Like I promised in the previous article, this time I am going to shed some more light on AI generated business plans and how this may impact the outcome of your funding application. Firstly, you have to understand that AI is here to assist you in almost every area of your life. So, as long as you learn to use it properly, safely and ethically, it will always bring you positives. However, the reality in which AI tools completely replace human intellect, experience, reasoning and knowledge is still far in the future. Now let's get back to writing your business plan. While there’s no substitute for thoughtful strategy and expert insights, artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, DeepSeek and even Meta AI can be a helpful tool in the process. But where does AI shine, and where do you still need that human touch?
What Parts of the Business Plan Can You Write with AI?
1. The Cover Page and Contents Page
Both of these sections are fairly straightforward, with little room for interpretation. AI tools can easily generate the layout, ensuring that all necessary details are included (like business name, date, and website). You can use AI to create a professional layout for the contents page, listing sections and ensuring proper formatting. And for a modern, sleek and reader-friendly design you can use Canva, which also successfully integrates an array of AI apps.
2. Executive Summary
Given the right prompts, ChatGPT can help you craft a concise and clear executive summary. After inputting your business idea, product or service, market, and financial projections, AI can generate a polished summary. However, you’ll still need to inject a personal touch, emphasising the uniqueness of your business. AI can save you time by producing a draft, but you should refine it to ensure it aligns with your vision. It's in the name - a chat - you will have to have a proper conversation in order to get what you really want from the friendly robot.
3. Market Research and Competitor Analysis
AI is a powerhouse when it comes to quickly gathering secondary data. It can help collect statistics, industry trends, and insights into market size and growth rates. A massive caveat here is that most AI models have limited access to recent data. ChatGPT- 4 is trained on information and data up to September 2021, while DeepSeek has access to information and data up to December 2023. No existing text-generating AI model can access and work with real time data, especially when it comes to public statistics. That means, you will have to do some of the digging yourself and maybe ask the Chat to help you with the analysis of the market data and trends you've discovered.
Also, when it comes to primary research—like surveys, interviews, and understanding nuanced customer preferences— you are once again on your own. While AI can provide you with appropriate questions for your primary research and templates for competitive analysis, only you can offer the depth of understanding needed to identify your true competitors and develop a robust SWOT analysis. Well, you or an experienced (human) professional.
4. Product/Service Description and Pricing Strategy If you provide AI with the product details, it can generate a clear description, highlight key benefits, and structure your offering in an easy-to-read format. AI tools can also assist with basic pricing models, offering suggestions based on industry standards. That said, pricing decisions should always involve human judgment. You’ll need to ensure the pricing strategy is based on real-world market conditions and your business’s production costs, which are best understood by someone with intimate knowledge of the business. Again, remember AI models do NOT have the current market data!
5. Marketing Strategy
AI can generate suggestions for marketing strategies based on successful case studies, general industry practices, and consumer behaviour analysis. It’s great for generating marketing plans that fit within general frameworks, such as the 7 Ps of marketing. But creating an authentic, tailored strategy—one that truly resonates with your audience—requires human creativity. In particular, personal insights from customer surveys or your own experiences should inform the final plan.
6. Financial Projections and Balance Sheets
AI can assist in generating financial projections, such as revenue forecasts, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets, by inputting historical data and applying formulas. However, this section requires you to deeply understand your business's financial landscape. You'll need to ensure that these projections are realistic, factoring in everything from fixed costs to market fluctuations. If you want your plan to be strong, you will have to feed the AI tool all the financial information, because the one it can pull will be outdated!
7. Appendices and Supporting Documentation
AI can organise your appendices and ensure all necessary documents are included, like CVs, product prototypes, and survey results. However, the decision to include certain documents or specifics (like supplier contracts or pricing lists) is a human judgment call. As well as physically attaching these documents to your appendices.
What Parts of The Business Plan Do You Need a Human For?
We already touched on this in the previous section, but there's a lot more on which you'll have to sweat alone (or make an industry professional do it).
1. Company Statement and Mission/Vision
While AI can certainly help structure a mission or vision statement, these must be authentic and reflect your core values as a business owner. Your vision for the future, your company’s cultural identity, and your passion for solving a specific problem can’t be replicated by a machine.
2. Operations and Human Resources Plans
Operations and management require detailed, personalised planning. AI may assist in drafting general descriptions of roles, legal requirements, and operational steps, but the specifics of how you will run your business—particularly human resources strategies—should reflect your unique leadership style and management structure.
3. Exit Strategy
Your exit strategy needs to be rooted in your long-term plans for the business. Whether you plan to sell, close, or pass the business on, this section requires a deep understanding of your market, your business's financial health, and your personal objectives. While AI can provide templates and ideas how to make this strategy more attractive or convincing to lenders, only you can craft a realistic and viable version of it.
How AI Impacts Funding Opportunities
Here comes the million-dollar question: Does it matter if your business plan is AI-written vs human-crafted, particularly in the eyes of UK banks or investors?
The short answer is: Yes and no.
AI will help you improve the structure, language and readability of your business plan and that's certainly a positive in the eyes of a lender. But the quality of the content, the level of thought and the depth of understanding of how your idea will truly work still matter immensely. UK banks, particularly, focus heavily on the reliability of your financial projections, your understanding of the market, and your ability to demonstrate clear strategies for growth. AI may help save time on drafting, but banks will scrutinise whether you truly understand your business, its risks, and its potential.
If the plan is purely AI-generated with little human refinement, this may raise red flags. Investors and banks are looking for thorough, well-reasoned insights that go beyond data points and formulaic projections. They need to be confident that you have the expertise and vision to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship.
Prognosis for Funding in the UK
Given the current climate, funding from UK banks is tight, but not impossible. Banks and government funding bodies are looking for clear and well-reasoned plans that show you know what you are getting into and can manage financial risks. They certainly won't give you money if they think they won't be getting that money back! A plan that demonstrates true knowledge—backed by primary market research, clear financial models, and a strong team—will stand out, whether AI-assisted or human-written.
For AI-generated sections, you'll need to make sure they are reviewed, refined, and tailored to meet the specific needs of your funding application. In short, AI is your hard-working, efficient assistant, not the expert you are hoping it to be. You will have to take that role or outsource it to a human, who fits the description.
Top Tip
You can get incredible quality written content that fits your needs by asking ChatGPT the right questions. You must be able to articulate which parts of its responses are incorrect or you wish to change and how. Simply giving a command won't produce much of a great outcome. Like with everything else, it's easy to get things done only if you know exactly what you want and how to achieve it.
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