How Students Can Use AI To Develop and Enhance Their Side Hustle
Students today no longer have to restrict employment to part time jobs at a café or a campus office due to the ever-evolving digital technology that is widely accessible and available. They can now use lucrative side-hustles with greater flexibility to suit their schedule and skill level. Students today can take on their digital freelancing, product sales, micro-agency formation, or online branding and with the use of AI technology, have a better opportunity to advance their business with better efficiency and exceptional quality output at a lower cost.
In this paper, the student, with minimal funding and experience, will explore the different side-hustle opportunities that can strategically make use of AI technology to initiate, improve on and grow the side-hustle to profitable and sustainable levels.
AI Assists Students to Exploit the Major Incremental Challenge: Time
One of the significant challenges that students face is maneuvering time between classes, assignments, social activities and paid employment. Side hustles require a commitment of time (labor) to ensure that the business operation is effective, and sustainable.
Some activities AI tools can do are:
write marketing materials and content
automate repetitive emails and messages (social media posts, customer replies, etc.)
create logos and other brand materials
quickly analyze and summarize data
Manage schedules and other organizational components.
Instead of spending hours writing and developing social media posts, learners can devote time to the creative aspects of content creation, and they can use AI tools to automate this work to also devote time to other productive activities such as service-learning opportunities or planning for entrepreneurship!
Examples of student ideation for creating side-hustles with AI.
Using AI, students can start the following popular, high-earning side hustles:
a. Social Media Management
ChatGPT, Canva, and various social media automation tools allow students to
generate marketing content ideas, captions, and hashtags
design marketing materials and videos
automate social media posting and scheduling
track social media engagement and summarize key metrics
With these tools, graduates are able to offer social media manager services to small businesses, even without a marketing degree.
b. Freelance Writing and Content Creation
AI tools can help students write:
blogs
product descriptions
newsletters
advertising content
All students need to do is edit and add their personal tone. AI saves a lot of time on the research, drafting and the first versions of the content. This makes it way easier for someone to get started with a writing side hustle.
c. Graphic Design for Beginners
For example, the tools Canva AI, Adobe Firefly, or Midjourney can help students create:
logos
posters
YouTube thumbnails
graphics for social media
brand kits
People without any design experience can create professional designs in a matter of minutes.
d. AI Tutoring and Study Assistance Services
AI can assist other students in studying for exams by:
creating flashcards
generating practice quizzes
summarizing lengthy readings
simplifying the explanation of complex ideas
AI can optimize the preparation time required for tutoring in such scenarios, turning this into a micro tutoring business.
e. Selling Digital Products
AI can assist in the easy creation and selling of digital products. For example:
worksheets
planners
eBooks
digital art
templates
These can be sold on platforms like Etsy, Gumroad, and Shopify.
f. Video and Content Editing Services
Students can provide:
TikTok short/long-form video editing
podcast video clipping
YouTube video editing
captioning
subtitling
Students can offer quick edits at a low price while AI does most of the work.
Using AI to Build a Brand That Stands Out
To make a subset as a successful side-hustle, you need branding. But budgeting for branding can be hard. With AI, you can create business name ideas, color palettes, branding kits, logo ideas, and mission statements in no time.
Students can try out a few different designs and then choose which design resonates the most with the business. How Students Use AI for Marketing
The next step, after the students have a side hustle, is to get customers. Getting customers, however, is hard. Use AI for:
a. Automated Social-Media Marketing
AI can:
plan content calendars for a week or a month
create viral content
repurpose content for different platforms
script, design, and produce videos for TikTok or Instagram
This is a good way to save time and prevent burnout.
b. Email Marketing Made Simple
AI can compose:
topics for a newsletter
subject lines
announcements
sequences for follow-ups
Students can recruit customers to their digital products by starting a simple email list.
c. SEO and Website Help
AI can help students:
write website content for SEO purposes
research competitors
suggest blog titles
write FAQs
AI can help anyone create a website to help them rank on search engines.
Automating Administrative Tasks
Running a side-hustle requires invoicing, scheduling, tracking leads, and replying to messages. Lots of this can be automated:
chatbots can answer customer queries
Zapier can automate entire workflows
AI assistants can schedule meetings
invoicing can be automated by sending bills and reminders
This helps students appear organized and professional.
Using AI to Develop New Skills Faster
AI can also act as a tutor and explain concepts quickly and clearly.
The students will be able to acquire the following skills.
business fundamentals
coding
designing
how to market
financially literate
communication
Students will be able to learn the skills needed to become entrepreneurs in a shorter time frame due to the custom learning schedules AI will explain the exercises, and provide learning plans.
Ethically Using AI For A Side-Hustle
Students should be in full control of their AI. Examples of ethical AI practices are.
adding a personal touch to AI content
not plagiarizing
being open when it is needed (some freelance gigs require open AI use)
keeping expertise, AI is meant to be a tool, not a substitute
The principle is using AI to do work faster, not fool clients, or turn in work to the AI untouched in order to say it was done.
Advice For Students Working A Side-Hustle Using AI
The following are some actions students can take in order to turn their usage of AI into a profitable business.
A. Focus on A Single Service
Instead of providing a whole bunch of services, focus on just one. Reputation and skill are built through consistent work.
B. Create A Portfolio
For attracting clients, students can use AI to create some dummy work like
logos
social media posts
blogs
This is especially useful when the student has no background knowledge to display.
C. Low Cost Starter Packs
Students can close a deal faster by providing affordable services which help create testimonials.
Measure aspects such as:
engagement
traffic
conversions
revenue
AI has made the world of entrepreneurship very accessible. With a basic laptop, a student can outperform small agencies using:
automated systems
AI generated text
advanced editing software
virtual assistants
AI can help students efficiently create and manage side projects. It can help students optimize their time and create a hustle without expensive tools. It allows students to create profitable side projects without too much investment. AI will help students work smarter from the very start of the side project. It is a game changer for student and will help them to leverage their time. It will be very beneficial for students to utilize tools to be able to create a side income from their ideas even before they finish their degree. The tools and ideas will allow profitable side projects to be created.
