Monetizing AI: Workflows, Agents & Business Models [Megathread]

[something_else]

1 hour ago, LordFall said:

I think it's possible to do half decently already and in 6 months it'll be quite good

It really isn't, and the improvements between iterations aren't nearly as significant as they used to be. In fact, some recent iterations have actually gotten worse at writing naturally. For a while, Claude models were practically incapable of speaking in natural English.

Yes, these models can write copy really well with some oversight. I've built landing pages using Codex/ChatGPT before, and while they can produce a great-looking page, their copy choices are often abysmal and they need to be guided through it.

And that's an entirely different ball game from convincing people they're talking to a human when they're actually interacting with an AI agent. Doing that at scale, through custom vibe-coded software, and then trusting your entire business model on that working reliably, is a monumental task with severe risk.

[LordFall]

34 minutes ago, something_else said:

There are tons of solutions out there already. The CRM space is crowded. I guarantee something already exists that can do exactly what you want to do, or is extensible enough to do it with some minor customisations.

Totally I agree with you. Part of my issue with the business I was running was cognitive overload. I had to have the skillset to take good dating pictures, package them into a worthwhile offer both for myself and the customers, shoot the ads to sell the service, run the ads, answer incoming DMs to book calls, take the sales calls, book my calendar, do the photoshoots, edit the pictures, handle customer support, etc. 

I tried to bring on business partners a few times and that worked in some ways but introduced some new issues. One guy was mostly reliable but he wanted 50% of the business to dedicate himself to it and I thought he brought nowhere near the value I did. I was willing to just split the profit 50% with him until we worked successfully together for at least 6 months-1 year before signing anything but that didn't work for him.

Building a successful global enterprise has been a goal of mine for years and I'm always learning new skills to make that goal possible but it's obviously not quite there yet.

Another massive use case for AI for me is a personal assistant that helps me organize all my ideas and plan my workday depending on my priorities and energy levels. I use Gemini for that a bit but it's not as advanced as I would like it. 

34 minutes ago, something_else said:

However, trusting your entire client-base to vibe-coded software is... unwise. And letting AI agents talk to your clients with zero approval required is also a huge risk. People can usually still identify AI-speak, and it's especially frustrating if someone tries to pawn off an AI chatbot as a real human. This is terrible for reputation, especially if you're trying to pitch yourself as a successful entrepreneur who makes a lot of money. The natural question is "well why can't he afford a real human".

I don't think it's really all that complicated. You assign it a few lead conversations and see how it does. This stuff is based off of closing percentage so for example myself I would spend about $6 for leads while running meta ads. I would convert around 20% to sales calls so each call could cost me $30. I would close around 20% of calls so customer acquisition cost $150. That number went up closer to $200-250 when I brought on another guy and at that time I sold $500 photoshoots so the margins are really important. 

An AI appointment setter would allow me to analyze all the conversations and try different formats to see how the % change. These are not in depth conversations. Meta Ads lets you set pre-selected prompts for people to send as the first message, so they ask things like: "How much are the photoshoots?" / "How does the photoshoot work?" / "Can you tell me more about this?" then we do have you ever done a photoshoot before? -> There are a few different packages depending on what you need -> When are you available for a phone call? 

I think in the next 1-2 years the voice agents will good enough to handle the sales calls themselves. I've had some call me and try to sell me and it's definitely not good enough to build a sales team around but very soon it will be. The amount of business models that this unlocks is insane. 

@Lyubov This should already be able to handle my personal needs for setting up sales calls en masse. I will play around with it over the next 1-2 months update you guys on how it went. 

Edited 1 hour ago by LordFall

[something_else]

41 minutes ago, LordFall said:

Building a successful global enterprise has been a goal of mine for years and I'm always learning new skills to make that goal possible but it's obviously not quite there yet.

Out of curiosity, what does your business actually do? Just photoshoots?

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Totally I agree with you. Part of my issue with the business I was running was cognitive overload. I had to have the skillset to take good dating pictures, package them into a worthwhile offer both for myself and the customers, shoot the ads to sell the service, run the ads, answer incoming DMs to book calls, take the sales calls, book my calendar, do the photoshoots, edit the pictures, handle customer support, etc. 

AI can absolutely help with this, just not in the way you're imagining. Get a ChatGPT Plus subscription and use Work mode to help set up CRM automations, manage your administrative tasks and analyse your data. You can connect it to external services through plugins or MCPs. I'd explore that before building custom software.

41 minutes ago, LordFall said:

An AI appointment setter would allow me to analyze all the conversations and try different formats to see how the % change. These are not in depth conversations. Meta Ads lets you set pre-selected prompts for people to send as the first message, so they ask things like: "How much are the photoshoots?" / "How does the photoshoot work?" / "Can you tell me more about this?" then we do have you ever done a photoshoot before? -> There are a few different packages depending on what you need -> When are you available for a phone call? 

There are already off-the-shelf services that do this. My issue isn't with AI handling basic enquiries. It's with passing off an AI chatbot as a human. That's deceptive, difficult to do, and you're going to piss people off.

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I would spend about $6 for leads while running meta ads. I would convert around 20% to sales calls so each call could cost me $30. I would close around 20% of calls so customer acquisition cost $150. That number went up closer to $200-250 when I brought on another guy and at that time I sold $500 photoshoots so the margins are really important. 

I think there's an issue with obsessively optimising metrics like CTR and conversion rates while neglecting the human element. Better numbers don't necessarily mean better customers or a better brand image. You risk losing sight of who you're actually marketing to and how your business is perceived. That's especially important if you're planning to scale significantly. If you provide top notch human service, the chance of a customer sticking around in the long run and using you in the future goes up significantly, for example. The stuff your business does that makes customers go "wow, they didn't need to do that but they did" is really important for building repeat customers instead of a CTR funnel optimised pump-n-dump.

On a tangential note, I've also run Meta ads, and my experience with its AI enhancements has been pretty poor. Meta pushes you to use them claiming they'll increase CTR. Instead, most noticeably reduced my CTR, and if CTR did improve, it sometimes came with a shift towards older demographics, attracting more people over 50 and fewer under 30. What this tells me is that AI enhancements are both not good enough to run autonomously yet, and shift the targeted demographic significantly further up the age brackets.

41 minutes ago, LordFall said:

I think in the next 1-2 years the voice agents will good enough to handle the sales calls themselves. I've had some call me and try to sell me and it's definitely not good enough to build a sales team around but very soon it will be. The amount of business models that this unlocks is insane. 

I think you're assuming progress will continue linearly. Going from sounding 50% human to 70% is considerably easier than going from 70% to 90%. That final stretch towards being genuinely indistinguishable from a human is much harder, particularly when you need the system to perform reliably across thousands of real conversations.

And again, you still seem ambiguous about whether you intend to tell customers they're speaking to an AI. That's important point to establish.

Edited 1 hour ago by something_else

[LordFall]

49 minutes ago, something_else said:

Out of curiosity, what does your business actually do? Just photoshoots?

I've changed my exact services a few times. My main skillset is in online lead acquisition and content production so I've had b2b clients where I managed their social media profiles for a retainer and last year I was more like a personal brand consultant. What I found the most interest in and I've done the longest is be a dating photographer so I think I'm gonna triple down on that.

So that's dating profile photoshoots, dating consulting, help throwing events, help shooting content to build a nice looking instagram ,etc. I think if I focus on that vertical and really nail it I can scale it to 7-8 figures over the next few years. 

My personal branding client paid me $5,000/month so if I'm looking to productize the services I gave him into something like a $1,000/month offer that solves the dating life of single male professionals 28-40 and perhaps even women since the women I consulted on their dating lives seemed to benefit from my advice. 

49 minutes ago, something_else said:

On a tangential note, I've also run Meta ads, and my experience with its AI enhancements has been pretty poor. Meta pushes you to use them claiming they'll increase CTR. Instead, most noticeably reduced my CTR, and if CTR did improve, it sometimes came with a shift towards older demographics, attracting more people over 50 and fewer under 30. What this tells me is that AI enhancements are both not good enough to run autonomously yet, and shift the targeted demographic significantly further up the age brackets.

Yeah I never touch any of meta's optimizations. I don't know what their aim is with it but they always reduce my performance. I always calibrate every setting myself. 

> And again, you still seem ambiguous about whether you intend to tell customers they're speaking to an AI. That's important point to establish.

No I think that part is mostly irrelevant. When they message my brand they talk to the Royals Dating instagram account. It hasn't made much of a difference when I've had a random guy use my templates when booking appointments for me and even other people doing sales calls is standard.

What matters is how happy they are with the results they're getting from purchasing our services. My role as the founder and face of the company is to guarantee a standard of quality across every offer that goes out under my brand. 

Edited 32 minutes ago by LordFall