AI Startups in the GPT Era 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.
Write more, better general-purpose text
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
Get help writing text in specific verticals
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"
Produce marketing content more efficiently (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]"
Write code faster or better
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
Understand or document code faster or better
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
Gather more, useful customer information
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"
Gather more, useful other business information
Name
Value
Notes
Venturefy "verified relationship listings for the world's corporations"
Support your customers / users more efficiently
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
Automatically support your employees
Name
Value
Notes
Rezolve "transform employee experience with instant support"
employee == internal customer
Get more value out of meetings
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"
Make other internal business communication more efficient
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
Access internal business data more easily
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"
Let your users access data more easily
Name
Value
Notes
Defog "let your users ask free form data questions"
YC W23
Baselit "AI data assistant for your users"
YC W23
Find information in business docs / messages more quickly
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"
Provide better search tools in your app or site
Name
Value
Notes
Vectara "embed the most advanced NLP models for app and site search"
Make your salespeople more effective
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
Make your customer success team more effective
Name
Value
Notes
Syncly "analyze your team's communications… to avoid customer churn"
YC W23
Kaizan "highlight client health and what will increase revenue"
Make your marketing team more effective
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"
Make other external business communication more effective
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
Do product management more productively
Name
Value
Notes
Pace "generate ideas in seconds instead of days"
Organize your personal information
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"
Automate your personal communication
Name
Value
Notes
Personal AI "supercharge your memory and relationships with your own… AI messenger"
Delegate general-purpose actions to an online agent
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."
Delegate domain-specific actions to an online agent
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"
Build custom agents to automate actions
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"
Talk to a virtual friend or character
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
Receive personalized coaching in some area
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
Make engaging in-game characters
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"
Educate your employees more effectively
Name
Value
Notes
Sana "share knowledge, learn fast, automate admin"
Dec 2022 announced $34M B
Accelerate your own learning
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
Sui generis examples in other specific verticals
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
Easily synthesize and/or manipulate general-purpose images (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"
Easily synthesize and/or manipulate images in non-gaming verticals
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
Automatically improve third-party images
Name
Value
Notes
Claid "improve user-generated content... and boost conversions"
"by Let's Enhance"
Generate 2D game assets faster, cheaper
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
Understand images for some other useful purpose Easily synthesize and/or manipulate general-purpose video
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"
Easily synthesize and/or manipulate video in specific verticals
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
Search through video content more effectively Easily synthesize and/or manipulate voice
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
Easily synthesize and/or manipulate music
Name
Value
Notes
Beatoven.ai "compose unique mood-based music to suit every part of your video"
Riffusion text to music
Automatically translate multimedia content
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"
Analyze recordings of human speech
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
Get practice learning a language
Name
Value
Notes
Speak "get real conversational practice without needing a live tutor"
Nov 2022 announced $27M B led by OpenAI
Get feedback on public speaking
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
Primary modality = 3D model Build 3D models more quickly
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
Primary modality = structured content, other software, etc. Write more, better general-purpose structured documents
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
Design interfaces more quickly
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
Design physical products more quickly
Name
Value
Notes
Fermat "creativity augmented for your design team"
Vizcom "combination of hand sketching and AI processing tools"
AI Grant batch 1
Build software integrations and pipelines more quickly
Name
Value
Notes
Lume "builds your integration pipeline in minutes"
YC W23
Turntable "create and manage data pipelines… with AI"
YC W23
Create software or web sites with little/no programming
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"
Automate or augment software ops
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
Automate your business accounting
Name
Value
Notes
Kick "self-driving bookkeeping"
Jan 2023 reported OpenAI seed funding
truewind "less errors, more transparency, and faster monthly close"
YC W23
Make business decisions automatically
Name
Value
Notes
Arena "make high frequency, critical path decisions fully autonomous"
Aug 2022 announced $32M A
Model builders and tool ecosystems (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
Still in stealth or I don't quite understand the value prop
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