It seems like in the span of just a few years, AI went from being a seemingly mythical, futuristic technology to something that’s embedded in practically every app we use on a daily basis. There’s certainly much more room for exploration and development, but in some ways, the AI market is already oversaturated.
How do you make your product stand out in this crowded, highly competitive field?
What Is Oversaturation?
There are a few ways to think about oversaturation, making it hard to concisely answer the question of whether the AI market is oversaturated.
First, you could define oversaturation as a seeming overabundance of companies competing in a given field. Second, you could define oversaturation as a lack of room for more companies to enter the space. These two definitions may seem like two sides of the same coin, but they actually reflect two different conditions, and they are neither mutually exclusive nor codependent.
For example, it’s possible to see and hear a lot about AI, despite the fact that there’s still considerable room for new, innovative products and differentiation. It’s also possible for the market to be fundamentally locked down, with little room for innovation – yet featuring only a small handful of competing companies.
In the AI market, we’re closer to the former than the latter. It seems like every company under the sun is promoting and talking about AI, whether they develop AI products or simply use them. But at the same time, AI is still a very new field with practically unlimited room for future innovation and growth.
So in some ways, yes, the AI market is currently very hyped and very loud, but we can’t consider it fully oversaturated.
Key Problems Associated With Oversaturation
Even so, contemporary AI companies face many challenges, including:
· Visibility. When there are thousands of major companies constantly talking about AI, it’s hard to promote your own efforts and innovations without getting lost in a sea of noise. A good PR strategy for your AI company can easily overcome this, but it’s still a necessary investment of time and money.
· Differentiation. It’s also hard to make users care about your product or see it as different. As a simple example, there are dozens of tools that can help you generate images from simple text prompts, but can the average user honestly tell the difference between all these products? And if you created a new one, would you be capable of convincing them that yours is better?
· Consumer fatigue. Another problem is consumer fatigue. Average consumers, even those interested in new technologies, eventually get bored of seeing the same buzzwords and headlines repeatedly. By the time they start reading your content, they’ll be more likely to roll their eyes than actually hear what you’re saying.
· The “gold rush” boom and bust. New technologies, regardless of their merits, often go through phases of boom and bust. Cryptocurrency is a great example here; for a few years, it seemed like it was all anyone would talk about. Today, it has fallen dramatically in popular interest and discourse. If your promotion strategy is mistimed, you could suffer from the bust without benefiting from the boom.
How to Succeed in the AI Market
So how can you succeed in an AI market that is, in some respects, oversaturated?
· Differentiate your product. First, you need to find some way to differentiate your product. Don’t use common buzzwords. Don’t highlight features users are already bored of. Find a way to highlight what makes your product truly unique.
· Target a unique niche. Instead of targeting a broad, massive audience, start with a demographic niche that’s narrow and more concretely defined. It will help you choose better channels and maximize visibility with only your most relevant users. It will also help you avoid straightforward competition. You can always expand your audience later.
· Develop a thorough PR strategy. Develop a robust PR strategy, from start to finish. Through consistent, reputation-boosting PR, you can gradually build both your visibility and your credibility – and outcompete any AI company that isn’t already strategically pursuing PR.
· Create better content. Content is still king in both PR and marketing, but ironically, many AI companies struggle to create good content. This is your opportunity to create deeper, more meaningful, more personal, more engaging content for your users. If you can do it successfully, you’ll easily start generating more traffic and earning more loyalty.
· Embrace user generated content (UGC). User generated content (UGC) is any kind of content created by your users. If you have an AI tool that helps users generate content, this should be a slam dunk. Encourage your users to use your AI tools to create their own interesting pieces; it’s an inexpensive and straightforward way to broaden your reach and help users feel more engaged with your product.
· Build a community. In line with this, try to build a whole community around your product. Get involved in forums, engage with your users directly, and reward users who serve as pillars in the community to incentivize further participation.
Creating an AI company is tough. Marketing and managing PR for that company is arguably even tougher, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. But with the help of an innovative foundational strategy, and some marketing and PR experts in your corner, you should have no trouble competing with even your toughest rivals.
