What AI Means for Student Entrepreneurs
Excitement. Curiosity. Apprehension. The arrival of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools has been met with a range of emotions. Many are wrestling with what AI will mean for employment, education, and our very futures.
Entrepreneurs aren’t waiting for the questions surrounding AI to sort themselves out. They understand the potential of AI, and they are acting.
That’s evident among the student entrepreneurs of Babson College, who see AI as a way to ease the hard work of starting a venture and to empower entrepreneurs to chase their ideas. “I am very excited about the future of AI,” says Jeffrey Jiang ’25, founder of Jiang Prototyping, a builder of websites and apps. “I believe that with the rise of artificial intelligence power, more and more people will become entrepreneurs.”
Three Babson student entrepreneurs shared how this powerful technology already is changing their work and their ventures.
The Sneaker Startup
The Entrepreneur: Brock Alpher ’27
The Startup: SneakerSoul, which offers sneaker care items, including its signature product, a sole protector.
How AI Has Helped the Venture: Alpher has utilized AI in myriad ways. For starters, AI tools have become an indispensable part of video production, helping with tasks such as brainstorming concepts, crafting scripts, and editing. SneakerSoul videos enhanced by AI have amassed more than 150 million views, Alpher says, underscoring “the power of AI in revolutionizing digital marketing and content creation.”
Alpher also uses AI to craft personalized emails to customers, something that he used to spend a substantial amount of time on, and to analyze user metrics. “It uncovers trends and patterns that would have been challenging, if not impossible, to detect by myself,” he says.
What the Future Holds: AI saves an incredible amount of time for entrepreneurs. “Time is an irreplaceable asset, and with the aid of AI, I’ve managed to double my productivity,” Alpher says. “This incredible efficiency boost is why I’m so enthusiastic about AI’s potential.”
The Website Builder
The Entrepreneur: Jeffrey Jiang ’25
The Startup: Jiang Prototyping, a designer and builder of websites and applications prototypes for entrepreneurs.
How AI Has Helped the Venture: AI has assisted Jiang both with ideation and various menial tasks. “AI has helped me make many processes more efficient in my business,” he says.
What the Future Holds: Jiang says that AI will lower technical and economic barriers that confront many potential entrepreneurs. “Entrepreneurs who were once stopped from starting a business due to a lack of ability to code or lack of funds to hire developers can see their dreams come to life through the growing usefulness of artificial intelligence,” he says.
The startups they found, in turn, will be stronger and more robust thanks to AI. “I hope that individuals will harness this power and build better and leaner ventures to better be able to compete with larger entities,” Jiang says.
The Virtual Personal Assistant
The Entrepreneur: Joshua Bell ’26
The Startup: Sentir Systems, a software company that helps estheticians find new clients and book appointments.
How AI Has Helped the Venture: Sentir’s services are made possible by AI. After using paid advertising to create demand for an esthetician’s services, a trained AI bot takes over, scheduling appointments for leads.
“Our AI acts like a personal assistant and automatically converses with the new leads,” Bell says. “Our service facilitates the entire client generation process for medical estheticians, from generating the lead, to converting the lead into booking an appointment, to even nurturing the lead for when it’s time for them to come into the studio.”
What the Future Holds: Bell thinks entrepreneurs need to embrace AI technology. Its time-saving capabilities, which come up repeatedly when talking to entrepreneurs about AI, are changing the business landscape. “It’s essential to get ahead of the curve,” he says. “As the saying goes, when it comes to advancements in AI, if you can’t beat them, join them.”
To adopt AI, an entrepreneur needs the right mindset. “Recognizing AI as a tool, rather than a disruptive force,” he says, “is critical for navigating its evolving landscape.”
Posted in Entrepreneurial Leadership, Insights
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