So, you want to know how to make money with AI? Whether this has been your goal for a while or it’s a bright new aspiration to kickstart 2025, you’ve landed on the right page. With artificial intelligence developing rapidly, it’s not surprising that people have found various ways to boost their income using AI technology. If you haven’t yet, it’s not too late, and this is the best time to start.
In November 2024, it was reported that the AI market had grown from $80 billion in 2023 to $279 billion*. Now, at the start of 2025, it’s expected to reach $1.81 trillion by 2030, with those willing to learn AI earning thousands of dollars extra per month.
If you want to be one of them, this page could be your golden ticket. I’ve pulled together a list of 31 proven ways to make money with AI today, and the tools on the market to use to help you do it. With so many ideas on the list, you’re sure to find an area that you can supercharge with AI to launch a lucrative project.
- Show Full Guide
Top 31 Ways to Use AI to Make Money
There are plenty of ways to make money with AI, but in this guide, I’ll delve into the top 31 ways that are the most accessible to professionals and non-professionals alike.
I’ll highlight the best fields, areas, and markets that can be made more lucrative through the use of AI technology, as well as the best AI tools such as HubSpot and Rytr that will make it even easier.
For more information on best-in-class AI technology that you can use to boost your income, take a look at my ultimate guide to the best AI tools in 2025.
1. Create Written Content with an AI Writing Tool or Content Generator
One of the most prevalent markets in which AI technology has taken hold is written content generation. This is the most mainstream use of AI due to the huge popularity of chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which, as of January 2025, has 300 million visits per week or 123.5 million daily active users.
There are many ways to monetize the content you create using AI, like publishing it online and gaining commission through affiliate partnerships or content sponsorship. You can also monetize high-quality content creation as a freelancer copywriter or editor. The good news is, there are many free AI content generation and AI writing tools available.
One of my top recommendations is Scalenut, but I also like Rytr and Quillbot. The best AI writing tool will depend entirely on your specific project since there are a few ways you can approach this.
Quick note on Techopedia’s stance on AI for content creation.
At Techopedia we believe that AI can produce content, but we’re not ready to throw in the towel just yet. Our research and editors are experts at what they do, and so we’re fortunate enough to be able to prioritize delivering informative articles, written by humans, based on our first-hand experience and opinions. If you are starting a business and don’t have an expert team on hand to deliver content – AI tools can help – but you’ll need a quality editor to check the work.
Blogging Using AI
Blogging is a popular way to monetize written content via affiliate marketing and brand sponsorships. While it’s competitive, especially in fashion, beauty, and fitness, dedicated freelance writers who consistently post high-quality blog posts can see great returns.

During the first year of starting your blog, you could earn between $500-$2,000 per month, although do note there are several influencing factors on earning potential, with your site traffic and the size of of your online presence being the biggest ones.
First, you’ll need your own website. Only then can you start writing blog posts on topics you are interested in. An AI writer tool such as Rytr or can assist in generating blog post outlines or ideas. You can also use them to generate full or partial articles.
To rank well on search engines, ensure that your content is optimized. For help with this, you can also use an AI SEO tool like Scalenut or Surfer.
Note: It’s best to have some level of background knowledge in SEO before using these tools, as SEO can be a challenging skill to master due to the constantly changing nature of Google’s algorithm.
If you start gaining online traffic, you can make money by attracting sponsorships or affiliate links from relevant businesses in exchange for promoting their products or services.
Affiliate marketing can be both an active and passive income maker, depending on the traffic volumes of your content. Printify estimates that even at entry level, a beginner affiliate marketing salary is around $40,000 a year. However, I’d advise to start small, learn what works, and scale up your efforts over time; this figure won’t happen over night.
Read our full Rytr review.
AI-Supported Copywriting
Copywriting is an alternative form of writing that does not rely on search engine success. It refers to writing for advertising, editorial, or branding purposes. This makes it difficult to outsource to AI since excellent copywriting often relies on the nuances of language and adherence to a “brand voice”, which AI doesn’t always grasp. Plus, it’s an extremely competitive market, and people are becoming increasingly aware (and critical) of copy that’s written by AI.

Rather than relying completely on AI for copywriting or creative writing, I’d suggest using it as a writing partner or assistant. AI tools such as Rytr, or even chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude can be a great sounding board for ideas, breaking through writer’s block, or reformatting existing work. The final draft will need a human touch.
You can find copywriting opportunities on work marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork, or you can find your own clients through self-promotion and advertising. Jobs are typically paid per word, per hour, or project. I’d say, expect to earn around 5 cents per word as an entry-level freelancer, with the range going up to 30 cents or more if you have proven experience and subject specializations.
AI-Supported Editing
Another writing-adjacent way to make an income with AI is through editing. There are lots of AI editing tools out there, namely Quillbot, which is also free. Students and academic writers already make use of them to polish their work, but you could also add these tools to your workflow and work as a freelance editor for an agency or on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.
You’re looking at earning around 2 cents per word if you have little experience and are offering basic editing services. Experienced editors who are capable of doing advanced content development editing can earn over 30 cents per word.
Alternatively, you could also position yourself as an editor of AI-generated content. Many people lack the skills or time to check over AI-generated content but prefer to have a human-quality control check before publishing it on their websites. If you’re a professional writer or editor, this can be an easy way to speed up the editing process, earn money online while improving the quality of online content.
2. Create Graphic Design Assets Using AI
Graphic design is another area in which AI has an increasing presence. While I don’t feel AI tools can compete with human graphic design skills, AI design tools like Canva can be an excellent way to create sellable creative assets like logos, branding material, posters, and advertising imagery. They can also help designers refine the marketable creative services they offer on a freelance basis.
Another option is to create AI-generated stickers. You can generate art or use an existing image. Simply use the background removal tool and there you have it, a unique sticker you can sell.

Canva, and other tools like Picsart, offer many templates and pre-set designs to create high-quality visuals. This could be helpful if you’re an aspiring designer and need support getting started as a freelancer. If you’re an experienced designer, you could create some exceptional graphic work quicker than ever thanks to these tools, helping maximize your earning potential.
To gain visibility with your AI-generated art, you can also participate in AI art exhibitions or compete in competitions.
If you want to make money as a freelance graphic designer, Upwork could be a good place to start. According to their site, graphic designers charge between $15 and $150 an hour, with an average rate of around $25. Of course, the rate will depend on your level of experience, portfolio, locations, and other factors.

Feel free to take a look at my dedicated guide to the best AI Image Generators, which includes Picsart and other similar tools.
3. Freelance as a Photo Editor (AI-Powered Photo Editing)
Photo editors can employ a tool like Picsart to dramatically increase their productivity, allowing them to edit more elements of more photos for their clients in less time, all to a high standard. This can maximize the money they can make.

Many of these AI photo editing tools are designed to be easy to use, so this is a way for non-professional or budding photo editors to start out with some simple photo editing jobs, bringing in extra money while honing their professional skills
At entry level (which still requires photo editing and photography expertise), you can expect to earn upwards of $20 per hour for these services. This will increase with your experience and your larger portfolio.
Picsart offers retouching features that can make a photographer’s work stand out even more. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom have also introduced generative AI features to enhance images, fill in backgrounds, add details, and bulk edit a large numbers of photos. These make the job of photo editors easier and faster.

You could partner with a photographer who would be keen to pay a talented, detail-oriented editor to outsource the time-consuming process of editing, leaving them more time to focus on creativity.
A bonus money-making idea: you can speed up the process of editing ecommerce or product photography, for yourself or on commission for other businesses, by using an AI tool for mass image editing or quick fixes, such as removing backgrounds.
Take a look at my dedicated guide to the best AI Photo Editors, which includes Picsart as well as many other AI photo editing tools.
4. Cut and Edit Videos as a Freelancer Using AI
AI editing also extends to video, and video editors can now create and edit videos in a fraction of the time. Non-professional or aspiring video editors could also use them to start making money through simple video editing side projects.
Even at entry level you can look to make around $15 an hour as self employed video editor. Do note that you’ll still need foundational skills and some kind of work portfolio to start making money this way.
Adobe Premiere Pro is well-known as the most proficient video editing software. It has now introduced AI features for generative edits, such as adding and removing objects or extending scenes, making life easier for video editors.
Premiere Pro may be challenging for beginners, but there are more user-friendly alternatives with potentially less professional results. PictoryAI and Lovo AI are two AI video platforms that can create or edit videos for both business and personal use – for example, ad campaigns or photo compilations.
Similar to how you would monetize blog posts, you can also post your own videos on YouTube and earn money from sponsorships or AdSense, if you gain enough traction.
Read our full Lovo AI review.

5. Develop Apps and Chatbots Using AI Tools
You can use one of the top AI coding assistants to help create apps that you can sell or monetize. While programming knowledge is preferable, a very high level of knowledge is no longer essential.
AI-powered no-code or low-code platforms are available to create and monetize apps, making this a more accessible activity for many.
With AI-enhanced freelance coding, you can work on a commission-based model to program virtual assistants, chatbots, and automation tools for businesses. Tools like Chatfuel or Bubble let you create customized chatbots that handle customer inquiries or automate marketing tasks.
Reading through an OpenAI community forum on this topic, I can see that many experienced coders and developers say you can expect to sell a chatbot app for anything between $1,000 and $10,000.
Alternatively, you can develop apps and market them in the Apple or Google Play app stores. If your app ranks in the top 800, you could earn around $3,500 a day, according to Creative.onl.
Read our full Bubble review to see how you can create apps using its drag-and-drop functionality, without needing to have coding experience.
6. Train AI Systems and Models
AI training is a highly accessible yet still lucrative way to capitalize on the growing demand for accurate AI technology. It involves training AI systems or models to better recognize patterns, understand prompts, and, overall, become more accurate.
The main way this is done is by repeatedly providing human feedback on the performance of the AI tools or systems, but it can also include annotating, labelling, or transcribing AI output to help the software developers improve its accuracy over time.
One draw of AI training as a side hustle is the low barrier to entry. Even those with just a basic understanding of how AI works will be able to find opportunities on platforms such as ProfitDuel, Appen, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Lionbridge. Most of these platform offer the necessary training modules to get you started. From there, you can build your experience by working on different tasks and projects.
Another advantage of AI training is that the work is extremely flexible. You can simply sign up to the platforms and pick-and-choose the tasks you take on, making it the perfect income-boosting AI side hustle. If you need more persuading, just know that by training AI models, you’re contributing to the future of AI tech.
The more specialized the projects are, the more they will pay, but you can expect to make a pretty fair $12-$25 per hour from AI training.

7. Sell Educational Content Created Using AI Tools
Another market you can enter with AI-generated content is education. Online education is a market that’s fast growing, according to the World Economic Forum. There is also a range of levels to cater to, so your content doesn’t always need to be highly advanced.
One example of monetizing AI educational content is online tutoring: you could charge around $20-$25 per hour working as an online tutor, on sites like Tutor.com or Skooli. You can use AI to support the creation of slide decks or lesson plans.
Another prominent example is creating online courses with the support of AI. You can then sell them on dedicated content marketplaces like Kajabi. You can use an AI writing tool (Rytr or even ChatGPT) to create online course material.
I’ve read in multiple places that successful course creators can make between $1,000 and $10,000 a month. While the range is wide, it’ll take a bit of time and work to reach even the lower end.
Please note: it’s of paramount importance and your ethical duty to thoroughly fact-check and quality-assure this content before publishing it. People will be using this material to educate and inform themselves.
You can then create video content with a tool like Synthesia or Synthesys, which creates lifelike speaking avatars to present your content in an engaging way without recording a voiceover or showing your face on camera. Alternatively, you can create an AI voiceover without video using a tool like ElevenLabs or Murf AI. These videos can be posted on YouTube, gaining monetization via sponsorship or AdSense.

8. Make Money with AI Art
The art world’s relationship with AI technology has been particularly controversial. Tools such as Midjourney, Dall-E 3, and ArtSmart have been used to create hyper-realistic images and generative art based on existing works, gaining positive and negative attention.

However, there are still ways you can monetize AI-generated art while respecting artistic integrity and the broader art community. First and foremost, avoid generating art that closely resembles existing artists’ work, and always be transparent about your work being AI-generated when selling it online.
A happy medium can be using AI art generators to experiment or expand upon your existing artistic practice. This includes creating different colorways for your existing prints, personalizing artwork for customers, or creating illustrations for your writing pieces.
Many artists sell their work on platforms such as Etsy, where you can potentially earn between $43,000 and $46,000 per year. However, this seems to be only if it’s treated as a full-time venture, and will take some time to work up to.
Bonus tip: Visual artists with large portfolios of work can train their own AI model using an AI tool like Dreambooth. The model will then generate new pieces in their own style without copying other artists.
Read our full Artsmart review.
Social media users are set to increase by 1 billion by 2028, so it’s still an extremely fruitful industry to be involved in. While you can generate social media posts and captions with AI, you can also position yourself as a social media manager and charge for your services. AI tools make this a more accessible venture than before.
Tools like Simplified offer an all-in-one tool for planning, creating, posting, and tracking social media content. You can use this tool to efficiently manage your own business’s social media to increase revenue through social media marketing. You can also offer your services to other businesses needing a stronger online presence with less manual effort.

Depending on experience, freelance social media managers can make anywhere between $20 to $150 an hour, according to Sproutsocial. This is a great opportunity for someone who’s already interested in or is savvy with social media.
10. Music Production: Offering Services or Selling Music
There are a range of AI music tools on the market, including KitsAI, Riffusion, and Mubert AI. Some AI software can be used to create fully AI-generated songs, which could be sold online for various uses. Other tools can assist in music production by adding or removing vocals, stem splitting, mixing, and mastering.
These tools offer producers a cost-effective and DIY way to work on their music without fully-fledged music production software, making their trade more lucrative thanks to AI.
If you’re thinking on entering the world of freelance music production, inexperienced producers can look to earn around $20 to $50 per hour. Please note, this is a field where, even at an entry level, you will need foundational skills and ideally more experienced mentors.

Read our full Kits AI review.
11. Digital Marketing Campaigns: Self-Marketing or Offering Marketing Services
You can boost your online presence by using an AI tool to create, optimize, and track your digital marketing efforts.
One way is to use AI writing tools, such as Jasper or Simplified, to create personalized content marketing campaigns to better target your audience according to their specific demographic, location, and buying preferences. It’s been proven time and again that personlization makes marketing more profitable.
Another smart way to incorporate AI into your workflow is to adopt a CRM system such as HubSpot. This system has added multiple AI features to its platform to assist you with drafting high-quality content, honing your brand voice, generating social media captions, crafting email campaigns, and offering recommendations for improving SEO.
If you have existing marketing experience, you can make money by offering marketing services (that are optimized using AI tools) to others. Looking at averages, entry-level work could see you earn between $20 and $26 per hour as a freelance marketing manager.
Read our full HubSpot review.
12. Build Websites from Scratch Using AI Web Builders
Building a website is no longer a particularly complex project, partly because popular web builders are adopting AI features to streamline and automate parts of the process.
After scouring Reddit to see what the professional community has to say, I’ve found that an entry-level website builder (with less than three years experience) could charge anything between $20 and $60 an hour for their services.
You will need some experience or know-how regarding website layout, architecture, design, and SEO before you start offering paid-for services in this field.
There are a number of tools you can use to create websites from scratch with AI, and potentially make a profit doing so for businesses that need help building an online platform. The top AI web builders include Squarespace, Framer AI, and Jimdo. Take a look at my full dedicated guide to the best AI website builders for more options.
If you want to create your own website for a project or business idea, the productivity app, Notion, offers an AI web builder that’s easy to use and offers over 10,000 templates to choose from. Establishing and improving your online presence can help boost profits for your existing business.
13. Offer Translation Services Powered by AI
While online translators cannot be a replacement for mother-tongue human translators, they can speed up the process of translation.
If you speak another language, using an AI translator like DeepL or QuillBot can be a way to quickly translate longer pieces of text, leaving you with the simpler task of quality-checking and editing (again, that the last part is essential!).
By offering your translation services to businesses or people needing multilingual content, you can charge between $0.17 and $0.20 per word if you’re a native speaker and subject matter expert. I’d advise looking for jobs that fit your profile in this way.
Another way AI translators can add value to your projects is by allowing you to translate written content into different languages or by dubbing your videos in another language so that you can market your content to international audiences, increasing your potential client base. For this, you can use a text-to-speech app such as Murf AI or ElevenLabs. If you don’t speak the language, I’d advise running the final output by a native speaker to avoid mistranslation.
Read our full Quillbot review.
14. AI-Powered Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one way to monetize online content via blogging or sponsored social media posts. When somebody clicks your link and makes a purchase, you’ll earn a small commission from the sale.
This process can be optimized and automated with AI tools like ThirstyAffiliates, Internal Link Juicer, and Post Affiliate Pro. These tools can help manage your links, track the performance, and optimize your content for SEO to drive more traffic to your website. This will increase the clicks and your commission earned.
For maximum benefit from affiliate marketing, it is helpful to have an established online presence with your target audience. This will enable a quicker return on your investment. If you don’t have a large online following, I’d first recommend investing in building it up so that you can make the most of your affiliate marketing efforts.
As mentioned above, Printify estimates that even quite basic affiliate marketing efforts can bring in around $40,000 a year, but I wouldn’t recommend you count on this from the word go!
15. Offer SEO Services or Boost your Site’s SEO with AI
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a huge part of digital marketing and online content. Without being optimized for search engines, even well-written content won’t get the attention it deserves as it won’t rank highly on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
The optimization process also requires a lot of technical knowledge and consistent research, so it’s a worthwhile industry to get acquainted with because it can be lucrative to charge for your services if you can optimize sites for search engines.
You can use AI SEO tools such as Semrush, Scalenut, and Surfer to perform keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, and link building to help your web pages climb to the top of Google’s SERPs.
Those who are new to the industry can expect to make around $20 to $50 per hour as a freelance SEO. However, you will be judged on your ability to tangibly grow a website’s traffic, so don’t skimp on your upskilling and SEO expertise before you start this venture.
Read our full Scalenut review.
16. AI-Driven Automated Customer Support
Most of us are familiar with automated AI chatbots instead of a real human support agent. While it can sometimes be frustrating, AI powered chatbots are becoming more adept at solving customer queries, helping save businesses time and money. Repetitive questions can be easily dealt with, and chatbots can also help improve the quality and relevance of your knowledge base over time by reporting commonly asked questions.
But how to monetize it? You can offer your freelance coding services to businesses without extensive programming experience by using a no-code or low-code platform like Chatfuel or Bubble. You can sell customer support chatbot apps for anything between $1,000 and $10,000, according to many OpenAI community forum users.
Alternatively, you can use this method as a cost reduction for your own online business by creating your own AI customer support agent.
17. AI-Powered Voiceovers
You can utilize tools like ElevenLabs and Murf AI to convert text into AI-generated speech. Although robotic-sounding voices may not appeal to all audiences, significant advancements are being made to make AI-generated speech sound more natural. It’s worth exploring these options to save on the expense of hiring a real voice actor.
You can use AI-generated voiceovers to enhance videos on platforms like YouTube. With enough views, you can monetize your videos and generate income through affiliate or sponsorships partnerships. If you’re selling educational courses, AI voiceovers could be a crucial part of the material.
Additionally, AI-generated voiceovers can be used to help grow your presence on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, allowing you to add an engaging voice to your content without using your own.
Read our full ElevenLabs review.

18. AI Retail Inventory Management
Smart AI inventory management tools can use predictive analytics to offer a better sales forecast and help with cost reduction of running an online store.
This helps you accurately replenish stock in line with predicted demand, reducing wasted products and unnecessary investment. It means you can scale up an online store up into something bigger and more complicated that you could have done without the AI tool.
Some suggestions for tools that can help with predictive retail inventory management are Slimstock, Llamasoft, and Oracle Retail.
The way to make money here is to “run a successful online ecommerce store” that’s powered with AI inventory management to be as lucrative as possible. Interestingly, Oyova have crunched some numbers to show that the average online store in the US makes between $279.15 and $1,116.60.
19. AI-Supported Personal Finance
An indirect way that AI can help with making money is through optimizing your personal finances. While it may not make you more money, you can identify areas in which you can tighten your belt and contribute to long-term financial success.
Some user-favorite AI personal finance apps include Intuit Assist, a generative AI financial assistant, and YNAB (You Need A Budget), an online budgeting program with a generous free trial and bank-grade security measures.
20. Consulting and Strategy Development
If you have specialized entrepreneurial expertise that businesses may lack, you are in the ideal position to start charging for your consulting services. There are a few AI tools that can be helpful when starting out with your consulting career.
ChatGPT can be extremely helpful in organizing your insights and generating reports and client presentations. It’s also helpful to back up your advice with data insights, so using a tool like Google Analytics or AI-assisted CRM like HubSpot can help customize your advice to your client’s individual business performance.
If you’re thinking of entering this game, Glassdoor says that entry level business consultants in the US make between $47,000 and $83,000 on average per year. As I mentioned at the beginning of this section, you will need existing expertise.
21. Manage Paid Advertising Campaigns using AI
Another lucrative area of online marketing is paid advertising. This refers to ads posted on social media, websites, and search engines that are paid for by businesses commonly on a pay-per-click (PPC) model.
There are many ways to use AI to make money within paid advertising. Google Ads and Facebook Ad Manager use algorithms to segment audiences and target specific markets according to various differentiating factors.
You could also use an AI content generator that specifically supports ad creation, like Copy.ai, to create more eye-catching content for your ads and see an increase in user engagement.
You can use tracking tools likes Google Analytics or HubSpot, to track the performance of your ads and refine your strategy.
All of these can be offered as a service to paying brands or businesses. If you have some understanding of paid advertising already, you could start out as a freelance paid advertising manager for around $25 per hour.
22. AI-driven CRM and Customer Management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is an important ingredient of any successful business wanting to turn casual website visitors into loyal customers.
This is another possible way in which you can offer your services to online businesses or optimize your own business’s online presence. If you’re offering this service, the going rate for CRM management is between $25 to $75 for a beginner-level freelance wage.
CRM tools like HubSpot make it easy to segment audiences according to various factors, such as age, location, or purchasing habits. You can then run targeted campaigns that are more relevant to buyers. HubSpot also offers AI features such as content writing, email writing, SEO recommendations, and a chatbot builder, all of which can boost a business’s customer relationships.
23. Ecommerce Store Optimization using AI to Boost Profits
If you’re running an existing ecommerce store, you can utilize AI to better market your products or services to your target audience and increase your revenue.
You can use an ecommerce tool that uses AI, such as Shopify Magic. It will give you helpful AI suggestions, shortcuts, and generative features to help improve the appearance and functionality of your website.
Alternatively, you can employ an AI writing tool or an AI SEO tool to improve assets. This includes your product descriptions and landing pages, optimizing them for search engines. It is possible for this to increase your website’s traffic and encourage customers to make a purchase.
Based on my research, the average online store in the US makes between $279.15 and $1,116.60. Are you at the top of that bracket, and could you make more by using AI?
24. AI-Aided Transcription Services
As well as turning text into speech, AI tools can turn speech into text, effectively acting as a transcriber.
Tools such as Otter.ai and Notta offer transcription, using live and existing audio files. You can use these tools to take notes during your important business meetings, maximizing value and ensuring no important points are overlooked.
If you’re a writer or journalist, an AI transcriber can be extremely useful during interviews. Transcribing manually is very time-consuming, so you can win back precious time to spend on more profitable and productive activities.
You can get paid “per audio hour” or per word if you offer this as a service. The former tends to be more lucrative, ranging up to around $20 per hour. If paid per word, you’re looking at 1.5 to 10 cents per word. The use of AI can help you up your word count without compromising on accuracy.
25. Offer Investing and Trading Tips
One way in which AI can help you achieve financial success without needing to solicit a customer base or have your own business is by offering tips for trading and investing.
Disclaimer: AI trading bots have attracted controversy due to their potential to manipulate the market and increase volatility by quickly executing large volumes of trades, which can lead to sudden price movements.
Ethical concerns also crop up because trading bots can offer a significant advantage to tech-savvy investors over those without access to or knowledge of bots.
While AI can enhance trading strategies, it’s important to recognize that predicting the market with complete accuracy is impossible.
Leading hedge funds do use AI, but it’s combined with human expertise to lessen risks. Therefore, traders should not rely on AI, as real knowledge and experience are essential – especially when significant financial stakes are involved.
To dip your toes into AI investing and trading tools, there are a few that you can check out: Dash2Trade, WienerAI, and ArbitrageScanner.
26. Saving Costs with AI Tools for Small Businesses
Small businesses can indirectly increase their profit with AI by outsourcing repetitive tasks, optimizing workflows, and identifying new business opportunities.
They can also benefit greatly from the free AI tools because smaller teams won’t be heavily impacted by usage limitations.
HubSpot offers a free CRM solution to manage your contacts, which also includes smart AI features to help speed up processes and identify ways to improve your customer relationships.
Free content generators and editors like Rytr and QuillBot can support small businesses by producing high-quality content to help them better engage with their customers.
Free AI design tools like Canva and Picsart can give your social media account a professional touch and help grow your business’s online presence.
27. Real Estate and Property Management Supported by AI
Real estate is another industry that can benefit from adopting AI-driven software. It can manage lead generation, client relationships, and property management – ultimately leading to more sales.
Popular tools like Zillow Premier Agent can help real estate agents connect with suitable buyers much quicker than doing manual research. This is also the case with many CRM systems including HubSpot, which is also an all-in-one sales, marketing, and customer support tool – and it’s free.
Real estate agents can use AI image generation to reimagine home interiors. Tools that can generate ultra-realistic results are best for this purpose, including industry leaders Midjourney or Dall-E 3.
How much money does this make a real estate agency or agent? McKinsey & Company claims AI has helped real estate companies gain over 10 percent or more in net operating income.
28. AI-Supported Manufacturing and Supply Chain
AI can significantly enhance the end-to-end logistics in manufacturing and supply chain management by using predictive analytics to anticipate maintenance needs, optimize stock levels, and streamline workflows.
While this isn’t an idea for a side hustle or new startup, supply chain optimization is an essential way to add value to your existing business.
If you need convincing: virtasant Enterprise AI claims that early adopters of AI supply chain streamlining have seen a 15% decrease in costs.
This optimization leads to increased efficiency, reduced downtime, and maximized revenue. By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI tools can foresee potential issues before they arise, ensuring smoother operations and better resource management.
Beginning with demand forecasting, tools like Blue Yonder and Forecast use AI to predict future demand, enabling accurate production and inventory planning. In post-production, quality control phases can benefit from AI-driven visual inspection tools like Qualitas and Landing AI, ensuring product standards are upheld.
SparkCognition and Augury are additional AI platforms that make the most of your existing data to forecast trends, improve decision-making, and optimize maintenance schedules across various industries, making operations more efficient and reliable.
Once you begin delivering products, route optimization tools like Route4Me and KeepTruckin can improve delivery efficiency by suggesting the best, most efficient routes for your drivers to take. Uptake is an AI-driven SaaS platform that’s widely used in the fleet industry to prevent unplanned vehicle failures.
Project44 and FourKite can improve overall supply chain visibility by providing real-time insights and shipment tracking.
29. Consult as a Data Researcher using AI Insights
If you lack first-hand entrepreneurial experience but are a data whiz, you can generate income by interpreting data, predicting trends, and presenting companies with ideas for improvement.
There are a few platforms you can use to support this business plan, two of which are Alteryx and IBM’s Watson. Alteryx allows you to prepare and blend data from various sources and build predictive models without extensive coding knowledge.
In addition, IBM’s Watson applies AI-powered analytics, including machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), to uncover deeper patterns and trends. Watson’s cognitive services, like sentiment analysis and predictive modeling, allow you to extract valuable insights from unstructured data such as customer feedback or social media.
By combining the two, Alteryx’s data management with Watson’s AI capabilities, you can create end-to-end, data-driven solutions that help your clients improve their operations, predict future trends, and make informed decisions.
After doing some research, the starting hourly freelance wage can vary from around $10 – $80 for this work. Even freelance salaries can easily go up to $100,000+ a year for experienced professionals.
30. Commission-Based Recruitment through AI Talent Acquisition
Recruiters can benefit from AI-assisted lead generation to help target the right candidates for jobs and earn commissions from doing so.
The top recruitment CRMs, including HubSpot and monday.com often utilize AI to help move candidates through the hiring funnel. Additionally, specialized tools such as HireEZ (formerly Hiretual) and SeekOut are particularly valuable for recruiters. These platforms use AI to scour the web for potential candidates, helping build comprehensive talent pools and reach diverse, hard-to-find demographics.
As it’s still emerging, there isn’t a huge amount of hard data on this topic yet, but some sources say that AI is helping recruiters cut costs of candidate screening by around 75%.
31. Create and Sell Your Own AI Software Solution
If you’ve been thinking that none of the AI tools on this list would help you with what you want to do, you may be the right person to develop a completely new AI solution that you can then sell.
Identifying the gap in the market will be the first and possibly the hardest step. With so many new applications for AI being discovered and new solutions created at a rapid pace, finding an untouched niche will require some creativity. Ideally, the app would be something that aligns with your life or work experience, so you will know best how to develop, refine, and sell the product.
If you’re looking to build an app or chatbot, it could be worth quickly revisiting number 5 on this list, “Develop Apps and Chatbots Using AI Tools”. Generally, an Application Programming Interface (API), like OpenAI’s API would support you with app programming.
But an AI solution doesn’t have to be an app. It could be a new type of algorithm or AI model which enhances an existing product. Examples could be AI-based recommendation engines that are integrated into ecommerce platforms, or Natural Language Processors that are built into generative tools.
If you’re thinking this sounds complex and like it would require a data science background, you’re not wrong. Creating a brand new AI model or algorithm includes steps like data collection (for the model to learn from), data cleaning, data labelling, and data splitting.
However, the pay-off can be decent, even for simpler creations. For example, if you train a pre-existing model to solve a specific task in a new way, e.g. train it to translate image files into code, you could probably sell it for a few thousand dollars. Bigger enterprise solutions which go some way to transforming the efficiency of large businesses, you’re looking at the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If you’re a digital inventor with the right skills and a vision, it could really pay to think big and enter this dynamic market.
A Full Guide to Making Money With AI — Everything You Need to Know
Here, I’ll guide you through the ins ands outs of using AI to make money. You’ll find out what you can potentially earn using AI, tips of using AI to make money, the free AI tools available to you, quick ways you can start earning money with AI, and the cons to using AI to earn an income.
How Much Can You Earn With AI Powered Tools?
The answer is that this varies greatly. Your income from AI projects will hinge on experience, location, and industry and may even be different from client to client. This is why I’ve given an idea of the starting wages or hourly earnings for each of the ways to make money listed above. These are helpful indicators for those doing the work on a freelance basis or just starting out.
I’ve put together a very brief guide below of how much professionals in some of the most popular industries I’ve covered are earning. You can use this as a ballpark figure for how much you could potentially be earning by combining AI with your existing talents and expertise.
All figures listed are based on average salaries in the US as of January 2025 and depend on location and experience.
AI Supported Job | Yearly Earnings |
---|---|
Content writing | $30,980—$105,013 |
Developing | $67,000—$130,000 |
Graphic design | $44,350—$76,970 |
Social media management | $35,304—$95,087 |
Video editing | $32,349—$105,383 |
Transcription | $27,163—$107,197 |
Top Tips: How to Make Money with AI
Remember, using AI to make money is not a get-rich-quick scheme, nor is it a replacement for real skills and experience. It’s important to emphasize that AI is best used as a supplementary tool to your existing work.
If you lack the skills and knowledge to quality-check your AI-generated work, you can run the risk of sending out subpar, factually incorrect, or plagiarized work. With that disclaimer in mind, below is a quick overview of where to begin if you want to start monetizing AI:
Identify niche markets
You should first identify a demand, ideally a niche market that hasn’t been capitalized on yet. This will give your AI business plan the best chance of success.
However, it can be difficult to find completely uncharted territory and new ideas in a saturated market like AI. Therefore, we recommend avoiding reinventing the wheel and instead think of ways to add value to existing projects, such as through personalization, customization, optimization, or reaching new markets with the help of AI.
Add value
Once you’ve honed in on your target market, think of ways you can add value to the audience. There might already be an existing project that you’d like to further monetize, or you may spot an opportunity to help somebody else build their business.
For example, a personal trainer may complete their service offering by offering personalized meal plans or training regimes and generate the design or copy for these assets with help from an AI tool. Alternatively, if you’re a self-published author, you may find it cost-effective to design your book covers with some assistance from an AI art generator.
Dedicate time and effort
While AI can certainly speed things up, don’t expect an overnight success. As with any new venture, your AI side hustle deserves some TLC to flourish into a profitable business. The best case scenario is that eventually your efforts turn into low-maintenance or passive incomes.
Build a portfolio
As any freelancer will attest, when convincing potential clients of your talents, it’s better to show than to tell. Be sure to document your work. You can even create a few mock projects to generate a portfolio for yourself to present to clients.
Stay updated on AI trends
AI technologies are constantly evolving, so it’s important to stay updated to stay ahead of the competition. It’s also crucial to keep an eye out for new tools entering the market, as there is fierce competition among AI developers, with each striving to outperform the others with advanced features.
Can I Use Free AI Tools to Make Money?
While many of the top AI tools are protected behind paid subscriptions, there are many free options available, meaning you generate income from AI with zero upfront costs.
While these tools will get the job done, you may run into usage and data limitations, making them a less reliable solution for a long-term business venture than a paid tool.
Below are on some of the best, reliable free AI tools for different use cases:
Rytr is one of the most generous free AI content generators. It offers a completely free plan, with 10k characters per month. It also offers a built-in plagiarism checker to ensure you aren’t copying other writer’s work and even generates SEO meta-data to help you rank higher on search engines.
Lovo AI‘s Genny platform offers a free plan with up to five minutes of voice generation per month to use across five different platforms. Its built-in video editor is ideal for quickly making YouTube videos that you could potentially monetize.
You can use free AI music generators to create quick jingles, personalized tunes, or custom backing tracks for social media. Canva has its own free music generator. Alternatively, you can check out Udio, Suno, or Riffusion.
Picsart is one of the best free AI art generators and editing tools. It allows you to quickly generate eye-catching graphics. Getimg.ai is another AI tool with a generous free plan, and it allows you to play with more experimental results.
HubSpot is my number one suggestion for a free AI marketing tool. Its integrated sales, marketing, and CRM platform offers a one-stop solution for expertly managing your marketing campaigns and connecting with your customers in a more meaningful way.
Jimdo is a web builder that offers AI features and a free plan, which is ideal for small businesses and side hustles. You can access all the base features, but the catch is that you’ll have to make do with a .jimdosite.com subdomain.
Quick Ways to Make Money With AI
While AI should be used to enhance your skillset, there are simpler ways of using AI to make money. While some of these could help you earn a passive income, effort will still be required on your part to market your side hustle.
- Generate ebooks: Many of the top AI writing tools on this list can generate long-form content, which is books in this case. The AI tools can create engaging stories and characters, which also includes character progression and growth. This is great if you plan on launching a series. You can upload AI-generated content onto Amazon, but you must declare it. I’d recommend using ClosersCopy for this task.
- Create digital art: Whether you are creating it for a book cover or for a small business’s social media, you can generate artwork that can be sold. For this, I’d suggest using Picsart.
- Make an audiobook: Leverage the power of AI and offer a service to turn a writer’s written work into audiobooks. For this, I’d recommend ElevenLabs or Murf AI. Both of these tools have the features needed to tweak the audio to your specific needs.
- Create Logos: This is a perfect way to help startups or side hustles create memorable branding. There are numerous apps that are specifically designed for this purpose. I’d recommend using Looka or DesignEvo if you want to create monogram logos.
- Build websites: While this may seem daunting, there are many AI tools that can generate a full website for you by utilizing prompts. You can offer to build websites to startups and non-profit organizations that are in need of a website but are short on time or expertise.
Making Money From AI as an Individual VS as a Business
This page has been written to help both individuals who are looking for new money-making projects or side-hustles and businesses looking to improve their profit margins and make more money using AI automation and streamlining.
Below is a quick-view table of some of the main ways to make (more) money with an AI as a business versus as an individual.
You make (more) money with AI as a business by… | You make money with AI as an individual by… |
---|---|
Deploying AI-boosted CRM and Customer Service, e.g. with 24/7 customer service AI chatbots or predictive customer behaviour analytics | Offering skills and services, that are enhanced by AI tools, on a freelance basis, including small “microservices” such as translation, image recognition, etc. |
Enhancing marketing efforts with AI-generated marketing copy, improving customer targeting, and better customer personalization | Creating and selling AI products (apps, chatbots, models) |
Enhancing your business’s online store or ecommerce platform with AI-driven features like dynamic pricing, visual search, and personalized customer recommendations | Offering consulting services that are informed by an AI-powered knowledge base |
Streamlining logistical efficiency of supply & manufacturing chains with AI predictive analytics | Drafting monetizable digital content, such as blogs and eBooks, using AI content generator tools |
Creating branded content, graphics, images, logos, and video for your website, adverts, social channels, etc. | Drafting sellable offline content, such as books, using AI content generator tools |
Forecasting sales, revenue, profit, margin, and several other metrics based on large data sets using AI analytics, helping you make more informed business decisions | Creating sellable courses and educational material based on your personal expertise and knowledge using generative AI |
Optimizing inventory and stock management with AI tools to reduce lost or dead stock (that’s unsellable) and boost profits | Creating unique AI art and music that people will buy |
How to Choose the Best AI Tools to Make Money
In this guide, I’ll run through some key factors to consider when choosing the optimal AI tool to generate extra income.
Consider the type of work you are already excel at and find a tool to enhance your output and quality. AI cannot replace real skills and experience. Look for tools that align with your own talents and that offer complimentary features that will help you work smarter, quicker, and more efficiently.
Perform a quick Reddit search of AI tools before deciding it will be your ticket to financial freedom. See what other users are saying about its ease of use as using AI is meant to make things easier, not harder.
Check that the tool is legitimate and can generate quality output. Especially in the case of written content, would you be happy attaching your name or your brand’s name to it?
You should customize your content before publication. Check whether this is possible within the platform and whether it offers scope for altering the input criteria or if it supports multiple generations.
You should choose a tool that strikes a good balance between quality content and affordability. Opting for a free or cheap tool could cost you in quality, while an overly expensive tool could cancel out the profitability aspect of your business venture.
How We Review And Test AI Tools
We base our recommendations on first-hand testing. All the products we feature, have been tested based on the following criteria. For more information, visit our dedicated methodology page on how we test and review AI tools.
- Accuracy & Prompt Interpretation: The accuracy of every AI tool varies and is largely dependent on the AI model used and the quality of the input. We test each tool to gauge its accuracy across the tasks and use cases it supports.
- Performance & Model Architecture: We look at the sophistication of the AI model(s) the tool is based on, and we test how long it takes the AI tool to deliver results and weigh this time against the quality of the output. Quick results mean nothing if the output isn’t accurate, relevant, or what you expected.
- Ethics & Safety: We explore any issues with bias, transparency, and privacy to ensure we recommend only the best artificial intelligence solutions that take these ethical concerns seriously.
- Innovation & Updates: AI is a dynamic, fast-developing space; we look at how well the tools we review are keeping up in terms of how often the improve and update their product.
- User Experience: We test every AI tool on all the supported platforms to gauge its user-friendliness and whether it works as advertised. We also explore any online documentation available.
- Value for Money: We weigh the features, performance, and accuracy of the market’s best AI tools against their cost to determine their value for money. We also factor in the cost to scale with the platform.
- Features & Customization: We test every feature on offer with the service over a two-week period. This includes testing their functionality across all the platforms the tool supports. We also look at the extent to which you can customize, edit, or refine the final output.
- Security: From data privacy to ensuring the tools haven’t had a data breach, we take security seriously, checking their regulatory compliance and how vulnerable the AI models are to exploitation.
Challenges of Making Money with AI
With the recent AI boom, there are now so many ways to utilize these handy tools to help boost your income. However, there are some potential challenges you should consider:
- Data Privacy Concerns: AI is a relatively new and ungoverned technology, the rules and regulations relating to data privacy can fall into a grey area. To work effectively, AI systems are trained on large volumes of data that can lead to issues of data consent. GDPR also mandates that personal data is stored securely, but many AI tools, unfortunately, do not fulfil this requirement or are not completely transparent about how data is used or where it is stored. To comply with data minimization and limitation principles, AI tools should only use the data absolutely necessary to function properly and not for any other purpose.
- Ethical Concerns: AI attracts skepticism, and openly using AI tools can negatively affect your business’s trustworthiness. AI is still relatively controversial, and your audience may hold divisive opinions about your usage of it. The concerns are around issues of transparency as it can be used for surveillance, to create deepfakes, or spread misinformation.
- Algorithm Bias: An AI system is only as intelligent as the data set that it is trained on. This can lead to discriminatory practices as it could perpetuate and even amplify the information it is built from.
- Security: While many of the top AI tools offer secure servers for their serive, this is not the case for every tool on the market. This means that some AI systems can be vulnerable to hacking and other cyber threats, which could lead to data theft.
Conclusion: 31 Proven Ways to Make Money With AI
Now that you know a bit more about how to make money with AI, here is a quick recap of the top 30 ways to generate an income using AI and the best tools to use when doing so:
- Create written content with AI writing tools – Top tool: Rytr
- Create graphic design assets – Top tool: Canva
- Freelance as a photo editor (photo editing) – Top tool: Picsart
- Cut and edit videos as a freelancer using AI – Top tool: Adobe Premiere Pro or Lovo
- Develop chatbots and apps with AI – Top tool: Bubble
- Train AI systems and models – Top tools: ProfitDuel or Amazon Mechanical Turk
- Sell educational content created using AI tools – Top tool: Synthesia or Synthesys
- Make money with AI art – Top tool: ArtSmart
- Offer social media management services – Top tool: Simplified
- Music production: services or selling music – Top tool: Kits AI
- Digital marketing campaigns: self-marketing or services – Top tool: HubSpot
- Build websites from scratch – Top tool: Notion
- Offer translation services powered by AI – Top tool: QuillBot
- AI-powered affiliate marketing – Top tool: ThirstyAffiliates
- Offer SEO services (or boost your site’s SEO) – Top tool: Scalenut
- AI-driven automated customer support – Top tool: Writesonic
- AI-powered voiceovers – Top tool: ElevenLabs or Murf AI
- AI retail inventory management – Top tool: Slimstock
- AI-supported personal finance – Top tool: YNAB
- Consulting and strategy development – Top tool: HubSpot
- Manage paid advertising campaigns using AI – Top tool: Google Analytics
- AI-driven CRM and customer management – Top tool: HubSpot
- Online store optimization using AI – Top tool: Shopify Magic
- AI-aided transcription services – Top tool: Otter or Notta
- Offer AI-backed investing and trading tips – Top tool: Dash2Trade
- AI Tools for Small Businesses – Top tool: HubSpot, Asana, monday.com
- Real estate and property management supported by AI – Top tool: Zillow Premier Agent
- AI-Optimized manufacturing and supply chain – Top tool: Uptake
- Consult as a data researcher (AI insights) – Top tool: Alteryx or IBM Watson
- Commission-based recruitment through AI talent acquisition – Top tool: HireEZ or Seekout
- Create and Sell Your Own AI Solution – Top tool: OpenAI’s API
FAQs
What’s the best free AI tool to make money?
How can you make passive income with AI?
Can I make money on YouTube with AI content?
What is the best AI business to start?
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How can you make money on Audible with AI?
How to make money with Amazon AI?
References
- Number of ChatGPT Users (January 2025) |demandsage
- Creating Helpful, Reliable, People-First Content | Google Search Central | Documentation
- How much Money do Mobile Apps Make? (2025 Update) | Creative.onl
- How Much Does The Average Etsy Seller Make? | Sale Samurai | Etsy SEO Analytics & Keyword Search Volume
- Number of worldwide social network users 2028 | Statista
- The art world’s AI dilemma: how can artists and museums thrive when big tech controls the monetising of artificial intelligence? | The Art Newspaper
- GDPR