Show Me Your aaS (AI & the Future of Work)

I love the new year because it brings a shot of adrenaline to a lot of people’s motivations. Motivations that have sat dormant all year. Motivations to bring something new to this world – a business, a piece of art, a baby? Goals come alive again in January.

One common goal for new years is to start a business or side hustle, some activity that generates extra income. Second income streams have become more normalized and easier with the internet. With the proliferation of artificial intelligence, they will become even easier to implement if not downright enjoyable.

The best business to start in 2024 will be you – as a service (aaS).

Or as I call it a nice aaS business.

Most of us have heard of software as a service (SaaS). SaaS is a great business model but requires engineering talent to build the software and a sales team to sell it.

Then there is fractional work.

• CFO as a service

• Marketing as a service

• Design as a service

Those are also great business models with high margins, but they don’t scale very well and you’re always on call.

But what if you could:

• Vacation as a service

• Exercise as a service

• Dine out at fancy restaurants as a service

• Or even sleep as a service

Do what you like to do as a service. Get paid to do things you love OR get paid to do normal, everyday mundane tasks, as a service.

We’re not as far off as you think.

Social media influencers are somewhat there already as they get paid to do everyday tasks so long as it gets posted and creates engagement. However, what I am thinking of is different.

What I am talking about doesn’t require a camera, a tripod, or a dance. What I am talking about requires very little deviation from your daily life.

Large language models that power Aritficial Intelligence require lots and lots of human generated content to improve their intelligence. Humans should be compensated for providing those models with content that make the intelligence more intelligent.

Anything you do and own that tracks data can be sent to an LLM in return for cash. For example:

• Sleep in a smart bed > send data for cash

• Brush your teeth with a smart toothbrush > send data for cash

• Workout with a fitness tracker > send data for cash

• Take a picture on vacation > send data for cash

You get the point.

Just how much cash will you receive? Perhaps the market will tell you. The value of your content can be judged on a variety of metrics including likes, comments, engagement or even people’s emotional and facial reactions to what you share. There will certainly be high value content and low value content based on the richness of human data your content can generate.

As LLMs become more a part of our everyday lives, humans will get paid to be human as a way to make machines more intelligent.

Many people think that AI is coming to eliminate our jobs. I believe AI will become our job. AI will pay you to be you – as a service to making its model better.

There will be some big aaS businesses.

There will be some small aaS businesses.

But everyone will have an aaS in one shape or another.

Let’s just hope everyone keeps their aaS clean.

Happy new year.