8 AI side hustle ideas to try in 2024

Side hustles are now standard practice for many Americans.

According to recent survey data, 53% of Gen Z, 50% of millennials and 40% of Gen X have one.

Across the board, 44% of those with side gigs say they’ll always need them to make ends meet.

Combined with their day-to-day jobs, many hustlers find themselves burning the candle at both ends. This is especially true as competition heats up in their chosen side hustle industry.

Thankfully, there’s help on the horizon courtesy of artificial intelligence (AI).

The rapid development of AI has given rise to powerful tools. They are easy to access, simple to use, and continually improving.

In this article, we highlight how AI can help you make money, where it makes sense for side hustle ideas, and what you can do to avoid potential roadblocks.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article

Getting started with AI

8 AI side hustle ideas

Possible risks and potential roadblocks to using AI

Final thoughts

Getting started with AI

Making money with AI is all about automation: using intelligent applications or frameworks to complete time and resource-intensive tasks.

But how does this process work in practice?

Put simply, AI is the digital simulation of human intelligence for specific tasks.

Using algorithms, developers define the task AI will carry out. They then provide training data along with a set of rules to help the AI ‘learn’.

Consider a tool designed to identify cats.

First, the tool assesses millions of cat pictures and identifies common characteristics. These would be facts like most cats have four legs, a tail, and fur.

Next, it pinpoints more specific traits such as pointy ears, faces with whiskers, and sharp teeth.

Finally, the tool accesses a bigger database—or the Internet at large—and told to find cat pictures.

Using established criteria, the tool discovers images that are reliably identified as cats.

What sets AI apart from other tools capable of capturing cat images is its ability to learn.

As more data is ingested and more comparisons are made, the solution can expand its definition of cat to include outliers that are missing one or more common characteristics.

If you’re running a side hustle, this learning capability offers potential.

For example, if you’re a freelance writer, you could use AI to help you generate ideas for articles or check and edit pieces that you’ve completed.

Getting started with AI is simple. Free tools such as ChatGPT or Google Bard offer ‘conversational’ AI. These allow users to ask questions in plain language and receive detailed answers.

Paid-for options such as ChatGPT Plus can edit and review full-length documents. While solutions such as DALL-3 can create AI-generated images.

Read more: The 28 best AI prompts for small businesses

8 AI side hustle ideas

While there’s no limit to the number of AI-powered side hustle ideas, we’ve collected eight options that are easily accessible and can help you with your side hustle today.

1. Freelance writing

First on our list of AI side hustle ideas is freelance writing.

With many businesses now looking to increase their market share with compelling copy, there’s an opportunity here for talented writers to improve their income.

When it comes to using AI for freelance writing, it’s all about balance.

Companies don’t want copy that’s entirely generated by AI but intelligent tools are a great way to brainstorm ideas or double-check content for spelling, grammar and readability.

2. Social content curation

If you’re already running a side hustle, you know the importance of regular social media posts. Social platforms can help you connect with your target audience and engage new customers.

AI can help you generate social content based on your ideal audience characteristics, and suggest which platforms may have the most impact.

3. SEO improvement

AI tools are a great way to ensure the keywords you’re using to describe your business are effective and handy for suggesting new keywords that can help improve search engine optimization (SEO).

For example, you could ask AI to determine the current keyword search volume for your target keywords and provide new keywords that better align with your business value proposition.

4. Digital product development

Another side hustle option is digital product development.

This could take the form of e-books, online courses, or business guides that help prospective customers learn something and improve their business.

If you can create content people want to buy and are willing to pay for, you’re on your way to creating a neat income stream.

5. Video creation

The advancement of AI multimedia tools now makes it possible to create ‘faceless’ YouTube channels.

These tools write scripts and design characters around any topic that holds your interest.

If you can make compelling videos and start building a fan base, there’s potential for side hustle revenue.

6. E-commerce sales

An extension of digital product development and video creation is e-commerce sales.

In the case of digital products, this could mean producing and selling physical copies of your digital courses or guides.

For video creation, you could produce and sell merchandise related to characters or narratives you create.

In both instances, AI tools can help design your e-commerce website for ease-of-use and suggest design options for physical merchandise that meets customer expectations without breaking the bank.

7. AI prompt engineering

The right AI prompts for freelancers can make all the difference.

Specific and detailed prompts produce better results than their more general counterparts, meaning it’s worth the time and effort to craft great prompts.

The challenge?

Not everyone excels at prompt creation.

The result?

An emerging side hustle option.

If you have a way with words and a basic understanding of how AI works, you can create and sell AI prompts.

Marketplaces have sprung up that allow you to sell prompts for ChatGPT, Dall-E, and other generative tools.

8. Market research

It’s possible to use AI for market research.

Consider the example of a freelance writer looking to move into new markets. AI can help you discover what local businesses are willing to pay for copywriting, what type of content they’re looking for, and what kind of experience they want.

You may also be able to leverage market research as a side hustle consulting job.

Many companies are now looking to better understand current market trends and improve their decision-making.

If you can ask AI great questions and apply the answers to specific business operations, you may be able to land a recurring role as a company consultant.

However, while it’s possible to rely entirely on AI for your business, this becomes problematic as more companies look to integrate AI in-house.

But by making AI part of your business rather than the whole, you can make the most of human expertise and AI speed.

Possible risks and potential roadblocks to using AI

Before using AI for your side hustle, it’s important to recognize potential risks and roadblocks, such as:

Accuracy

Put simply, AI isn’t always right.

Although tools now have access to massive data sets, more data doesn’t always mean improved accuracy.

As a result, it’s possible for AI to return answers that look factual but are not correct.

Using the answers provided could result in money or time lost for your side hustle.

Solving for accuracy issues means applying common sense and taking the time to double-check.

For example, if you’ve asked AI a simple question, consider its answer before proceeding.

Does it make sense?

Does it align with the information you have?

If not, ask again and see if you get a different result.

If you’re asking more complex questions or generating more involved content, carry out the operation more than once.

While repeatability doesn’t guarantee accuracy, it provides a stable base to refine your answers.

Authenticity

AI may also encounter issues with authenticity.

This is because AI tools are designed to answer the questions you ask—not consider the context around these questions.

This means that if you ask AI to create a piece of art or poetry, it may use significant portions of existing work to create its response.

Passing this work off as your own could lead to trouble with copyright or trademark laws.

To help avoid this issue, make sure you’re specific about the kind of content you want and clearly state that you want it to be original.

Bias

Bias occurs when AI tools return accurate results based on the data they can access, but the data itself isn’t complete or correct.

Consider market research.

If an AI framework uses data from a single geographic location or information that is tied to a single customer characteristic, such as income or ZIP code, the results may be biased toward a specific group and exclude a potential audience segment.

Long story short, always ask AI where the data is coming from.

Final thoughts

Side hustles are a great way to supplement your income. With good luck and hard work, the right side gig might allow you to eventually quit your day job and focus on something you enjoy.

AI offers a way to reduce the effort and improve the outcome of your side hustle efforts.

From generating content to optimizing SEO, developing products, or creating videos, there are a host of AI tools to help your side hustle see success.

Read more: How to boss your side hustle or start-up business