AI is great for small companies! In some areas, it levels the playing field and makes accessible what still costs six figures to get from outside (overpriced) firms.
In this short article, I will give specific examples of how you can use AI today. My reference will be ChatGPT 4.0, though any of the other platforms would work.
1. PR (public relations, press releases)
Many small firms used to pay a lot for agencies to manage this. With AI you have something better, the world’s greatest communicator nearly for free (given the correct prompts).
Many small firms used to pay a lot for agencies to manage this. With AI you have something better, the world’s greatest communicator nearly for free (given the correct prompts).
Here’s an example. Your IDE protocol has been approved by the FDA. You want to create a high-quality press release.
Find several examples of other press releases in a style you like that will work for your company. They can be from the same company or multiple. With these in hand, you have a couple if options.
One, you can just copy and paste the text into the GPT prompt and then ask it to rewrite your draft press release in the same style. Put the relevant facts in your draft press release, but don’t spend time proofing or editing yet.
Two, you can upload the other press release files through the attachment feature in the prompt (currently this is only for the paid subscription version) and then prompt it to write your press release in the same style.
Three, and even better, you can customize your own GPT that you can go back to every time you need a press release or similar official communication. It’s like having your own VP of Communications without any salary.
Voila! You have a press release in seconds for no cost that is as good as the largest company out there.
2. Social posts (LinkedIn)
For most startups, LinkedIn is probably the only social platform with any ROI. Most physicians are active here and can be engaged. Thus, regular and relevant content posting 1-2 times per week can grow your audience and reach your targets. A robust Linked In feed also looks good to strategics.
AI can write these for you. The only catch is you need to spend the time to build a customized GPT so that it outputs the optimal post. If you are doing different types of posts, you may want to have a few customized GPTs. For example, one may be clinical posts targeted at physicians, whereas others may be company-related posts like a charity walk or welcoming a new employee. The tone and style of each may be different.
Upload related files directly to your GPT and ask it something like “write three linked in posts that summarize the key findings in this clinical paper in a tone that is academic but still clear and concise for easy reading.”
Play around with this a little bit. Once you get a customized GPT you’re happy with, it does all the work for you. Your stuff will be as top notch as the Fortune 500.
3. Brand Names and Logos
This takes advantage of GPT’s graphics generation program. It is a brilliant way to discover potential logos. The visual representation of your company is more important than you think. Spend time making sure you get it right. It should be simple, clear, memorable, and linked to your mission.
Give GPT as much information as you can such as “I need to develop a logo for my company X. My company builds Y which treats patients suffering from Z. We are focused on ABC.” GPT will then give you options. You can keep doing this, tweaking the prompts to see what you can get.
The graphic output is not yet good enough to be finalized. In other words, you will need to use a graphic artist to make it perfect, though GPT will get you 90% of the way there.
New brand names, whether for a company or a product, is also made easy. You can ideate different ideas by asking GPT to give you ten potential brand names based on information you provide and then iterating these. Instead of paying a firm $25,000 to do the naming, you can have it done in minutes and preserve your cash balance.
4. Financial Analysis
The paid version of GPT will let you upload Excel spreadsheets. You can give prompts about the type of financial analysis you want it to do.
Have a quarterly report to the Board? Simply instruct GPT to give you the key insights from sales, supply chain, cash flow, etc. by analyzing raw data in the spreadsheets you upload. This can also be done with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI in Excel and PowerPoint to make the relevant graphs that support the analysis.
You can save hours and even gain insights you were not aware of. On top of this, you can ask it to provide an executive summary, providing you with beautifully worded bullet points that speak to your audience and help frame the story you want to share.
Many of these things can also be automated with customized GPTs including some aspects of customer service and inventory management. A good understanding of these capabilities might save you some headcount.
5. Copywriting
Market research is critical and cannot be avoided if you want to be successful. However, given the right information, ChatGPT can write your marketing statements and claims better than an expert (I speak from experience).
Provide a generic description of the statement you are looking for and prompt it on tone, style, length, target, etc. and get the best marketing language possible.
ChatGPT, in essence, can be your no charge copywriter. Want to optimize your website text for search engine optimization? Just paste it in the prompt and ask for suggestions. It can help you get your organic ranking higher based on the disease or condition you are treating.
On top of that GPT can even draft clinical protocols and other kinds of documents that usually take hours if not days of your time. This will free you and your team up to work on the important things like building and iterating the device and recruiting for your clinical trial.
6. Job Requisitions
Job requisitions used to be tedious. They required an HR consultant or employee. They could take a long time to write including scores of bullet points with responsibilities and requirements.
Now, you just give GPT a few details and it spits out a beautiful job requisition that—with a few tweaks—is ready to release in minutes.
If you give GPT access to your previous postings, it will know exactly the style to use and the information to provide about the company. It can write these better than any human. Save time and money by automating these through customized GPTs.
7. Market and Clinical Research & Analysis
GPT released its “Deep Research” agent, which it claims is more accurate and detailed in responding to prompts related to things like finance, engineering, and other complex topics.
In general, GPT can be used for a range of prompts to help your company stay on top of market developments. These could include things like “provide a competitive analysis of the left atrial appendage market and summarize products announced in the pipelines of other companies” or “provide a detailed market summary of the US dialysis market including important highlights from the last year.
Critically, GPT can help you do clinical research and analysis. For instance, it can help you research PubMed given certain prompts that will make it much easier than using the ranked articles PubMed returns. For instance, you can prompt it to “identify the top ten articles in the last eighteen months related to transcatheter aortic heart valves; provide a summary of each; use tables to summarize relevant data.”
If you are investigating a broad therapeutic area for your device, GPT can be instrumental in narrowing your search and identifying the most relevant papers. You can use it to identify gaps in the marketplace. Perhaps there is not yet a published study of a device with a complication rate below a certain threshold. Here’s a viable position just looking at the data! It’s like having a whole clinical affairs team at your disposal.