The Big Mistake AI Startups Are Doing

Hi everyone,

I had a discussion with my content manager recently about how to produce more reels in a more time-efficient way. Of course, the answer we came up with was: let’s look for a tool that uses AI to help us do this.

After some quick research, we found a couple of tools that looked promising, and every tool offered a free tier. But NONE of them made the AI features accessible in the free tier, meaning we couldn’t test how good the AI cutting features were until we started paying.

And this is not the only time I’ve seen this. There are dozens of AI startups out there building tools that promise to make someone’s life simpler, but the mistake everyone is making is gating the AI features in their free tier.

I mean, I know AI usage costs money. You have to pay for tokens used by the model your tool is built on, and it can get expensive. It’s also not a nice feeling to pay for something when someone doesn’t convert into a paying customer. But the question is: how else does someone experience the value that is promised without letting them test it? And I'm probably not the only one who just moved on to the next tool.

The buyer’s journey has changed a lot over the years, and nowadays nobody wants demo calls anymore. Everyone wants to gather enough information to make the decision themselves.

So let people actually use your AI features for free. Let them see the value first. Only then are the chances of increasing conversion rates much higher.

AI costs should be treated as marketing, and therefore as an investment in growth.

AJ

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By Andreas Just

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