8 great AI business apps that probably won’t exist in 2 years

The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 led to a proliferation of mobile apps. The same thing happened when OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT 3.5 in 2022: a proliferation of apps, tools, and gadgets that use generative AI to perform specific business tasks.

Most mobile apps from the iPhone era no longer exist, and the same goes for today’s AI apps, because they typically follow one of four paths:

Very few apps actually scale and become true platforms. Slack, WhatsApp, Square, and others all started out as much smaller mobile applications and evolved from there. Some AI apps get acquired by big tech companies and integrated into their own services. Other big software companies simply create their own AI apps to replace existing apps. A few of these apps survive, but they end up residing in the shadows as niche tools with few fans.

It’s arguable, but ultimately, 99% of the AI ​​applications you hear about today won’t exist in a few years. And it’s not because they aren’t great. It’s simply Darwinian. Here are 8 examples:

Otter

This is a great application that uses AI to monitor meetings, transcribe conversations, summarize discussions, and create actions. Does anyone doubt that Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or other major meeting platforms will offer these same features? Most platforms already offer these features or are in the process of rolling them out. Why get Otter when your existing meeting applications already offer this functionality?

Profile Picture Maker

There are countless AI apps out there that promise to take a regular photo of a regular guy like me and turn him into Brad Pitt (or at least a better version of them). It seems impossible, especially in my case, but it happens. I mention Profile Pic Maker because it’s the best of them all. But why wouldn’t it be built into the next camera app for your device? Of course it will.

Eighty-five

This is another great AI platform that can take long videos from YouTube and summarize them, saving users hours of viewing time. So why doesn’t YouTube do this? Probably because the longer you watch a video, the more ads you’ll see, which is a disincentive. Until YouTube makes this a paid service or part of YouTube TV. Sorry, but I don’t see this kind of technology being viable long term on its own. It will probably be a niche thing.

Zembri

I love this application. It uses an AI assistant to schedule meetings, avoid conflicts, and create agendas. Among other powerful features, the platform allows you to do these things literally by just chatting or messaging in Slack, then searching for the time in everyone’s calendar. There’s no question that this is a problem that needs to be solved, and Xembly solves it well. Until Microsoft, Google, Slack, and other major customer relationship management (CRM) and workspace app providers build this into their own platforms or buy Xembly.

Rusk

The app converts videos into 130+ languages ​​in just a few minutes. Pretty cool. Will YouTube offer this feature? Hmm… 130 languages ​​and more viewers in more countries equals more viewers and… clam… more ad revenue. Seems a no-brainer. Or will larger video production platforms like Adobe do the same? Of course they would. Even so, the app will likely survive as a niche product for video makers who are fans of certain types of production software that don’t offer this feature anytime soon.

Lavender

Being in the CRM industry, I’ve been playing around with Lavender and it’s a lot of fun. The software “coaches” you to write better emails. It evaluates the emails you write and offers suggestions for improvement and personalization. “Become an email guru!” the company promises. “Level up your team! Let’s make email magic happen!” Why won’t Salesforce, Zoho and other major CRM companies do the same? It’s only a matter of time.

Ask a Question

Want to create a large language model for all your company’s documents and files? This way you can train an LLM so that employees can ask anything about policies, procedures, rules and get accurate and consistent results. That’s what AskJack does, and it can be applied to HR, operations, help desk, customer service, and legal departments. But wait… Both Microsoft and Google are already doing this by creating LLMs from company emails, calendars, OneDrive, and Google Drive documents. In two years, all Office or Workspace users will have the same capabilities that AskJack offers.

Speed ​​Legal

There’s an LLM that specializes in contracts. This AI application bills itself as a “negotiation partner” for lawyers and non-lawyers alike, helping to identify risks, explain legal terms, provide customized suggestions, and other insights for any legal documents and contracts you allow it to review. Assuming the output is trustworthy (I’ll admit I haven’t tested it yet), it makes me wonder who will use this tool in the long run. Will something like this ever be built into mainstream law firm platforms like Clio or Smokeball, or made available to consumers through big players like LegalZoom or LegalShield? Probably.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? Honestly, these are great apps and I have a lot of respect for the developers. I also think that some of the app developers are not trying to be the next Snapchat. They are doing it to develop new technology and make some money in the short term, so good for them. But for the rest of the developers, I just hope they have a good exit strategy, because things are changing so quickly in the AI ​​world and most of them will not last long on their own.