This prompt helps you analyze the key aspects of your market.

• The Prompt: "Generate a market analysis for a [your industry] business."
• Example output: "The global market for AI-powered business planning tools is growing steadily with the increase in solopreneurs and small businesses. The target market size includes approximately 160,000 consulting firms and 3,000,000 solopreneurs worldwide."
• When to use it: When starting your business plan and during periodic reviews.
• Variations: "Generate a market analysis for a [specific location] [your industry] business."

2. Competitor Analysis Prompt

Knowing your competition allows you to understand their strategies and identify gaps that your business can fill. This prompt helps you analyze your competitors.

• The Prompt: "Identify and analyze key competitors in the [your industry] industry."
• Example output: "In the AI-powered business planning app market, notable competitors include Notion, Airtable, and ClickUp."
• When to use it: When defining your business strategy and during market analysis.
• Variations: "Identify and analyze key competitors in the [specific location] [your industry] industry."

3. Marketing Campaign Prompt

Effective marketing campaigns can drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and generate leads. This prompt helps you plan your marketing campaigns.

• The Prompt: "Create a marketing campaign for [your product/service]."
• Example output: "For Bizway, an Instagram campaign could reach an estimated 500,000 potential customers with inspiring stories of entrepreneurship."
• When to use it: When planning your marketing strategy.
• Variations: "Create a social media marketing campaign for [your product/service]."

4. Pricing Strategy Prompt

Pricing your products or services effectively can maximize profits and market share. This prompt helps you plan your pricing strategy.

• The Prompt: "Develop a pricing strategy for [your product/service]."
• Example output: "For Bizway, a tiered subscription model could be used, with prices ranging from $29/mo for the Starter plan to $79/mo for the Portfolio plan."
• When to use it: When defining your revenue model.
• Variations: "Develop a discount pricing strategy for [your product/service]."

5. Product Overview Prompt

A clear and concise product overview can help potential customers understand your offerings. This prompt helps you create a product overview.

• The Prompt: "Provide an overview of [your product/service]."
• Example output: "Bizway is an AI-powered business planning and research app that helps users generate business planning docs with just one click."
• When to use it: When introducing your product/service to potential customers or investors.
• Variations: "Provide a detailed overview of [your product/service]."

6. Pitch Writing Prompt

A compelling pitch can attract investors and customers. This prompt helps you write a pitch for your business.

• The Prompt: "Write a pitch for [your business]."
• Example output: "Bizway is revolutionizing the way businesses plan and research. With our AI-powered tool, anyone can easily create a comprehensive business plan."
• When to use it: When seeking funding or presenting your business idea.
• Variations: "Write a one-minute pitch for [your business]."

7. Website Copywriting Prompt

Well-written website copy can engage visitors and convert them into customers. This prompt helps you write copy for your website.

• The Prompt: "Write website copy for [your business]."
• Example output: "Welcome to Bizway, your one-stop solution for AI-powered business planning. Plan, research, and grow your business with Bizway!"
• When to use it: When designing or updating your website.
• Variations: "Write website copy for the [specific page] of [your business]."

8. Customer Persona Prompt

Understanding your customer personas can help tailor your product, marketing efforts, and services to meet their needs. This prompt helps you create customer personas.

• The Prompt: "Create a customer persona for [your business]."
• Example output: "Sarah, a 25-year-old junior graphic designer from Phoenix, AZ, who lacks business knowledge and is unsure where to start."
• When to use it: When defining your target audience.
• Variations: "Create a detailed customer persona for [your business]."

9. Revenue Model Prompt

Choosing the right revenue model is crucial for your business's financial success. This prompt helps you plan your revenue model.

• The Prompt: "Describe a revenue model for [your business]."
• Example output: "Bizway will generate revenue through a subscription model, with monthly plans ranging from $29 to $79."
• When to use it: When planning your business model.
• Variations: "Describe a freemium revenue model for [your business]."

By the way--many of these prompts are presets inside Bizway's business plan builder , so if you'd like to save some time storing and setting up all your details in various ChatGPT threads, you can always try them out in Bizway , and keep your plans, projects and notes all organized in one place.

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• On May 2, 2024
• In ChatGPT and Other LLMs

How To Get ChatGPT To Write A Business Plan?

Having a well-defined and comprehensive business plan is essential for success. However, the process of creating a business plan can be complicated, requiring meticulous research, analysis, and foresight. 

A recent survey by Hubspot found that using AI tools saves teams over two hours a day. If we know how to make business plans with AI, we can save much more time for each employee to do other tasks. 

How can ChatGPT turn your initial ideas into a comprehensive business plan ? Check out our article for more details!

Why Use ChatGPT To Write Business Plan?

Creating a business plan using AI can bring you tons of benefits:

• Think outside the box : ChatGPT can provide multiple perspectives and creative ideas you might not have considered. It can help you think outside the box and explore new opportunities for your business.
• Save time : Writing a business plan can be time-consuming. ChatGPT can help accelerate the process, offering quick responses and reducing the overall time invested in research, analysis, and summarizing.
• Boost your productivity : ChatGPT can quickly generate content based on your prompts, speeding up the business planning process. This can save you time and effort compared to writing the entire plan from scratch.

How To Get ChatGPT To Write A Business Plan

Start with an outline.

Never go straight to ChatGPT to ask the chatbot to create a complete plan for your business. This task is overwhelming for it.

Instead, break down the business plan into sections: executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing strategy, operations plan, financial projections, etc.

This helps you provide enough necessary information for the chatbot to make the plan. Thus, in the first step, ask it to generate an outline of the business plan.

Prompt example: Act as an expert business plan writer and provide a professional outline for a recruitment agency named Reeracoen.

Deep Dive into The Product/Service Section

Detail the products or services your business will offer. Explain how they meet the needs of your target market and what makes them different from existing offerings.

The more detail you can provide, the better. To get better results, you should add more information to the product description in the prompt, such as the production process, the process of your service, reasons for its popularity, etc. 

As with other ChatGPT prompts, letting it know your desired output is crucial.

Example prompt: Help me generate my business plan’s product and services section. My company is Reeracoen, which specializes in recruitment. I would like to include all relevant details, such as our recruitment services for companies and job seekers, our quality assurance methods, and why potential clients should choose our services. Ensure it covers all the information required in a product and services section. You may suggest or add any value-adding information when required.

Market Analysis

Next, you should thoroughly analyze the market, including its size, growth potential, and key trends. Identify your target customers and explain how you plan to reach them.

Moreover, do not forget to provide information about your competitors for ChatGPT. If you don’t know, ask ChatGPT! Yet, double-check the information because ChatGPT sometimes may cause hallucinations! 

ChatGPT cannot provide the up-to-date data required for good market research. A generic plan without facts and numbers is not very useful.

Now, ChatGPT only works well for creating written text and structuring the plan’s market study part. Thus, at this step, you will need to do some research on your own to supplement the paragraphs given by ChatGPT.

Example prompt: Act as an expert business plan writer and write the market analysis section of a business plan. It is a Recruitment Agency based in Vietnam, with job seekers and companies having recruitment demands as its target audience. Conduct market research and provide information about HR market size, growth potential, competition, and competitive analysis. Mention a few market trends and how my recruitment agency will handle them. 

Ensure it covers all the information required in a market analysis section.

Marketing and Sales Plans

Sales and marketing plans play a vital role in business plans. These strategies decide how your company will impress and reach its target audience.

In your ChatGPT prompt, be sure to request that your marketing and sales plan section include market positioning, USP (unique selling point), pricing strategy, and marketing and sales plan.

Example of prompts: Develop my business plan’s marketing and sales strategies section. My business is in the recruitment/HR industry, and we serve job seekers and companies with recruiting demands. You must describe advertising and promotional strategies and measure the success of my sales and marketing efforts.

Detailed Operations Plan

The operation part of your plan explains how your company operates and describes the process by which it will complete the goals and objectives set in the sales and marketing plans. 

A good operations plan should detail daily company activities, the person in charge of each task, the tools and equipment needed, inventories, costs, and other unique requirements.

Example prompt: Write an operations plan section of a business plan for Reeracoen, a recruitment agency that provides recruitment services. Include details such as 2 branches in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi city, equipment and technology, production and delivery, quality control, human resources, etc., depending on business operations. Ensure efficient and effective delivery of products/services to customers.

Staff and Management 

Team and management are also a crucial part of the plan. 

A good management team section adds authority to your business plan and gives investors and lenders confidence in your company’s concept and vision.

This part should cover the organization chart with departments, founders, important executives, senior management, compensation plans, and business advisors/consultants.

Example of prompts: Write a management plan section for my business plan, outlining the organizational structure, key department managers and their roles and responsibilities, compensation plan for the management team, and team of advisors/consultants. Provide detailed descriptions of each manager’s qualifications, education, professional background, and relevant industry experience. Highlight how the team’s skills and experience will contribute to the success of your business.

Financial Plan

A detailed financial plan is evidence of your company’s potential and expected profits that will create trust with investors and lenders.

Even if your company is not raising money, having a financial projection is still vital. This way, you can grasp how your firm operates financially and what it will take to succeed. 

Example of prompts: Act as an expert business plan writer with good skills in financial analysis, and write a detailed financial plan section for a recruitment agency’s business plan with an initial investment cost of 600,000 USD, outlining the projected revenue, operational costs, and net profit or loss. Include a profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, break-even analysis, and financing needs. Be specific about your short-term and long-term financing requirements and other financial projections to support your business’s success. 

Plan Summary

This summary shortens all key points of your entire business plan. It’s often the first section potential investors might read. 

After you’ve completed your plan, you may ask ChatGPT to summarize it. This way, the response will be better than letting ChatGPT write the summary before you’ve fleshed out the details.

Example of prompts: Please summarize our business plan based on previous conversations!

Best Practices To Improve Efficiency Of ChatGPT To Write A Business Plan

ChatGPT is unable to comprehend complex industry-specific nuances. While it can generate text based on patterns in its training data, it may struggle to provide accurate and tailored advice for specialized sectors or intricate scenarios. 

Additionally, ChatGPT cannot validate information sources or verify its output’s accuracy, leading to inaccurate data in business plans. Thus, remember to double-check to ensure the reliability and relevance of the generated content. 

Here are some general tips you might do:

• Precise inputs: Offer ChatGPT clear inputs to obtain more relevant outputs.
• Back-and-forth adjustment: Continuously interact with ChatGPT, adjusting your questions based on its responses to delve deeper into insights.
• Test with many prompts: Try out various prompts to investigate different perspectives and dimensions of your business plan.
• Validation: While ChatGPT aids in brainstorming, reviewing and validating the generated content is essential to guarantee accuracy and alignment with your business objectives.

ChatGPT is a robust right-hand, but human expertise still plays a crucial role in decision-making process…

Above are some tips and examples of prompts for ChatGPT to help you write a business plan better. ChatGPT can be a valuable tool in business planning if you properly prompt it. 

Ultimately, human oversight and expertise remain indispensable in ensuring the accuracy, relevance, and comprehensiveness of the business plan generated with ChatGPT’s assistance. 

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The Top 10 AI Business Plan Generators: A 2024 Guide

A Free Business Plan Template

Ajay Jagtap

• January 3, 2024

16 Min Read

Let’s face it, drafting a business plan has never been a stroll in the park. Thanks to AI business plan generators, the process has become much easier and faster.

But, with only a few worthwhile options available, it’s challenging to find the right business plan generator that suits your requirements.

Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s a list of the 10 best AI-based business plan generators to help you get started.

Sounds interesting? Let’s dive right in.

What is an AI Business Plan Generator?

AI business plan generator , in simple words, is software that uses AI algorithms to create a business plan based on user inputs.

Usually, these generators use natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to produce written content tailored to the specific needs of your business.

It’s a go-to solution for entrepreneurs and small business owners to build an investment-ready business plan without spending a fortune on expensive consultants.

Let’s take a closer look at these 10 AI-based business plan generators.

10 Best AI-based Business Plan Generators

1. upmetrics.

Upmetrics is the most efficient and reliable AI-powered business plan generator helping new-age entrepreneurs create comprehensive business plans with its advanced AI capabilities.

With Upmetrics AI Assistant , writing a business plan is now easier than ever.

It can help you generate text, rewrite content, shorten or expand on it, and it also allows you to change its tone.

The subscription includes 400+ fully customizable sample business plans , video tutorials, well-written documentation, and guides to ensure that you are on the right track.

So, how does this Upmetrics AI assistant work?

Well, it’s quite simple. Once you input text into a section of your plan using the Upmetrics business plan editor, you can choose the “Write with AI” option for AI assistance.

Or you can simply auto-write the entire text by promoting what you want to include in that section.

There’s a drop-down menu where you can choose from Auto Write, Auto Improve, shorten, expand, and Professional, persuasive, and academic tones to update your text.

Here is an extended list of features that Upmetrics AI assistant can provide:

•  AI-powered text generation to write your business plan.
• Content rewriting feature to polish or enhance content quality.
• Content shortening option to briefly describe the context.
• Expand upon your idea and introduce new concepts.
• AI-powered assistant to help adjust the tone of your writing.
• Accurate & reliable information depending on prompted information.
• Real-time updates and cloud storage, eliminating the risk of data loss.
• Intuitive, seamless, and responsive user interface.
• Check and correct grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
• Business resources, video tutorials, and guides to help get started.

Check out Upmetrics’ pricing plans:

Remember, only Upmetrics premium users can access the AI assistance feature. Refer to a  pricing page for more information.

The most helpful feature was to make a business plan out of a simple idea. Thankful for all the tools provided, especially AI which did a great impact on my work .

Create visually appealing business plans with our

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Plans starting from $7/month

2. Notion AI

As we all know, Notion is a productivity and note-taking app. It’s been around for a long time helping individuals and professionals create to-do lists, manage tasks & projects, and more.

Notion Labs Inc. has recently launched the all-new Notion AI which maximizes Notion’s existing capabilities with AI advancements.

Though it’s not a specifically developed AI business plan generator like Upmetrics, writing a business plan is one of many things you can do with Notion AI.

It can help you summarize text, offer key takeaways from your research, fix spelling & grammar, translate your text, edit tone & voice, and more.

Here’s a list of the pros and cons of Notion AI you should consider before purchasing.

• Smart suggestions: Notion AI can provide intelligent suggestions based on user behavior.
• Automation: It can help you automate various tasks reducing manual efforts.
• Time-saving: Notion AI can produce content more quickly compared to human writers.
• AI limitations: AI has its limitation, so it may not always provide accurate results.
• Learning curve: understanding the platform with AI can be a steep learning curve.
• Privacy concerns: Notion AI processes user data to personalize suggestions that may raise privacy concerns.

Check out the pricing plans for Notion AI. You may visit their pricing page for detailed information.

Copy AI is an AI-powered writing tool that uses NLP algorithms to turn your raw text into a persuasive copy. They cater to a wide range of users with 90+ tools and templates.

You can use Copy AI’s free business plan templates to write the initial draft of your business plan.

You may click here and log in to access the business plan template. Then, you’ll be prompted to fill out a few key details about your business.

This information may include details, such as business name, target market description, problems your business intends to solve, revenue model, etc.

Depending on your requirements, you may also select a friendly, persuasive, or professional tone for your content.

Pros and Cons

Here’s the list of pros and cons of using Copy AI you should consider before purchasing.

• Ease of use: It has a simple and easy-to-use user interface.
• Option to select specific tones: Users can select the specific tone for content. E.g., professional, friendly, etc.
• Supports AIDA framework: Follows AIDA framework to create content tailored to the target audience.
• Need lots of fact-checking: AI may sometimes produce incorrect information.
• Highly random information: It may sometimes provide random information.
• Generating long-form content can be frustrating: You may want to take one section at a time.

Copy AI has a free plan, but it only comes with 10 credits, so you will definitely need a subscription moving forward.

4. Beautiful AI

Beautiful AI is an AI-powered presentation software that helps individuals create exquisite business presentations in no time—with no design skills.

All you need to do is add text, and your content will transform into elegant presentation slides—no image resizing, no content placement, nothing. You may click here and log in to access the business plan template. Then, you’ll be prompted to fill out a few key details about your business. Here is why beautiful AI is a top pick for stunning presentations and business plans:

• 65+ smart slide templates with pre-designed slide galleries.
• Brand consistency with custom presentation themes.
• Hundreds of customizable starter templates.

The best part about Beautiful AI is you never need to start a presentation or business plan from scratch. Ask Designerbot about the type of presentation you need, and it will create a first draft.

Here’s the list of pros and cons of Beautiful AI you should consider before purchasing.

• Ease of use: Anyone with less or no design skills can create presentations using Beautiful AI.
• Hundreds of starter templates: The platform has 100+ starter templates to get started.
• AI-powered designs: Beautiful AI uses Artificial Intelligence to suggest layouts, fonts, and themes.
• Limited customization: AI-generated templates may not always suit your requirements.
• Limited functionality: AI can create professional-looking documents but may lack advanced animation.
• No free plan: Beautiful AI does not have a free plan, so you must pay for membership.

Beautiful AI doesn’t have a free plan, but a free trial is available. Check out its pricing plans.

5. Wordkraft AI

Wordkraft is an AI-powered writing tool that helps users create well-written and optimized content while saving time, money, and resources.

It uses GPT-3, one of the most sophisticated autoregressive language models available in the market, to generate AI content.

You can use Wordkraft’s free business plan template to create the first draft of your business plan.

Then, you’ll be prompted to fill out a few key details about your business. This information may include details, such as business name, goals, strategies, products and services you offer, financial projections, etc.

It also has a few advanced options that include—language, tone of voice, creativity level, and the number of variants needed.

• User-friendly Interface: Wordkraft has a user-friendly interface that is easy to use and navigate.
• Advanced options: It has advanced options to change language, tone of voice, and creativity.
• Time-saving: AI can produce content more quickly than human writers.
• Limited creativity: While Wordkraft AI can save time, it may not be as creative as humans.

Wordkraft AI has a free plan but comes with a 1,000-word limit, so you will definitely need a subscription moving forward.

You may visit Beautiful AI’s pricing page for detailed information.

A Bit AI is a cloud-document collaboration document and management platform that helps users create, share, and track digital documents.

The AI-powered tool allows users to add images text videos, cloud, and music files to their documents.

You can use Bit AI’s free business plan template to get started. Key benefits of using Bit AI to create a business plan:

Furthermore, you can embed Bit documents onto any website; you can interact with these documents and see them in their entirety.

Here’s the list of pros and cons of Bit AI you should consider before purchasing.

• Collaboration: You can collaborate with your team to work on your business plan.
• Pre-designed templates: a range of pre-designed templates to help you get started.
• Automation: Bit automatically automates redundant and repetitive tasks.
• Limited customization: Customization in pre-designed templates is limited.
• No writing assistance: While Bit can provide templates for your business plan, it doesn’t provide any writing assistance.
• No offline access: Bit AI is a cloud-based platform, so you must have a reliable internet connection to access documents.

Check out the pricing plans for Bit AI. You may visit their pricing page for detailed information.

7. Simplified

Simplified is an AI platform that uses artificial intelligence to help users generate and publish content quickly.

It’s not primarily an AI business plan generator, but it provides AI business plan templates that can be used to draft a business plan.

Besides business plan writing assistance, Simplified specializes in generating instant copies, creating long-form content, and developing visually appealing images and videos.

Here’s the list of pros and cons of Simplified you should consider before purchasing.

• Accessibility: the tool is easily accessible even for non-technical users.
• Recommendations: Simplified offers some intelligent suggestions based on the information provided.
• Time and cost efficiency: It can help you save both time and money when writing a business plan.
• Lack of customization: This tool can be valuable for beginners but not for detailed business planning.
• Data dependence: The results heavily rely on the data. A lack of data may result in low-quality responses.
• Limited understanding: the tool may lack industry dynamics and market nuances.

Check out the pricing plans for Simplified AI. You may visit their pricing page for detailed information.

8. Writecream (ChatGenie)

Like Wordkraft and Copy AI, Writecream is an AI-powered writing assistant that uses NLP algorithms to generate text-based responses to your query.

You can use Writecream’s free business plan generator to write the initial draft of your business plan. You may log in and select ChatGenie from the dashboard to kickstart the writing process.

Apart from business plan writing, you can use ChatGenie to generate textual content like cold emails, long-form blog posts, marketing copies, and digital ads.

Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of using Writecream for business plan writing.

• Collaboration: Team members and advisors can collaborate in real time with Writecream.
• Cost-effective: Writing a business plan with Writecream is less expensive than hiring consultants.
• Not for detailed business planning: this isn’t suitable for detailed business planning with long-term financial forecasting.

Check out the pricing plans for Writecream. You may visit their pricing page for detailed information.

9. Cookup AI

Cookup AI is an ongoing database of AI tools where people can create and submit ChatGPT prompts for others to use. The platform has many AI tools for various tasks including SEO, programming, social media marketing, blogging, business planning, and more.

While it can help you create a decent business plan, you must provide a detailed description of your business and other pertinent information.

Remember, just like ChatGPT, this tool will only help you write a business plan. You will still need a business plan software or designing tool to structure this information and create a business plan.

While CookUp is 100% free to use, it may not be an ideal choice for detailed business planning & financial forecasting.

Here’s a list of the pros and cons of Cookup AI you should consider before purchasing.

• Accessibility: Easily accessible tool, even for non-technical users.
• Free to use: Cookup AI is a 100% free-to-use AI tool.
• Limited information: CookUp AI’s response to queries is relatively limited compared to tools like Upmetrics.
• Limited customizations: This tool may not be an ideal option for comprehensive business planning.

10. ChatGPT—A Free Alternative

ChatGPT  is the most efficient and reliable yet free AI chatbot online. It is an AI language model trained by OpenAI, using deep learning algorithms to generate human-like responses to text-based prompts.

Technically, ChatGPT is not a business plan generator, nor does it offer any business plan templates.

Still, it’s on the list because writing a business plan is one of many things; you can do using ChatGPT—that too for free.

We have created a detailed guide on using ChatGPT to write a business plan to help you get started.

While ChatGPT is entirely free to use, there is a $20 monthly fee for ChatGPT Plus.

You don’t have to go for a paid version; ChatGPT is just fine for you to get started. We have created a detailed guide on using ChatGPT to write a business plan to help you get started.

Learn more Use ChatGPT to write your business plan

Here’s the list of pros and cons of ChatGPT you should consider before purchasing.

• Cost-effective solution: Writing a business plan with ChatGPT is more cost-effective than hiring expensive consultants.
• Efficiency: ChatGPT can efficiently organize data, generate financial plans, develop marketing strategies, and more.
• Limited context: It may have limited context about your business. You can train the model before prompting it to write.
• Lack of empathy: An AI language model may lack emotional intelligence and compassion.

That’s it. That was the list of the 10 best AI business plan generators. Let’s discuss how to take the final call—choose a business plan generator.

How to Choose an AI Business Plan Generator Software?

Still, trying to figure out how to choose an AI business plan generator? You should consider a few crucial factors before making the final call.

• Features: Understand your required features in an AI business plan generator. E.g., writing assistance, visual templates, etc. For instance, Copy.AI, Wordkraft, and ChatGPT may help you write content for your business plan, but they won’t offer the visual templates that BIT AI and Beautiful AI can.
• Pricing: Look for AI-based business plan generators that offer the features you require at affordable prices.
• Ease of use: Choose a tool that is easy to use and navigate for someone with basic knowledge of writing and editing.
• Reviews and testimonials: Check review websites like Capterra and Trustpilot for reviews and testimonials about such tools.

That’s it for today. Keep these factors checked before choosing an AI business plan generator, and you will be alright.

In a nutshell, these AI-based business plan generators can create a foolproof business plan in a few hours that used to take days—maybe even weeks.

AI has its limitations, so make sure you don’t rely heavily on it. Therefore, combining AI and human expertise in a holistic approach to planning would be a smart move.

Pick one of these tools, create a business plan, and take your business to new heights.

Build your Business Plan Faster

with step-by-step Guidance & AI Assistance.

Related Articles On Business Plan Writing

• Using ChatGPT for Business Plan Creation
• Overview of Different Types of Business Plans
• Estimating the Cost of Your Business Plan
• Books to Guide You in Writing a Business Plan
• Step-by-step Guide on Writing a Business Plan
• Constructing a Management Section in Your Business Plan
• Effective Ways to Conduct Market Analysis
• Detailing Your Products and Services in Your Business Plan
• Crafting a Thorough Business Plan Outline
• Designing an Appealing Business Plan Cover Page
• Including a Confidentiality Statement in Your Business Plan
• Free Startup Business Plan Template

Frequently Asked Questions

Which ai can write a business plan.

There are only a few certain AI writing tools that can help you write a business plan. Here are some of the most trusted AI business plan writing assistants.

• Wordkraft AI

What are the benefits of using AI-based business plan generators?

The benefits of using AI-based business plan generators are enormous. The following are just a few of the major ones.

• Time saver: Using AI business plan generators, you can write a business plan in minutes, which would normally take a human several hours or days.
• Cost-effective: Hiring an expert business plan writer or consultant can be expensive. AI business plan writing tools are the most cost-effective alternative for small business owners.
• Access to Data: AI tools like ChatGPT can access various data sources, so conducting market research or finding valuable industry insights is way easier with Artificial Intelligence.

Some of the other benefits of using AI-based business plan generators may include increased efficiency, customization, and user friendliness.

How do AI business plan generators work?

AI Business plan generators usually use natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to generate text-based responses to prompts or instructions. Some of the most popular AI writing tools, such as Copy AI, Wordkraft AI, and Writesonic, use the GPT-3 module for AI writing.

Are there any free AI-based business plan generators available?

AI-based business plan generator tools like Copy AI and Wordkraft AI have free plans but with limited functionalities. If using these tools, you will definitely need a subscription moving forward.

However, you can use ChatGPT; it is free and the most reliable AI language model to help you write a business plan.

Can the AI business plan generator provide guidance on market research?

Yes, AI business plan generators like Upmetrics will soon be able to guide your market research to help you create a comprehensive and well-organized market research section.

Upmetrics is developing an AI business planning chatbot; you can ask it for feedback, suggestions, or guidance about your plan. Learn more about Upmetrics AI Assistant .

Is technical knowledge required to use an AI business plan generator?

No. If you are using an AI tool like Upmetrics, you don’t need any technical knowledge to be able to efficiently use the tool and create a detailed plan.

About the Author

Ajay is a SaaS writer and personal finance blogger who has been active in the space for over three years, writing about startups, business planning, budgeting, credit cards, and other topics related to personal finance. If not writing, he’s probably having a power nap. Read more

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Everything You Need to Know About Chatbots for Business

Your guide to why you should use chatbots for business and how to do it effectively. Learn the do’s and don’ts of chatbots through examples.

Imagine having an employee on your team who is available 24/7, never complains, and will do all the repetitive customer service tasks that your other team members hate.

Bonus: They cost a fraction of your average employee’s salary.

This unicorn of a worker exists, just not in the traditional human sense. Chatbots are many businesses’ next competitive edge. The multiple benefits of chatbots give them a ton of bang for their buck.

We’ll explain everything you need to know about chatbots for business, from what they are to how they can help your bottom line. Plus, we’ll give you tips on the dos and don’ts of common business best practices with chatbots and a few recommendations of which chatbots to use.

Table of Contents

Bonus: Learn how to sell more products on social media with our free Social Commerce 101 guide . Delight your customers and improve conversion rates.

What is a chatbot?

Chatbots are computer programs designed to learn and mimic human conversation using artificial intelligence (AI) called conversational AI . There are a few best practices that feed into conversational AI .

Businesses commonly use chatbots to help customers with customer service, inquiries, and sales. But that’s just scratching the surface of how you can use chatbots for business.

Chatbots can be programmed to respond to certain keywords in a specific way. Or, you can use machine learning to train your chatbots to respond organically.

Chatbots can help your business:

• Automate customer service
• Execute tasks

With chatbots worked into your overall digital strategy, you’ll be alleviating frustrating manual tasks from your team’s day-to-day. And you’ll be saving on labor costs in the long run.

How do chatbots work?

Chatbots work by responding to your questions, comments, and queries either in a chat interface or through voice technology. They use AI, automated rules, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML).

For those who are unsure of the above terms but curious:

• Automated rules are like directions or instructions for your chatbot
• Natural language processing combines linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence. NLP is how computers can process and analyze human language.
• Machine learning is a kind of AI that allows software applications to accurately predict outcomes on their own. ML relies on historical data to help with its predictions. Basically, it uses any and all information available to make guesses about what it should do next.

“Chatbot” is a fairly large umbrella term. The truth is, chatbots come in many shapes and sizes. But, we can give you the broad strokes.

Types of chatbots

There are two main camps for chatbots: Smart and simple.

• Smart chatbots are AI-driven
• Simple chatbots are rule-based

And, because nothing can ever be that straightforward, you can have hybrid models. These are a mix of both simple and smart.

Essentially, simple chatbots use rules to determine how to respond to requests. These are also called decision-tree bots.

Simple chatbots work like a flowchart. If someone asks them X, they respond with Y.

You’ll program these bots in the beginning to do your bidding. Then, so long as customers are clear and straightforward in their questions, they’ll get to where they need to go. These bots do not like to be surprised.

Smart chatbots, however, use machine learning to understand the context and intent behind questions or queries. These bots generate answers using natural language processing. Natural language processing isn’t a new phenomenon; it’s been around for over 50 years. But, much like AI, it’s only now being realized as a powerful tool in business.

And the best part of smart chatbots is the more you use and train them, the better they become. Conversational AI is incredible for business but terrifying as the plot of a sci-fi story.

Not only can businesses benefit from using a conversational commerce tool for customer inquiries and FAQs, but they’re also now being used for customer support and social commerce on social media platforms.

8 reasons why you should use chatbots for business

There are so many benefits for chatbots in business. But, everyone’s favorite tends to be the cold hard cash you’ll save. That and not having to respond to the same message over and over and over again.

Here are eight reasons why you should work chatbots into your digital strategy.

Improve response time for customer service queries

Slow, unreliable customer service is a profit-killer. One of the best ways to improve sales is to improve your response time. In our current age of instant communication, people expect faster response times.

By using chatbots to automate responses, you can help your customers feel seen, even if it’s just to say you’ll match them up with a representative as soon as possible. People who feel heard and respected are much more inclined to buy from your brand.

Automate sales

Chatbots can automate sales tasks for you. They can help lead your customers through the sales funnel, even processing payments.

Chatbots can also qualify leads for your agents. They’ll take them through an automated process, eventually pulling out quality prospects for your agents to nurture. Your sales team can then turn those prospects into lifelong customers.

By relieving your team from answering frequently asked questions, chatbots free up your team to concentrate on more complex tasks. FAQ chatbots can improve office productivity, save on labor costs, and ultimately increase your sales.

Automate customer service tasks

You can outsource simple customer service tasks to your chatbot. Use them for things like comparing two of your products or services, suggesting alternate products for customers to try, or helping with returns.

24/7 support

One of the most significant advantages that chatbots have is their always-on capabilities. Having 24/7 support in place means your employees can take valued time off, and your customers can have their questions answered during holidays and after-hours. <h3Avoid human error

Chatbots won’t be short or sarcastic with your customers — unless you program them to be that way. They have endless patience for questions they’ve already answered a million times. You can trust chatbots not to make the same mistakes humans might.

Save on time and labor

With chatbots, you’re buying a computer program, not paying someone’s salary. You’ll be saving from paying a human being to do the same work. And this way, the human beings on your team are free to do more complex and engaging work.

Multi-language support

If they’re programmed to be multilingual (and many are), then chatbots can speak to your audience in their own language. This will increase your customer base and make it easier for folks to interact with your brand.

The dos and don’ts of using chatbots for business

Chatbots are a great resource, but they shouldn’t be your one and only tool. Make sure you’re not relying on them for more than you should be. And that you are using them correctly to maximize your investment.

There are a few basic do’s and don’ts to follow to get the most out of your chatbot.

DO let human agents handle complicated inquiries

There are some things that need to be handled by a human being. Complicated inquiries or ones full of emotion are among those. Program your bot to hand queries they can’t answer off to someone on your team.

The last thing your customers want is a ton of marketing junk about how great your brand is. It’s a fast way to get someone to bounce off your page and never return.

Don’t use chatbots for evil. Don’t spam.

DO give your chatbot some flair

Chatbots with personalities make it easier for folks to relate to them. When you create your bot, give it a name, a distinct voice, and an avatar.

Source: Reddit

DON’T give your chatbot too much flair

Don’t let your little robot go hog wild. When you overshoot the mark, you might make it difficult for folks to engage with your bot. There’s nothing worse than trying to return a pair of shoes and being met with 100 dad jokes instead. Give them a personality, but don’t sacrifice function for flair.

DO let your customers know what your chatbot can do

Have your chatbot introduce itself and its capabilities to your customers. This way, they’ll be able to get the most out of your bot. This can be as simple as, “Hi, I’m Bot Name, and I can help you with purchases, returns, and frequently asked questions. What’s on your mind today?”

DON’T try to pass your chatbot off as human

People know. Believe us, no matter how well you think you’ve designed your bot, people know it’s not a human they’re talking to. Just be honest. These days people are receptive to using chatbots for customer service inquiries. The goal isn’t to recreate the human experience but to augment it.

DO make it easy to understand

Your chatbot isn’t the next great American novel. Use simple language and write in concise sentences. Keep it short.

DON’T send big blocks of text

You might have a lot of information to get across, but please, don’t send it all at once. Big blocks of text are hard for people to read. Program your chatbot to send pieces of text one at a time so you don’t overwhelm your readers.

DO expect the unexpected

If you prime your chatbot with the tools to use when it’s faced with unforeseen situations, you’ll set yourself, and your customers, up for success. Give it a way to apologize in a friendly manner when faced with data it’s not sure what to do with.

For example, your chatbot can say, “Sorry! Despite my good looks and charming attitude, I am still a robot and am not sure how to handle this request. Let me send you over to my BFF and deskmate Brad, he’ll be able to help you.”

DON’T disregard buttons

Buttons are a great way to list out your bots’ capabilities or frequently asked questions. People love having readily-made options. Just don’t make them too limiting or ignore text altogether.

Examples of chatbots

So, now you know why and how to use chatbots for your business. The next step is to give yourself a visual of how a chatbot would work for your business.

Here are a couple of examples of chatbots in action.

Make Up For Ever: Sales automation

In the past, shoppers would have to search through an online store’s catalog to find the product they were looking for.

Now, shoppers can simply type in a query, and a chatbot will instantly recommend products that match their search. This not only saves time but also ensures that shoppers are always able to find the products they’re looking for.

Chatbots are quickly becoming the new search bar for eCommerce stores — and as a result, boosting and automating sales.

Source: Heyday

HelloFresh: Social selling feature

HelloFresh’s bot is more than just a means of answering questions. It also has a built-in social selling component that offers discounts to users who ask about them.

The bot is named Brie to keep in line with HelloFresh’s casual brand voice. It automatically redirects you to the Hero Discount Program page when you ask for a discount. This has the added benefit of improving the user experience with the bot. People love it when you make it easy to save money!

Source: HelloFresh

SnapTravel: Messaging-only pricing

Here’s an example of how SnapTravel is using a messenger bot as the basis of its eCommerce model. It has people engage in a conversation with the bot via Facebook Messenger or SMS in order to access exclusive travel deals.

Source: SnapTravel

TheCultt: Raising conversions and automating FAQs

Automating common customer requests can have a big impact on your business’s bottom line. TheCultt used a ChatFuel bot to provide instant and always-on support for pesky FAQs about price, availability, and goods condition.

In three months, TheCultt decreased response time by 2 hours, raised customers’ loyalty, and reassured them they weren’t being ignored.

Owner and operator Yana Kurapova said the chatbot “helps our customers to know that we’re having a day-off, not ignoring them. It increases our customers’ loyalty and is seen in sellers’ and customers’ feedback.”

Wealthsimple: Conversational AI

This example shows the chatbot leveraging information from Wealthsimple’s databases alongside its Natural Language Understanding capabilities. This way, it provides customized responses to Wealthsimple’s customers’ questions.

Plus, the chatbot detects customer intent, so it’s sure to have a response for whatever people throw at it.

Source: Wealthsimple

Heyday: Multilingual bots

This bot picks up French immediately so the customer can have a conversation in their preferred language. This can help you to increase your customer base by catering to folks who speak a different language from your team.

The 5 best chatbots in 2022

In the past few years, we’ve seen many unprecedented things — notably, eCommerce growth. And, with eCommerce growth comes chatbot growth. They’re two parts of the digital marketing ecosystem that have thrived during stay-home orders and lockdowns.

You can find chatbots specific to the platform your audience prefers or multi-channel bots that will speak across platforms from one central hub. With so many to choose from, it can be overwhelming to even start. But don’t worry — we’ve compiled a list of chatbot examples to help you get started.

Out of all the simultaneous chaos and boredom of the past few years, chatbots have come out on top. Here are five of the best of the best chatbots in 2022.

Heyday’s dual retail and customer-service focus is massively beneficial for businesses. The app combines conversational AI with your team’s human touch for a truly sophisticated experience.

Heyday easily integrates with all of your apps — from Salesforce to Instagram and Facebook Messenger. If you’re looking for multi-channel messaging, this app is for you.

Have customers from around the globe? Heyday’s chatbot is bilingual. The beauty of using Heyday is that your customers can interact with your chatbot in either English or French.

Get a free Heyday demo

2. Chatfuel

Chatfuel has a visual interface that’s aesthetically pleasing AND useful, unlike your ex. The front-end has customizable components so you can mold it to better serve your customers.

You can build free Facebook Messenger chatbots with Chatfuel. However, some of the swanky tools are only available on a pro account.

Source: Chatfuel

Head here for more on how to improve your social commerce .

Gorgias works well as a Shopify chatbot for stores that receive complex feedback or need a more in-depth customer support model. It employs a help desk model so your organization can stay on top of multiple support requests, tickets, feedback from customers, and live chat.

Gorgias is pretty focused on eCommerce clientele — if your organization isn’t fully eCommerce, it might be best to look elsewhere. Also, if you need robust reporting capabilities, this chatbot isn’t for you.

Source: Gorgias on Shopify

When it comes to Shopify apps, Gobot stands out from the crowd with its templated quizzes.

An AI-powered chatbot, Gobot makes recommendations based on what customers like or need, thanks to natural language processing. The prebuilt templates and questions in their shopping quiz make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.

If you’re not very tech-savvy, however, this app can pose challenges. The support team isn’t readily available to help with setup — some users have reported frustration here.

Source: Gobot

5. Intercom

Intercom has 32 language capabilities. If you’re a global company with consumers from all over the world, this may be the chatbot for you. You can easily customize your bot and automate answers for 24/7 global support, letting your team have the downtime they need.

That being said, the app does have a few pain points where user-experience is concerned.

Intercom also works with startups. So if your business is just getting off the ground, you may want to inquire about their startup pricing models.

Source: Intercom

Engage with shoppers on social media and turn customer conversations into sales with Heyday, our dedicated conversational AI chatbot for social commerce retailers. Deliver 5-star customer experiences — at scale.

Turn customer service conversations into sales with Heyday . Improve response times and sell more products. See it in action.

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Colleen Christison is a freelance copywriter, copy editor, and brand communications specialist. She spent the first six years of her career in award-winning agencies like Major Tom, writing for social media and websites and developing branding campaigns. Following her agency career, Colleen built her own writing practice, working with brands like Mission Hill Winery, The Prevail Project, and AntiSocial Media.

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Business tips

How to create a chatbot that works for you and your customers

The silver lining? The product team ended up with empty calendars, which meant we had time to deal with long-pending feature requests. 

Customers had long been pointing out inefficiencies within our customer service, and our understaffed team had forever been in love with quick Band-aid solutions. Although we'd previously categorized chatbots a low-priority initiative, it seemed like the right time to give it a try.

Here, I'll walk you through our not-so-smooth journey with chatbots.

Shiny toy syndrome—do you actually need a chatbot?

Developing a chatbot seemed like a good experiment, but not everybody was happy. The customer service executives feared losing their jobs. The CEO still believed it would be an expensive bet and tagged it as a "shiny toy" we didn't need. I believed in the idea and decided to go for it.

Why? Our customer service team is based in India, and almost 20% of the queries were from international customers. If you respond to a customer 12 hours later, it's likely they'll have already shopped elsewhere. Bots sit there patiently, waiting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and beat humans in response time, hands down. 

So we got to work.

Designing a chatbot—how we failed miserably

A zebra can walk within minutes of being born. And their walking skills improve at an impressive pace: within a few days, they gain complete control over their motor skills. Then they stay with their mother for a few days to work out any being-alive issues. Bear with me, and think of a chatbot as a baby zebra—ready to hit the ground running post-development but needs some tweaks and training to be successful. 

We learned that a chatbot is best suited for repetitive queries. Developing a chatbot capable of handling complex individual cases can burn a hole in your pocket. So here's what we did:

We limited the bot's scope by going through previous chat logs to bucket queries into groups. 

Then we drew a comparison matrix in terms of frequency/impact generated to decide which queries should be addressed.

The scriptwriter sat down with the customer service team for role-play sessions.

We created a set of few predefined queries and their responses. We started with the most common user intents and used fuzzy keyword matching (like how when you search with a typo, Google autocorrects). 

We released it for beta testing.

Initial results seemed to show an improved first-contact resolution rate (meaning we solved their problem the first time they contacted us). But when we looked closer, we saw that it was a disaster. The chatbot's scope was minimal, and it could not understand complex queries—which meant over 90% ended up in fallback (failure) mode. 

The chat experience remained broken. Customers soon got annoyed and reported it as spam, and our conversion rates dropped. In addition to not having the answers, our bot lacked empathy and responded in a bland and, well, robotic manner. We'd built a different kind of AI: more artificial and less intelligent. 

It was starting to feel like maybe this wasn't something we should have pursued, but we decided to keep at it. The easiest-to-use technologies are the toughest to develop, and patience is a virtue.

Let's delve deeper into where the bot failed: handling complex cases. Our first response was to monitor the causes of failure and add conversation flows on the go. See where it was failing, implement a solution, repeat.

And with each failure and quick fix, our zebra was learning to run.

We also made sure that every time the bot failed, the system automatically assigned an available human representative for a follow-up. Bots and humans worked in tandem, and customer satisfaction increased.

To further improve the bot, we reached out to long-time loyal customers and asked about their pain points. We should have done this much earlier—but mistakes are a fantastic learning tool, aren't they? We discovered that users didn't quite understand the bot's capabilities and ended up reaching out to phone support for trivial things like tracking an order status or filing a product return request. 

So we created an introductory how-to demonstration video sharing the bot's capabilities and broadcasted it to all the registered users through WhatsApp and an email campaign. And voilà! Chatbot usage increased.

But it was still far from the intended goal of resolving over 70% of the queries through the bot. 

Winning on WhatsApp

During this process, we'd introduced the ability to order directly on WhatsApp (where our chatbot lives)—and it was a hit. Most of our customers were middle-aged women, who had been shopping offline all their lives. The pandemic forced them to explore online options, but they weren't super comfortable with it. But close to 15% of users that reached out on WhatsApp ended up buying—far higher than the 2% who would do so directly on the website. 

There was one problem we had to solve for. We sell across multiple channels (social, mobile apps, website), and syncing inventory in real time is a major concern. For instance, say a customer places a WhatsApp order, and another customer orders the same product simultaneously through the website. What do we do if we only have a single item available? 

Spicing it up

Finally, our baby zebra was independent. Customers started rating bot interactions on par with human agents, and we managed successful resolution for over 60% of queries. That sense of satisfaction was exhilarating. 

But the journey wasn't over yet; it never will be. We continue to improve the bot almost every day.

For example, one fine day, the customer executive team was tasked with brainstorming creative ideas to improve the user experience. Multiple ideas poured in. Some of them were outright nos (we wouldn't be including inspirational quotes with our messages, sorry). But a common suggestion was making the bot friendlier—even funny—to compensate for the missing human touch.

After tweaking the language to get this result, a bot drove an already dissatisfied customer up a wall because they felt the agent wasn't taking them seriously. So we integrated a sentiment analysis module to analyze chat messages—we want that humor button turned off if the sentiment is overly negative. All in all, customers loved the new voice over the earlier bland responses.

The takeaways

Chatbots are not the panacea—you still need a qualified customer support team. But chatbots can help that team not have to respond to repetitive queries or simple questions, so they can spend their time on the more complex or emotional inquiries.

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Akram Tariq Khan

Akram Tariq Khan is co-founder of YourLibaas, an online designer apparel store based in the UAE. Akram has an MBA in Human Resource Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He recently developed Bhag Corona (an online game) as a hobby project.

• Customer support
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A Roadmap For Building A Business Chatbot

• 16 min read
• Design , Business , Communication
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About The Author

Devansh Bansal is the VP of the Emerging Tech Business Unit at Damco Solutions . He takes a keen interest in all things business, technology, and digital … More about Devansh ↬

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The widespread adoption of chatbots was imminent with the stellar rise and consolidation of instant messaging. However, the accelerated pace at which chatbots have evolved from accepting scripted responses to holding natural-sounding conversations has been unprecedented. According to Google Trends , the interest in AI Chatbots has increased ten-fold over the last five years!

With chatbots getting smarter, value-driven, and user-friendly, it has fueled customer-led demand for chatbot-driven interaction at every touchpoint. As a result, businesses are scrambling to keep up with this requirement and investing aggressively in chatbot development; so much so that the market for chatbots is expected to reach a valuation of USD 10.2.29 in 2026 with an impressive CAGR of 34.75%.

On that note, it makes absolute sense to hop aboard this chatbot train. In fact, it is believed that about 80% of CEOs plan on revamping customer engagement with conversational chatbots. So, if you are looking for a way to get started, here is a step-by-step guide for chatbot creation!

What Is A Chatbot? And Why Does It Matter?

In its simplest sense, a “chatbot” is a portmanteau of human “chatter” as conducted by a “bot.” It is a software application or computer program that can simulate human conversations through speech or text.

Such a service can rake in the following advantages:

• Unlike the unidirectional view of chatbots as customer service agents, they are highly versatile . Regardless of the industry, businesses can leverage chatbots for sales and marketing activities, HR and personnel management, IT service helpdesk, knowledge management, and more!
• Chatbots can help with collecting and qualifying leads, booking product demos, and engaging audiences which can increase sales by a whopping 67% !
• Almost 88% of consumers reported a positive or neutral experience with a chatbot, thereby paving the way for customer satisfaction and retention .
• 69% of consumers attempt to resolve any issue by themselves, but only a third of companies offer this facility. Chatbot fills this gap by offering self-servicing options 24 ⁄ 7 and without depending on human resources!
• About 67% of buyers expect an immediate response to their marketing, sales, or customer service inquiry — “immediate” being 10 minutes or less. With chatbots in the picture, businesses can set up live communication channels and cater to this need nearly 3x faster!
• Apart from lending scalability to business operations, it can reduce costs by 30% . The banking, retail, and healthcare industries are expected to save 2.5 billion hours and USD 11 billion through the implementation of chatbots by 2023.
• They will not only keep businesses relevant with the current times but also future-proof them by laying the foundation for conversational marketing, automation, and so on.
• Speaking of automation , chatbots can singularly handle 68.9% of end-to-end customer interactions and 80% of standard, repetitive tasks, thereby reducing the personnel load by 65%. More importantly, they can deliver these results without any errors or bias.
• In addition to increasing customer satisfaction levels through maximum engagement, omnichannel chatbots can reduce churn by plugging in leakage in a multi-touchpoint environment.
• The personification of chatbots can humanize brands and help them foster emotional and meaningful customer relationships .

Given the whole suite of advantages listed above, the role of chatbots boils down to empowering businesses by making them human, accessible, responsive, and reliable. For some businesses, it can also function as a competitive differentiator that sets them apart from others. And as a culmination of these qualities, your organization can achieve the highest level of customer approval and satisfaction. Who doesn’t want that?

Roadmap For Building A Business Chatbot

Now that we’ve established that a chatbot can be a valuable addition to your business allow us to lead the way. We have formulated a detailed step-by-step guide on how to build a business chatbot — from identifying when it is the right fit, understanding the different types of chatbots, and defining goals, to launching and improving the chatbot. The following is your almanac to building a business chatbot:

Identifying Whether A Chatbot Is A Right Fit

While chatbots offer a plethora of advantages, it is not advisable for all businesses to hop on this trend. After all, the process of building a business chatbot from scratch is not easy on the pocket. Plus, it is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process.

Therefore, it would be wise for business leaders and C-suite executives to involve the crucial stakeholders and ask probing questions, such as those illustrated below, to audit the business processes and identify the need for a chatbot as a solution:

• Is the workforce heavily engaged in routine, repetitive tasks?
• Do customers often consult on similar topics?
• Is the business looking to reduce the customer service load and corresponding costs?
• Is the business a multilingual customer base spread across time zones?
• Does the business want to streamline sales and marketing activities?
• Is the business anticipating peak internal and/or external interactions during specific seasons?
• Is the business looking for ways to delight customers and stand out from the competitors?

If the answer is a resounding yes to the above questions, then it is time to give it serious thought. Apart from the intangible and non-monetary benefits, a cost-to-benefit analysis and Return on Investment (ROI) calculation can be performed to justify the impending financial implications.

Understanding The Different Types Of Chatbots

As cliche as it may sound, not all chatbots are created alike. Depending on various factors (some of which we discussed in the previous section), businesses can settle for something as simple as a menus-based chatbot. Alternatively, businesses with resources and bandwidth could create something as elaborate as a conversational chatbot with sentiment analysis and Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities. Frankly, that’s your decision to make. However, to help you in this direction here’s a quick overview of some of the commonly available options:

• Menu-Based Chatbots Being one of the simplest forms of chatbots, these are essentially decision tree hierarchies presented in a chatbot form. Users can select the appropriate options that will eventually lead to the answer. They are often employed to answer FAQs.
• Rule-Based or Linguistic Chatbots These chatbots construct conversational flows along the if-then-else logic. Developers often embed business rules in the form of algorithms, and accordingly, the chatbots will navigate the conversation. However, do bear in mind that the research stage of this chatbot development would have to be exhaustive as one has to account for every permutation and combination of questions that may be asked.
• Keyword Recognition-Based Chatbots Unlike menu-based chatbots that participate passively, keyword recognition-based chatbots seek customized trigger words to respond appropriately. These chatbots often employ NLP, a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to hybridize menu-based chatbots with keyword recognition.
• Contextual Chatbots These chatbots are a powerhouse of possibilities. They combine a blend of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to understand context, learn from previous iterations, and improve with use and time. They also retain user preferences to make the experience more personalized and customer-centric.
• Hybrid Chatbots Hybrid chatbots feature cherry-picked models, architectures, and frameworks from any or some of the chatbot types discussed above, to cater to specific business requirements.
• Voice Bots As smart speakers gain more traction amongst end-users and digital assistants like Siri and Alexa become more popular, businesses are harnessing their capabilities to dive into voice bot development. The vernacular approach is found to be more in demand, as evident by a PwC survey that highlighted how 71% of consumers prefer voice searches over typing.

Knowing these basics will help one understand what is right for the business. Once that is out of the way, you can define the chatbot goals, as discussed in the subsequent section. (Or the following sections may shed light on how to make this decision. It works both ways!)

Defining The Chatbot Goals

Chatbots are as versatile as they are diverse. One could use them in lead generation activities, closing deals, upselling or cross-selling during sales, offering technical support, and more! As such, businesses must define their goal right at conception to stay focused on the outcomes.

To understand the primary objective of the chatbot, ask the beneficiary team or department the following questions:

• What problem will the chatbot solve?
• How will the chatbot solve the problem?

Outline the answer according to the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) format, and one can stay laser-focused on the results and workflows during development. As an illustration, say that one wants to develop a chatbot to help with customer service requests. The SMART goal in this regard could be that the chatbot will automate 30% of customer queries regarding product details and specifications within the first three months of implementation.

Upon defining the roles and responsibilities of the chatbot, you can then move on to fleshing out additional details using the following steps.

Selecting The Chatbot Channels And Languages

Once the basics of the chatbot are outlined t, it is time to make a few strategic decisions, namely the channel and the language. Though chatbots are commonly found on websites and landing pages, they can also be implemented across instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Messenger. As such, businesses must identify the viable channels they wish to target.

One will have to gather user data to make a well-rounded decision in this regard. For instance, determine the following:

• What channels do the employees or customers prefer while availing of chatbot services?
• How do the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) , such as response rates, Net Promoter Score (NPS) , and so on, reflect across these environments?

Based on these findings, shortlist about three to five media for a truly multichannel experience. Follow a similar approach while deciding on the language support offered by the chatbot. After determining the channels and languages, you can move on to assimilating such a solution within your business infrastructure.

Addressing The Integrations

Chatbots do not operate in a vacuum; they have to function in harmony with other tools and systems employed by your business. Making such provisions right at the design and development stage will lend immense flexibility and scalability to the chatbot and make it future-proof to some degree. Given this fact, one will have to work out integrations between the chatbot environment and disparate systems, such as the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, calendar, cloud storage, maps, payment systems, and more. Again, one will have to take a call on the impact and importance of certain integrations and prioritize them over the others.

Hiring Talent

Businesses taking on the mammoth task of in-house chatbot development will have to put together a robust team that can lead the mission to success. Start by treating the process as any other digital transformation project. Prepare a requirement report containing all the features, specifications, and outcomes expected from the chatbot; one may have already done that by following the preceding steps.

After completing the homework, one will need to add the following members to the chatbot development team:

• Project Manager : to oversee the chatbot development process, manage resources, budget, and timelines, and handle risks.
• Flow Designer : to orchestrate the chatbot conversation flow.
• User Researcher : to understand the needs and preferences of the target audience.
• Copywriter : to work with the flow designer and create responses that are appropriate, branded, and consistent.
• Developer : to carry out all the under-the-hood chatbot building by creating databases, building APIs, establishing protocols, and so on.
• AI/ML trainer : to teach the AI/ML engine to understand user inputs better and make smarter decisions.
• Data analyst : to extract meaningful, data-driven insights, whether related to chatbot performance or user.

Put together your A-team by handpicking experts from various fields, or we have another shortcut approach that you can try — outsourcing!

Outsourcing Chatbot Development

Building a chatbot development team and maintaining them can be costly, especially when complexities get involved. Not to mention, it is also a hassle to recruit and retain talent, sustain engagement and productivity, and keep everyone motivated towards the goal. In this scenario, outsourcing appears to be a viable alternative.

That being said, choosing the right chatbot development agency is key to the project’s success. Here’s how one can find the right fit:

• Find an agency that can operate as the developer, strategist, partner, and tech enabler. In other words, they should have the business’s best interests in mind.
• Explore their main services, target industries, typical clients, area of expertise, channels, languages, etc.
• Seek recommendations from the networks or get in touch with agencies that may have developed chatbots for the business’s competition.
• Make it a point to conduct thorough background research on the shortlisted agencies by checking out customer testimonials and feedback.
• Request portfolios or past projects to establish credibility and have them vetted too.
• Screen in agencies that understand business’s custom requirements and possess the skill and competencies to realize a unique chatbot.
• Discuss the budget by comparing chatbot development packages. Account for any additional charges relating to integration, maintenance, post-development support, and so on.
• Ask questions related to chatbot and source code ownership.

Sharing Project Requirements

Once a chatbot development team has been put together, or the expertise of an agency has been engaged, it is time to get down to business. Whatever chatbot-related details that one has collected, such as expectations, desired outcomes, and project deliverables, will have to be shared with the developer/development team. This information will act as a baseline for them and allow them to ideate and innovate without losing focus on the primary goal. At this point, the team might also refine the ideas or negotiate on certain terms so that your chatbot is realistically possible.

Upon discussing all these nitty-gritty, prepare a roadmap with well-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), milestones, deliverables, timelines, and so on.

Now that you’ve laid down the complete foundation, you can start chatbot development!

Developing The Chatbot

Based on all the inputs, the development team will work on creating the chatbot as per the business requirements. One may be required to actively participate in the development process, so be prepared to step up!

The Dry Run

Rather than delivering a fresh, out-of-the-box chatbot solution, the development team will first deliver a Proof of Concept (POC) or a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) . This prototype, of sorts, will help to test the chatbot’s performance in real-world conditions.

A prototype gives the opportunity to identify and fix issues before they turn catastrophic. As such, the typical chatbot performance assessment will evaluate across the following spheres:

• Personality : Does the chatbot communicate per the brand’s voice and tone?
• Onboarding : How do new users respond to the chatbot, and how fast do they adopt it?
• Understanding : How effectively can the chatbot understand customer requests?
• Answering : What are the elements of a typical response? Are they relevant and contextual?
• Navigation : How easily can chatbots go through an end-to-end conversation? What is its impact on engagement?
• Error management : What is the fallback rate? How efficient is the chatbot in handling the resulting errors and recovering from them?
• Security : How secure is the conversation? Is the chatbot compliant with any data security and privacy regulations?
• Intelligence : Can the chatbot retain any information, and does it use it to gain context about the user?
• Response times : How quickly can the chatbot resolve queries?

Of course, this list is purely indicative, and you will have to modify it according to your industry, chatbot type, roles and responsibilities, and other variables.

After the beta testing is a success, the development team will start creating the full version of the chatbot. All the necessary changes will be implemented, additions will be incorporated, and integrations will be tested. Once the chatbot performs to expectations, it is time to launch it into the real world!

Bup bup bup! Hold your horses because that’s not all! You have one final consideration to make for the continuous improvement of your chatbot. We discuss that in the final section.

Testing, Measuring, Tracking

Simply launching a chatbot is not enough. After all, chatbots are not “build it and forget it” things.

Businesses need to vigilantly monitor their performance to pave the way for continuous growth. First, the business will have to define certain KPIs and corresponding parameters that serve as benchmarks to analyze the chatbot’s performance. Next, businesses will have to take note of every anomaly or discrepancy and find justification for the same. Then, perform corrections are required to get the performance back to optimal values. Finally, the business will have to detect any underlying patterns.

In the meantime, one will also find opportunities to scale and expand your chatbot capabilities based on market conditions, ongoing trends, customer feedback, and metrics like satisfaction rates. Such a holistic approach will allow your chatbot to improve at every iteration!

Tips And Tricks To Master Chatbot Development

Now that we have indulged in some heavyweight reading about chatbot development, let’s polish this knowledge with a few important tips and tricks to make the process fun:

• For a cash-strapped startup or a small business looking for a DIY approach, they might find some chatbot builder platforms online .
• Grant a unique name and personality to the chatbot and maintain it consistently on all fronts.
• Humans want to connect with humans. So, put in the effort to humanize the chatbot and make it friendly and approachable.
• Train the chatbot to communicate in simple language so that they are easily understood by various users.
• Delegate complex and repetitive tasks to chatbots but also grant users the opportunity to switch to a human agent .
• Evaluate and optimize the bot regularly , but avoid overwhelming audiences by unveiling all features at once. Follow a graded approach.

Closing Thoughts

Considering that nearly 3 out of 4 customers expect to encounter a chatbot while visiting a business website, chatbots have become more of a necessity than a “nice-to-have” feature. Fortunately, the business already has a head-start in meeting this expectation, given that it has reached the end of this manual.

As a treat for your perseverance, here’s a quick recap of the detailed 10-step process:

• Start by identifying whether or not a chatbot is a right fit for your business model.
• Understand the different types of chatbots and identify the ones you need.
• After settling on a type, give your chatbot a purpose by defining its goals.
• Once the end goal is in view, iron out the details surrounding the language, channels, and so on.
• Work out the different integrations that will be required and find out ways to accommodate them.
• Recruit a team of experienced professionals or outsource the entire job (you do you)!
• Regardless of your choice above, document and share defined project requirements so you can get a chatbot as per your expectations.
• Get started with the chatbot development, and once ready, send the prototype on a dry run.
• Finally, when you have worked out the kinks, gear up for D-day as you launch the chatbot.
• Round up the chatbot development process with continuous testing, measuring, and tracking its progress so that it continues delivering value to your business.

Sure, the process seems overwhelming, but it is well worth the effort. All it takes is a little initiative to get the ball rolling, and once such an ambitious project gains momentum, it would put your business on the fast track to customer-friendliness.

So, get started with building the business chatbot now!

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Open source and API driven chatbots allow businesses to build cross-platform chatbots with ease

• Insider Intelligence publishes thousands of research reports, charts, and forecasts on the Connectivity & Tech industry. You can learn more about becoming a client here.
• Below is some pertinent information on the current state of the chatbot market.

The increased usage of chat applications opens the door for more businesses to utilize the ease of developing chatbots to reach more of their audience.

Chatbots are still an emerging technology, but they have shown that as the more tech-savvy generations grow, so does the usage and opportunities for chatbots.

For businesses, chatbots can help bridge the communication gap between a business and their audience. Chatbots have already penetrated industries such as retail, customer service, airlines, banking and finance, news and media, and healthcare.

There is an abundant amount of options businesses can utilize to build a chatbot specific to its company. The integrations of artificial intelligence within chatbots give more dynamic and robust self-serving channels for better customer engagement. The developments in AI will eventually push chatbots to become the solution for standardized communication channels and the single voice to solve consumer's needs. 

Chatbot Framework & Open Source Projects

There are a number of approaches to building a chatbot. Open source projects are programs developed collaboratively by a group of coders and made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit for free. Open source software is intended to be freely shared and possibly improved upon and redistributed to anyone else without restriction.

A chatbot framework is a set of predefined functions and classes that are used by developers and coders to build bots from scratch using programming languages such as Python, PHP, Java, or Ruby.

The frameworks are where chatbots behavior is defined with a set of tools that help developers write code more quickly and efficiently. Facebook Bot Engine, which owns Wit.ai, can extract certain predefined entities such as time and dates. It extracts user's intent and then processes and defines the data given.

Chatbot platforms (a term often used interchangeably yet incorrectly with frameworks) are online ecosystems where chatbots can be deployed and interact with users or other platforms. Typically, platforms are used by non-technical users to develop bots without coding.

Chatfuel and Facebook Messenger Platform are a couple of platforms that were developed to make building a bot easier for users by linking to external sources through plugins. It provides a base to deploy and run the chatbot, whereas a chatbot framework helps develop and bind together various components to the application.

Related stories

For businesses, platforms eliminate the need to hire developers to build a chatbot and allows users to quickly create robust chatbots without any coding. Platforms usually include a toolkit to create a chatbot, deploy it on any available messaging platform, and connect it to APIs. Google's Cloud Natural Language API, Microsoft's Cognitive Services APIs, and IBM Watson Conversation provide commercial NLU (Natural Learning Understanding) services that could be used to optimize chatbot efficiencies in self-service.

Chatbot Maker Software

Chatbots can be built through hard coding by developers, but machine learning typically requires a large amount of streaming data so that the system learns on its own.

However, building chatbots is not exclusive to developers. There are a number of platforms accessible for businesses to start building one without writing a line of code. Nowadays, a business would only need to design the conversation flow and structure within a chatbot platform.

Chatfuel started in 2015 with the intention to make it easy to build chatbots for Facebook Messenger. It allows users to provide features such as content cards that are automatically shared with their customers, collect information within Messenger chats with forms and quick response buttons, and use AI to recognize customers' answers and respond appropriately. Companies such as Adidas, MTV, British Airways, and Volkswagen use Chatfuel to power their chatbot.

Botpress provides developers with an abundant number of open-source chatbot projects that saves them time. They provide a collection of specialized, open-source modules and offer most projects for free to create transparency. The focus is on the ultimate enterprise bot development that aims to satisfy serious bot developers. It offers countless software development tools for creating and managing code, as well as visual tools that are essential for efficient coding.

Facebook Messenger Platform allows users to build a chatbot via Facebook's official page, but it requires more functionality that the user will have to set up themselves. Facebook provides a guide for users to setup the Messenger plugin, Messenger codes and links, customer matching, structured templates, and a Welcome Screen. CNN and Poncho are popular chatbots that use Facebook Messenger as their chatbot platform.

Chatbots for Businesses a Growing Market

Chatbots have a number of advantages over mobile apps. They are considerably simpler and faster to develop, release, and maintain than mobile applications. The increase in investments by big companies such as IBM, Facebook, and Google have released a number of free advanced development tools and frameworks and large amounts of research.

Now, development of a high functioning chatbot that utilizes AI, NLP, speech recognition and other technologies can be done at a relatively low cost.

The increased demand for chatbots stems from the increasing usage of chat messenger applications. Mobile messengers such as Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, and others have become the preferred means of communication between mobile devices. Facebook Messenger alone has more than 20 million active business users. It's expected that chatbots will continue to serve and solve common issues and repetitive tasks within various industries.

More to Learn

Chatbots for business will continue to improve in the coming years. Chatbot architecture and design will evolve to the point that interactive AI will become standard for customer service. But there are numerous applications for chatbots across a variety of sectors. To learn more about this and other fast-moving areas of the connectivity & tech industry:

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• Main content

ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed how we work and play  in recent months, giving almost anyone the ability to write code , create art , and even make investments . For professional and hobbyist users alike, generative AI tools, such as  ChatGPT , offer advanced capabilities to create decent-quality content from a simple user prompt. 

Keeping up with all the latest AI tools can get confusing, especially as Microsoft added  GPT-4 to Bing Chat  and renamed it to Copilot, OpenAI added new capabilities to ChatGPT and released GPT-4o , and Google plugged Bard   into its ecosystem  and rebranded the chatbot as Gemini .

Also: How to use ChatGPT (and how to access GPT-4o)

Knowing which of the three most popular AI chatbots is best to write code , generate text , or help build resumes is challenging. Let's break down the biggest differences so you can choose the one that best meets your needs. 

Testing ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini

To help determine which AI chatbot gives more accurate answers, I'm going to use a simple prompt to compare them: 

"I have 5 oranges today, I ate 3 oranges last week. How many oranges do I have left?"

The answer should be five, as the number of oranges I ate last week doesn't affect the number of oranges I have today. First up, ChatGPT.

You should use ChatGPT if...

1. you want the most advanced ai chatbot for free.

OpenAI lets users access ChatGPT , powered by its GPT-3.5 and the GPT-4o models, for free with a registered account. If you're willing to pay for the Plus version, you can access GPT-4, use a higher prompt limit for GPT-4o, and get early access to new features for $20 per month.

ChatGPT with GPT-4o, available for free users, answered the question correctly. 

GPT-4o is a new multimodal model available to free and paying ChatGPT users. Rather than relying on three separate models to power its features -- GPT-4 for text, DALL-E 3 for images, and Whisper for voice -- ChatGPT now uses GPT-4o to process and generate text, images, and sounds. This makes it faster than GPT-4 for paying ChatGPT subscribers, and just as good for ChatGPT users who don't want to pay.

Aside from giving free ChatGPT users access to the latest GPT-4o model, the startup also announced that free users now get most of the features that until now were exclusive to ChatGPT Plus users. These include web browsing, access to custom GPTs, ChatGPT Memory, and advanced data analysis.

2. You want to try the most popular AI chatbot

OpenAI released a widespread preview of  ChatGPT  in November 2022. Since then, the AI chatbot quickly gained over 100 million users and has been at the center of  controversies , especially as people uncover its potential to  do schoolwork  and replace some work across industries.

Also: ChatGPT will put your data into interactive tables and charts with GPT-4o

Since its release, I've been testing ChatGPT almost daily. Although its user interface has remained simple, minor changes have greatly improved the tool, including GPT-4o for free users,  Custom Instructions , and easier access to accounts.

The free version of ChatGPT using the default GPT-3.5 model gave the wrong answer to our question.

Although ChatGPT has proven to be a valuable AI tool, it can be prone to  misinformation . Like other large language models (LLMs), GPT-3.5 is imperfect, as it is trained on human-created data up to January 2022. It also often fails to comprehend nuances, like it did with our math question example, which it answered incorrectly by saying we have two oranges left, when the answer should be five.

Also: I put GPT-4o through my coding tests and it aced them - except for one weird result

The GPT-4o model answered the math question correctly, having understood the full context of the problem from beginning to end.

Next, let's consider Microsoft Copilot , which is a great way to access GPT-4 for free.

You should use Microsoft Copilot if...

1. you want to use gpt-4 for free.

Although the free version of ChatGPT lets you use GPT-4o, access to free users is limited to about 15 messages every three hours or capped depending on peak hours, to keep it accessible to more people. After reaching your GPT-4o limit, your chat session reverts to GPT-3.5, limited to generating conversational text and information only until January 2022.

Also:  How to use Copilot (formerly called Bing Chat)

Meanwhile, Copilot can access the internet to deliver more current information than GPT-3.5, complete with links to sources.

Copilot's Creative conversation style was the only Copilot mode to answer the question accurately.

There are other benefits, too. Copilot is powered by GPT-4, OpenAI's LLM, and is completely free. Unfortunately, you are limited to five responses per conversation and can only enter up to 4,000 characters in each prompt. Copilot will eventually get GPT-4o built-in, but Microsoft hasn't made this update widely available, yet.

Also: Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it?

Copilot's user interface is a bit more cluttered than ChatGPT's, but it's still easy to navigate. While Copilot can access the internet to give you more up-to-date results compared to ChatGPT powered by GPT-3.5, I've found it is more prone to stalling before replying and will miss more prompts than its competitor.

2. You prefer more visual features

Microsoft has upgraded its platform several times to add visual features to Copilot, formerly Bing Chat. At this point, you can ask Copilot questions like, "What is a Tasmanian devil?" and get a response complete with photos, lifespan, diet, and more, for a more scannable result that is easier to digest than a wall of text. 

You can also ask Copilot to generate images for you. Give Copilot a description of what you want the image to look like, and the chatbot will generate four images for you to choose from. 

Also: How to use Image Creator from Microsoft Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator)

Microsoft Copilot features different conversational styles, including Creative, Balanced, and Precise, which alter how light or straightforward the interactions are.

The Balanced and Precise conversation styles in Microsoft Copilot answered my question inaccurately.

Finally, let's turn to Google's Gemini, formerly known as Bard. It uses Google's own LLM, also named Gemini, and has received considerable upgrades in the past few months.

You should use Gemini if...

1. you want a fast, almost unlimited experience.

In my time testing different AI chatbots, I saw  Google Bard catch a lot of flack for different shortcomings . While I'm not going to say they're unjustified, I will say that Google's AI chatbot, now named Gemini and powered by a completely different AI model than the one it debuted with, has improved greatly.

Also: How to use Gemini (formerly Google Bard): Everything you should know

Gemini gives speedy answers, which have become more accurate over time. It's not faster than ChatGPT Plus, but it can be faster at giving responses than Copilot and faster than the free GPT-3.5 version of ChatGPT, though your mileage may vary. 

Gemini answered accurately, like GPT-4o and Copilot's Creative conversation style.

Bard used to make the same mistake as other chatbots for my example math problem by incorrectly using the 5 - 3 = 2 formula, but Gemini, powered by Google's new Gemini Pro -- the company's largest LLM -- now answers the question accurately.

Also: Copilot Pro vs. ChatGPT Plus: Which is AI chatbot is worth your $20 a month?

Gemini is also not limited to a set number of responses. You can have long conversations with Google's Gemini, unlike with Copilot, which is limited to five replies in one conversation. Even ChatGPT Plus limits users to 40 messages every three hours. 

2. You want the full Google experience

Google also incorporates more visual elements into its Gemini platform than those currently available in Copilot. Users can generate images using Gemini, upload photos through an integration with Google Lens , and enjoy Kayak, OpenTable, Instacart, and Wolfram Alpha plugins.

Also: 6 AI tools to supercharge your work and everyday life

Gemini is slowly becoming a full Google experience thanks to extensions that add the wide range of Google applications. You can add extensions for Google Workspace, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Flights, and Google Hotels, giving you a more personalized and useful experience.

Artificial Intelligence

Chatgpt vs. copilot: which ai chatbot is better for you, copilot pro vs. chatgpt plus: which is ai chatbot is worth your $20 a month, what is gemini everything you should know about google's new ai model.