Most people start a side hustle when they want to earn a bit of extra money. Sometimes, this supplementary income turns into a career pursuit. Whether you want to work part time or full-time, a side hustle can be easy when paired with artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
Two things might usually slow you down when adding to your income – lack of time or lack of skills. This is where AI can step up and serve you best. It works super fast and has access to information that would take you forever to sort through.
And if you have felt sidelines up until now, because you weren’t good at writing or some other necessary skill, AI can work on your behalf, creating things based on its brainstorming or your own input.
If you were mediocre at a skill, AI can take your abilities to the next level, meaning you can charge more for your products and services, or earn more from other efforts, like promotions.
Initial Considerations for Using AI for Side Hustles
Initially, you’ll want to take into consideration what time commitment you have for a side hustle, what goals you want to achieve and what skills you bring to the table. There are many ways to earn extra money online, so you want to know what AI can do for you (that you need) for each one.
Let’s go over a few examples. The first is affiliate marketing. AI has the ability to understand the needs of your demographic (and what they’re willing to spend money on).
It can also uncover affiliate programs and connect you with the right products to promote that will convert best. It can tell you what kind of content your audience wants to see from you and help you develop it, too.
As an info product creator, you can use AI to help you create quick products to sell – and it will do it based on patterns and data analysis that shows what’s going to be most in demand with paying customers.
If you want to earn as a freelance service provide, AI can help you with writing content, analyzing information, managing projects, optimizing client social media accounts or boosting SEO (search engine optimization) for your clients.
If you’re working as a side hustle influencer, then you can use AI to create a content monetization plan that works across multiple platforms so that you can manage your income strategy with ease. AI can give insight on content, timing, live streams, brand outreach, and more
AI Tools That Are Available for Specific Side Hustle Needs
You want to look into the types of tools that are going to work best for your side hustle pursuits. There are free and paid AI tools, those for text, video, audio and even data analytics.
You can even create a custom GPT to work for you that is trained exactly how you want it to operate, and it will be readily accessible whenever you need to work. Whichever one you get (or create) will be based on your individual needs.
The text based tools can help your side hustle with articles, blog posts, email autoresponders, social media content, products, reviews and more. There are image AI tools that can help with visual components of your work. Such as site buttons, infographics, social quote posters and more.
Video and AI tools can create content on your behalf that looks and sounds like a human. Or, you can simply use a text-based AI tool to script and storyboard your video and audio content elements for you to work with.
Make sure you choose something with an easy interface and pay attention to how much use you get, because none of them are unlimited in equal ways. Some will limit time, credits, or functionality and features.
For affiliate marketing, look for content research and development AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. There are also competitor analysis tools with Ai elements like Ahrefs or SEMRush.
For info product development, if it’s a text guide, you can use a basic text AI tool. But you can also find video AI tools that will allow you to create multimedia modules you can sell as well.
If you are working as a freelance service provider, such as an editor, you can find tools that have AI technology built in, like Grammarly. Or, if you are ghostwriting for a client, you can use an AI writing assistant that can help you with brainstorming, outlining, and even content creation if it is acceptable by your client.
Influencers primarily need content, so you can use all of the above options that will help you analyze your demographic and competitors and then develop content ideas that will serve your audience well and in the process help you earn revenue.
Don’t be afraid to use multiple AI tools in your quest to build a lucrative side hustle. There are many people who use a mixture of different tools because they each have unique strengths.
Using AI to Get the Jobs Done Faster and Better Than You Can
AI is going to allow you to finish your tasks quicker and better than what you normally do on your own. The more input you have to make your content and ideas unique, the better the output will be.
You want to find ways to integrate AI into your workflow on a regular basis. Find the areas where you struggle the most, whether it’s due to it being a time consuming task or something that you are not well versed in, and apply AI to that area of your business.
If you are using AI for an affiliate marketing side hustle, you might prompt it to help you with ideas like this: “Generate a list of blog post review topics I can publish for a [topic] niche affiliate blog. Give me a variety of slants I can monetize with this audience and make sure they are topics that are currently in demand with consumers.”
If you are using AI for your info product projects as a side hustle, you might prompt it like this: “I want to publish an eBook I can sell to [niche audience]. Outline an eBook called [title] that covers the topic in a comprehensive manner so that my buyers will find value in it.”
If you are a freelance service provider, and your client has tasked you with developing 25 email autoresponder for them, you can prompt AI like this: “My client is in the [topic] niche and wants me to create a 25 day email series for his subscribers. Come up with a list of topics that can be covered in a logical sequence.”
If you are an influencer and want to use AI for your side hustle, you can either prompt it for an entire week’s worth of content ideas, or do it one at a time like this: “Generate a script for a 60-second TikTok video that discusses a certain pain point for the [niche] demographic where I deliver a call to action to check out a product that is linked in my bio.”
It’s important that you maintain oversight whenever you are working with AI because you can’t fully trust it to deliver honest information at all times period sometimes, it will deliver misinformation and you will be the one responsible if you publish it.
Leveraging AI for Monetized Opportunities
When it comes to monetization of your side hustle using AI, there are different things you can ask AI to help you with period for example, as an affiliate marketer, you can ask AI to optimize your content so that it converts well for you.
You can also ask it to help you select affiliate programs that are going to pay you the maximum amount possible, whether it’s due to the life of the cookie, the price point of the product, the commissions, or something else.
If you are operating as an info product developer, and you want your side hustle to be lucrative, you can have AI not only create valuable content that people are willing for, but ensure that your sales copy converts well for you, and even help you in recruiting affiliates to promote for you and expand your income in that way.
For freelance service providers, you can have AI help you in crafting your bids if you are working on a third party platform. It can also help you write pitches for clients that you are cold calling.
For influencers who want to monetize their efforts online, AI can give you a data-driven approach that helps you secure brand deals, get your audience engaged to the point that they want to send virtual gifts that you can convert into cash, and increase your viewership so that you can benefit from the creator funds that are bestowed upon top content creators.
Launching a side hustle is an admirable approach to increasing your income in incremental amounts. Whether you want to start off small and then grow it into something bigger or jump in fully from the beginning, AI can serve as a strategic tool in helping you achieve your goals.