Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way in recent years, and while it might not be fully replacing human jobs just yet, it is undoubtedly revolutionizing various industries and making some side hustles more efficient and lucrative. By leveraging AI to save time and automate certain tasks, individuals can focus on expanding their businesses and exploring new opportunities. Let’s take a closer look at three common side hustles where AI is already making a significant impact.
1. Travel Agents: Nicole Cueto, a seasoned traveler and New York-based public relations consultant, has discovered the potential of AI in her side hustle as a travel agent. In her line of work, planning vacations for clients involves hours of research and crafting personalized itineraries. AI, in this case, acts as a refined and filtered version of search engines like Google, significantly reducing the time she spends on research.
Cueto uses AI to generate budget-conscious travel guides, incorporate historical neighborhoods, and find unique perspectives to cater to her clients’ preferences. While she acknowledges the need for fact-checking and further research, using AI as a tool accelerates her workflow and allows her to serve more clients effectively. This newfound efficiency has resulted in increased earnings, with Cueto making an average of $670 per month, working 10 to 20 hours per week at rates of approximately $42 per hour.
2. Content Assistants: AI’s advancements are not only creating new jobs but also transforming traditional roles. Content assistants are emerging as a promising side hustle, where individuals generate blog, newsletter, and social media posts using AI-powered chatbots. These content generators can produce articles and posts quickly, saving valuable time for the writer.
Angelique Rewers, founder of a small-business consulting firm, describes AI content assistants as “the biggest new side hustle.” While AI generates the initial content, content assistants must fact-check and edit the material to ensure its accuracy and coherence. This side hustle pays anywhere from $20 to $100 per hour, offering a potentially lucrative opportunity for aspiring writers.
3. Artists: For creatives like Sean Audet, who transitioned from being a fine dining chef to a food photographer, AI plays a complementary role in his side hustle. Audet uses generative AI tools like ChatGPT to streamline tasks such as writing emails and building business templates. While AI does require specific instructions to be effective, it functions as an efficient assistant, reducing the time he would otherwise spend crafting those communications from scratch.
Although Audet admits that AI hasn’t directly increased his income yet, he believes that honing his AI interaction skills will prove valuable in the long run. As AI technology continues to improve, he anticipates that the time saved will lead to more lucrative opportunities in his field.
The Limitations of AI: While AI holds immense promise, it’s essential to acknowledge its limitations. AI tools are not infallible and can produce errors, especially when given complex or ambiguous prompts. Researchers have found significant variations in AI performance, even using the same models for similar tasks.
For instance, a study involving ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4 from OpenAI demonstrated that accuracy ranged from as low as 2.4% to as high as 97.6% when identifying prime numbers. Such variations highlight the need for caution when relying solely on AI-generated content, emphasizing the importance of human verification and fact-checking.
Looking Ahead: As AI technology continues to evolve and improve, its impact on side hustles will undoubtedly grow. AI has the potential to revolutionize how businesses operate, enabling greater efficiency and allowing individuals to focus on tasks that genuinely require human creativity and judgment. However, it’s essential to maintain a balance between leveraging AI’s capabilities and recognizing its limitations.
Side hustles like travel agents, content assistants, and artists have already started benefiting from AI’s time-saving features, enabling them to make their ventures more successful and profitable. As AI tools become more accessible and refined, we can expect to see a broader range of industries embracing AI to enhance productivity and unlock new opportunities.
In conclusion, AI is undoubtedly changing the landscape of side hustles, making certain tasks faster and more manageable. As long as humans remain vigilant in verifying AI-generated content and understand the boundaries of its capabilities, AI will undoubtedly continue to play a significant role in empowering side hustles and revolutionizing how people work and earn in the modern world.