Unmaintained as of August 2023. The market has entered its "try everything" phase, which is less interesting to catalog. Now we wait and see who wins.
What businesses are enabled by this new era1?
It's clear that we have new tools at our disposal. What those tools are good for, what business models can produce, scale, and capture value from them—much less clear.
Good news! That's what startups are for. Here is a semi-curated list of use cases explored by AI startups.
Editorial judgment has been applied to (try to) exclude .ai rebrands,
old-fashioned SaaS+ML, and so forth. It also omits robotics (unclear impact
IMO), biotech (outside my expertise), pure infrastructure (selling compute is
selling compute), and silicon (ditto). It mostly omits side projects, research
collectives, academic demos, etc. Focused on semi-actual businesses, e.g.,
applies a vague Wikipedia-style notability threshold and ignores most Product
Hunt MVPs. Incomplete and subject to change. File an issue if you want
something added or fixed.
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jasper | "create amazing, original content 10X faster" | Nov 2022 announced $125M A; reported $80M ARR forecast for EOY 2022 |
| Copy.ai | "a writing tool you’ll actually use" | |
| Writer | "unlock on-brand content at scale" | |
| Sudowrite | "bust writer’s block with our magical writing AI" | "we use several variants of GPT-3" |
| Moonbeam | "help you write essays, stories, articles, blogs, and other long form content" | |
| AI21 Labs | "empower [humans] to be better [at] writing and reading" | Jul 2022 announced $64M B |
| Typeface | "personalized content creation for work" | can also generate images and other types of content; Feb 2023 announced $65M raise |
| Type | "write remarkably fast" | YC W23 |
| Reword | "an editor that thinks" | |
| GhostWrite | "let us do the talking for you" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Harvey | AI lawyer | Gabriel Pereyra et al. |
| Robin | "Robin’s AI-powered contract editor can transform your legal process" | Feb 2023 announced $10.5M raise |
| Empathy | "comprehensive support for navigating grief" | Sep 2021 reported $30M A; Feb 2023 press on obit generator |
| Qatent | "draft quality patents more quickly" | |
| Rogue | "write responses to Sources Sought, Requests for information, and Requests for Proposals" | |
| EvenUp | "AI-driven demand packages for injury lawyers" | Jun 2023 reported $65M total raised |
| Swell AI | "AI writer for podcasters" | |
| Rezi | "automate every aspect of creating a hirable resume" |
(Too many offerings in this category to track. Also significant overlap with "general-purpose text".)
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Speedy | "SEO-optimized digital content" | YC W23 |
| Katteb | "create content for your blog and online store" | |
| CopyMonkey | "AI-powered Amazon listing optimization" | |
| CopySmith | "scale your ecommerce product content creation" | |
| Tugan.ai | "instantly generate [social media content]" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | copilot | not a startup; but copilot |
| Mutable AI | "build fast with production quality using AI" | |
| Tabnine | "code faster with whole-line & full-function code completions" | |
| Codeium | "autocomplete [code] faster than thought" | from Exafunction |
| Cursor | "write code effortlessly using Cursor's AI source editor" | |
| Vivid | "click on your app, edit with AI" | |
| qqbot.dev | "chat with your codebase" | closed alpha; Jan 2023 reported OpenAI seed funding |
| Replit Ghostwriter | "your partner in code... boost your productivity and creativity" | not an AI startup, but notable; some reporting |
| Magic | "code completion that operates across your repository" | Feb 2023 announced $23M A |
| Codium | "analyzes your code and generates meaningful tests" | != "Codeium" |
| Codeball | "finds bugs in your pull requests" | |
| Grit | "code migrations and dependency upgrades on autopilot" | |
| Second | "use AI developer bots to build common features" | YC W23 |
| ExplainDev | "AI assistant that helps developers interpret code" | |
| CodeComplete | "coding assistant built for enterprise" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Stenography | "document entire codebases every time you hit save" | |
| Readable | "never write comments again" | |
| Mintlify | "beautiful documentation that converts users" | see Writer |
| Bloop | "understand codebases with GPT-4 and semantic code search" | partial substitute for documentation? |
| Buildt | "search and understand large codebases" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Viable | "save hundreds of hours analyzing feedback" | |
| Enterpret | "ensure no customer pain goes unnoticed" | |
| Observe.ai | "complete visibility into every customer interaction across channels" | |
| Anecdote | "analyze and summarize the ‘voice of the customer’" | claims to use GPT |
| MonkeyLearn | "clean, label and visualize customer feedback" | |
| AIBrandIntel | "keep track of social media and news mentions in more than 100 languages" | product experiment, but I think it's interesting |
| Symbl | "unlocks the full potential of human conversations" | |
| Kaleido | "turn user pain points into product decisions" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Venturefy | "verified relationship listings for the world's corporations" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PolyAI | "AI your customers want to talk to" | Sep 2021 announced $14M B |
| Forethought | "[lower] support costs while providing top-tier service" | Dec 2021 announced $65M C |
| Mendable | "answer developer questions automatically" | YC S22 |
| Intercom | "4 new battle-tested AI features" | some interesting stuff here; does it work? |
| kapa.ai | "reduce [developer] support requests with kapa.ai" | |
| Yuma | "integrates with your Help Desk software to automate response drafting" | |
| Twig | "answering complex customer questions and reducing costs by 30%" | |
| Stylo | "solve tickets faster with Stylo" | |
| Kyber | "ChatGPT for enterprise support" | YC W23; pivoted from insurance vertical? |
| Clueso | "AI-powered help center for your app" | YC W23 |
| Parabolic | "AI assistant for customer support" | YC W23 |
| Inkeep | "conversational search for your developer product" | YC W23 |
| Sapling | "copilot for customer-facing teams" | also for sales and success |
| Birch.AI | "automating complex after-call-work" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| EvaluAgent | "evaluate every conversation across all channels" | Jun 2023 announced $20M A |
| Fini | "turn your knowledge base into AI chat" | YC S22 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rezolve | "transform employee experience with instant support" | employee == internal customer |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fireflies.ai | "automate your meeting notes" | |
| Otter.ai | "capture and share insights from your meetings" | |
| Supernormal | "create amazing meeting notes with AI" | Jan 2023 announced $10M round |
| Wudpecker | "start the meeting with prebuilt templates, end it with high-quality generated notes" | |
| Noty.ai | "transcriptions, action items, summaries, and follow-ups" | |
| Avoma | "AI meeting lifecycle assistant" | founded 2017; bit of an AI rebrand? |
| Sembly | "takes meeting notes and generates insights" | |
| Vowel | "host, summarize, search, and share video meetings" | |
| Noota | "meeting reports, real-time coaching & suggest answers" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcast | "stop wasting time manually writing weekly updates" | |
| Beam | "stay on top of work conversations easier and collaborate faster" | messaging app |
| Stork | "human teams working asynchronously aided by artificial professionals" | |
| Hypercontext | feature: "reviews so easy they write themselves" | notable for reviews feature |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Groupthink | "add real business insights into group chat in real-time" | FirstParty Labs |
| Seek AI | "ask your data anything" | Jan 2023 announced $7.5M seed |
| Sloped | "ask your data questions and generate insights from plain text searches" | |
| Numerous.ai | "ChatGPT right inside your spreadsheet" | |
| Channel | "ask any data question, in plain English" | |
| Outerbase | "visualize your data… without needing to be a database expert" | YC W23 |
| Equals | "generate formulas, write SQL, summarize data" | |
| Comparative | "automates data analysis" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Defog | "let your users ask free form data questions" | YC W23 |
| Baselit | "AI data assistant for your users" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Glean | "know what your company knows, instantly" | "Glean uses smaller, less capable AI models" |
| Hebbia | "make decisions 10X more confidently… with AI-powered insights" | Sep 2022 announced $30M A |
| Applica | "enables human-level comprehension across your documents" | Aug 2022 acquired by Snowflake for $175M |
| Agolo | "turns even the longest… documents into audience-specific briefings" | |
| Filechat | "upload your PDF and start asking questions" | |
| Visus | "no longer… waste time searching through countless documents" | |
| Paxton | "chat with your knowledge base" | |
| Gloo | "connect ChatGPT to your knowledgebase" | YC W23 |
| Tennr | "custom large language models that bring… AI to your team and product" | YC W23 |
| Wisdom | "unlock your content with conversational chat" | product, not company? |
| Samaya | "answer complex questions and uncover hidden insights" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Guru | "build your source of truth effortlessly" | Apr 2020 announced $30M C |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hume | "automatically record, transcribe and summarize every candidate interaction" | Jan 2023 announced $12.7M A |
| Impress | "recruitment automation platform" | |
| Humbird | "automate your hiring process" | |
| Covey | "source more accurately with AI" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vectara | "embed the most advanced NLP models for app and site search" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SellScale | "personalize [outbound sales] outreach at scale" | Dec 2022 announced $3.4M seed |
| Lavender | "AI sales email coach" | Feb 2023 announced $13.2M A |
| Lightski | "less time updating your CRM—chat with our Slackbot instead" | YC W23 |
| Fabius | "improve visibility for sales leaders" | YC W23 |
| Persana AI | "your intelligent sales copilot" | YC W23 |
| Coldreach | "10x your sales with AI-powered outreach" | YC W23 |
| FloWorks | "AI-powered assistant for your sales team" | YC W23 |
| Lyne | "personalized cold emails at scale" | |
| Traq.ai | "analyzes every call your sales team makes" | |
| Regie.ai | "fully personalized sales outreach" | Feb 2023 announced $20.8M total funding |
| Bluebirds AI | "find customer contacts that switched jobs" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Syncly | "analyze your team's communications… to avoid customer churn" | YC W23 |
| Kaizan | "highlight client health and what will increase revenue" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| MarketMuse | "automates content audits and removes the subjectivity of what is or isn’t working" | |
| daydrm.ai | "AI tool for creative advertising ideas" | |
| Pencil | "create new ad variations 10x faster" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Avoca | "AI customer communications platform for your [small] business" | YC W23 |
| Sameday | "close more leads by answering any phone calls you miss" | YC W23 |
| Slang | "answers questions, takes reservations, and satisfies callers" | Jun 2023 reported $20M total raised |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pace | "generate ideas in seconds instead of days" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Oogway | "smartest productivity app you will ever need" | |
| Mem | "amplify your creativity, automate the mundane, and stay organized automatically" | Nov 2022 announced $23.5M led by OpenAI |
| Rewind | "the search engine for your life" | Dan Siroker; Nov 2022 announced $10M from a16z |
| mymind | "remember everything. organize nothing." | |
| Augment | "AI assistant that works everywhere you do" | TechCrunch |
| Tyles | "insights from 100s of tabs in one doc" | |
| Webscape | "your AI copilot for the web" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal AI | "supercharge your memory and relationships with your own… AI messenger" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity AI | "the world’s first conversational search engine" | plus other stuff |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Adept | "user types a high-level request and ACT-1 does the rest" | Mar 2023 announced $350M B |
| Lasso | "Robotic Process Automation for Chrome using ChatGPT and computer vision" | YC W23 |
| Gnbly | "book restaurants reservations, call service providers, etc." | makes voice calls |
| Layup | "initiate… customized workflows to complete your everyday tasks" | YC W23 |
| Minion AI | "automated browser assistant" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Moemate | "virtual companion that enriches your life" | |
| Wordware | "A web-hosted IDE where non-technical domain experts work with AI Engineers to build task-specific AI agents. It approaches prompting as a new programming language rather than low/no-code blocks." |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Milo | "don't send it to mom, send [parenting tasks] to Milo" | Jan 2023 reported OpenAI seed funding |
| DoNotPay | "the world's first robot lawyer" | founded in 2015 but has prominent GPT-3 demos |
| TravelU | "your AI travel assistant right on WhatsApp/SMS" | |
| Zuma | "your own personal AI leasing agent" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fixie | "build natural language agents that connect to your data [and] talk to APIs" | Feb 2023 announced undisclosed raise |
| Maya | "deploy custom software to perform complex tasks, from just English instruction" | |
| Waveline | "fastest way to use AI in your business" | YC W23 |
| Mindverse | "virtual AI beings... who listen, move, and respond to your customers" | Apr 2023 announced $10M A "nearing completion" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Replika | "ready to chat when you need an empathetic friend" | |
| Character.AI | "a unique social network that lets you talk with bots" | Noam Shazeer, Daniel De Freitas, et al. |
| Circle Labs | "talk to a cheese or a fish or ur favorite anime character" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Adaptiv | "get personalised mentoring… to achieve your career goals" | |
| InterviewJam | "make interview preparation easy and fun" | |
| Amorai | "master the skill of human connection" | Renate Nyborg; Apr 2023 announced pre-seed |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| InWorld | create characters that "that think, talk, and act for themselves" | |
| Regression | "build your own AIs and compete" | also, "learn with code and AI" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sana | "share knowledge, learn fast, automate admin" | Dec 2022 announced $34M B |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Insights | "get insights from any web page or video" | |
| Artisan | "personal trainer for self-guided learners" | |
| Upword | "get your research done 10X faster" | |
| Quench.ai | "your personal AI learning coach" | Jul 2023 announced $5M pre-seed |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Primer | "mission-ready AI for those who protect security and democracy" | |
| aiFlow | "large language models for PE commercial diligence" | YC W23 |
| OfOne | "automate your drive-thru" | YC W23 |
| July | "put your brand deals on autopilot" | |
| TurbineOne | "intel analytics without coding" | |
| Blackbird | "risk intelligence [for digital narratives]" | Jun 2023 announced $20M B |
| DeckMatch | "gives VC associates superpowers" | Aug 2023 announced $1M seed |
(No attempt to be comprehensive in this category.)
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | text-to-image / "expanding the imaginative powers of the human species" | self-funded |
| Facet | "automates the most repetitive parts of your [image editing] workflow" | also prompt.ist |
| Recraft | "generate stunning vector art, illustrations and 3D images" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Reface | "[tools that] empower content creation" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PhotoRoom | "magic photo studio" to "create professional designs" | Nov 2022 announced $19M A; "with a text prompt… generate a marketing product photo based on your object" |
| ZMO.ai | "object removal tools, art generation, image editing, and more" | May 2022 announced $8M A, focused on fashion e-commerce |
| Imagen | "edit photos and automate post-production" | focused on professional photographers (portraits, events, etc.); Dec 2022 announced $30M round |
| Supermeme | "turn text into memes" | |
| Stylized | "studio quality photography, no studio required" | |
| Booth.ai | "pro quality product photography with AI" | YC W23 |
| Flair | "AI design tool for branded content" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Pixelcut | "create product photos 10x faster" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claid | "improve user-generated content... and boost conversions" | "by Let's Enhance" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Scenario | "AI-generated game assets" | Jan 2023 announced $6M seed |
| Leonardo.AI | "create stunning game assets with AI" | |
| Rosebud | "get the exact visual you need" | |
| Iliad | "AI generation system for game designers" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SnapCalorie | "your personal nutrition assistant" | Jun 2023 announced $3M seed |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Runway | "creative tools to edit and generate content like never before" | |
| Synthesia | "create videos from plain text in minutes" | |
| Descript | "edit audio and video as you would text" | |
| D-ID | "customized videos featuring talking avatars" | |
| Decoherence | "create what can't be filmed" | YC W23 |
| Linum | "generate footage and iterate on it" | YC W23 |
| Elai | "videos [with a presenter] from just text" | |
| Roll | "studio-quality remote videos with just your phone" | |
| Wombo | "create fun and entertaining clips" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Captions | "create studio-grade videos in a few taps" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Voodoo | "professional deepfake studio for creators" | Trey Parker and Matt Stone; Dec 2022 announced $20M round |
| Deepbrain AI | "enterprise ready virtual humans and avatars" | |
| Waymark | "boost local sales with unbelievably easy video" | launched 2017 but seems to qualify |
| Flawless | "pioneering the generative AI revolution in filmmaking" | some press, e.g., Dec 2022 in LA Times |
| vidyo.ai | "create social ready short clips from your long videos" | |
| GlossAi | "upload your existing content and instantly generate… short-form videos" | Feb 2023 announced $8M seed |
| Munch | "extracts the most engaging… clips from your long-form videos" | |
| Guidde | "create video documentation 11x faster" | |
| Dumme | "turn videos into engaging shorts" | YC W22; Jun 2023 announced $3.4M seed |
| Doly | "generate infinite videos for your product" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Twelve Labs | "contextual understanding for video" | Dec 2022 announced $12M seed extension |
| Coactive | "unleash the power in your visual content" | Mar 2023 announced $14M A |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Resemble AI | "create human–like voice overs in seconds" | voice cloning, speech-to-speech, etc.; Jul 2023 announced $8M A |
| Podcastle | "studio-quality recording, AI-powered editing" for podcasts | Oct 2021 announced $7M A |
| Play.ht | "AI powered text to voice generator" | YC W23 |
| Respeecher | "create speech that's indistinguishable from the original speaker" | |
| WellSaid | "create voiceovers from text" | |
| ElevenLabs | "rich and lifelike voices to creators and publishers" | Jun 2023 announced $19M A |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Beatoven.ai | "compose unique mood-based music to suit every part of your video" | |
| Riffusion | text to music |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Dubverse | "make your content multilingual at a click of a button" | |
| Papercup | "go global with your existing video content using AI dubbing" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deepgram | "transcribe real-world audio with an API call" | Nov 2022 announced $72M B |
| Gladia | "AI transcription, translation and audio intelligence" | Jun 2023 announced $4M seed |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Speak | "get real conversational practice without needing a live tutor" | Nov 2022 announced $27M B led by OpenAI |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Poised | "AI-powered communication coach" | Jun 2021 announced $4.5M seed |
| Orai | "practicing your presentations and getting instant feedback" | Feb 2019 announced $2.3M seed |
| Yoodli | "personalized and private feedback from our AI speech coach" | Aug 2022 announced $6M seed |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Anything World | "build interactive 3D experiences up to 40% faster" | |
| Poly | "generate 3D design assets in seconds" | may have pivoted to textures?; Jan 2023 announced $4M seed |
| Spline | "design and collaborate in 3D" | not really AI-native but still relevant?; Jul 2023 announced $15M seed |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Notion | "generate any type of content" | |
| Beautiful.ai | "presentation software that designs for you" | raised $11M B back in 2018 |
| Gamma | "from notes to an initial template in under a minute" | |
| Tome | "enabling anyone to tell a compelling story" | Feb 2023 announced $43M B |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Diagram | "magical new ways to design products [in Figma]" | May 2022 announced; funding also reported from OpenAI |
| Components | "generative components for UI and graphic design" | |
| Galileo AI | "delightful, editable UI designs from a simple text description" | |
| Noya | "simple blocks magically transform into polished designs" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fermat | "creativity augmented for your design team" | |
| Vizcom | "combination of hand sketching and AI processing tools" | AI Grant batch 1 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lume | "builds your integration pipeline in minutes" | YC W23 |
| Turntable | "create and manage data pipelines… with AI" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Debuild | "build web apps blazingly fast" | low-code |
| Bookmark | "get your business online in minutes" | |
| Durable | "build a website in 30 seconds" | refocus from general "start a business" tool? |
| Mixo | "landing pages that require no code or design" |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Zebrium | "see the reason [for an outage] without digging through logs" | "plain language incident root cause"; Oct 2022 acquired by ScienceLogic |
| Wild Moose | "solve production incidents in minutes instead of hours" | YC W23 |
| Traceloop | "improve your system reliability" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | "self-driving bookkeeping" | Jan 2023 reported OpenAI seed funding |
| truewind | "less errors, more transparency, and faster monthly close" | YC W23 |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arena | "make high frequency, critical path decisions fully autonomous" | Aug 2022 announced $32M A |
(Keeping this category sparse. There are many suppliers of outsourced "heavy lifting" that don't really affect the direction of the space.)
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | AIaaS | |
| Stability AI | free models, ??? | of Stable Diffusion fame |
| Hugging Face | AI tools and GitHub-esque open-source community | 🤗 |
| Explosion | "developer tools for Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing" | |
| Cohere | "harness the power of language understanding" | in-house model building |
| Anthropic | "working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems" | Dario Amodei et al.; AI alignment; funded by SBF pre-disgrace |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Conjecture | "researchers dedicated to applied, scalable AI alignment research" | |
| Generally Intelligent | "develop generally capable AI agents with human-like intelligence" | |
| Ought | "product-driven research lab… for delegating open-ended thinking" | Elicit |
| Name | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Inflection | "fundamentally redefine human-machine interaction" | Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman et al. |
| Keen Technologies | "AGI" | John Carmack; announced Oct 2022 |
| Anysphere | "fast and observable AI tools for professionals" | recent pivot from a messaging product?; Jan 2023 reported OpenAI seed funding |
| Minion | "help bots help humans" (?) | Alex Graveley |
Footnotes
-
You might call it something else, but you know what I mean. ↩