Understanding AI Startup Types: A Guide for Founders and Investors

Introduction

It is interesting for both founders and investors to investigate the types of AI startups available nowadays. For founders to find the white spaces, for investors to see through the AI ​​hype. To do so, it is important to use various chatbots and analyze the responses.

In this post, the different types of AI startups are described along with their characteristics. Subsequently, the subtle differences between chatbots are examined. In doing so, ChatGPT and Copilot are taken a closer look.

The following question is presented to the chatbots:

• Can you represent the 4 types of AI startups in a 2×2 matrix with regard to (non-)scientific and (low-)impact?

Next, it is requested that a few examples be provided:

• Yes please, give me examples

AI Startup Types

The table below shows the 4 types of AI startups available. They are categorized in a 2×2 matrix with the following axes:

• Scientific ↔ Non-scientific (extent of fundamental R&D, new models, papers, technical breakthroughs)

• High impact ↔ Low impact (extent to which the solution changes markets, is scalable, or creates structural value)

🧠AI Startup Types	Scientific	Non-scientific
High impact	(1) Frontier AI	(3) Applied AI Disruptors
Low impact	(2) Research-driven	(4) AI Wrappers

Differences ChatGPT and Copilot

The following differences per quadrant (type) then stand out:

Symbols

• Copilot
  • 🌋 (1) Scientific + High impact
  • 🔬 (2) Scientific + Low impact
  • 🚀 (3) Non-scientific + High impact
  • 🧩 (4) Non-scientific + Low impact
• ChatGPT
  • 🔬 (1) Scientific + High impact
  • 🧪 (2) Scientific + Low impact
  • ⚙️ (3) Non-scientific + High impact
  • 🧩 (4) Non-scientific + Low impact

It is striking that different symbols are used for the same type, but also the same symbol is used for different types (🔬).

Descriptions

The most striking differences are listed here. It is up to the reader to take note of the complete list of descriptions.

• Copilot
  • (1) –
  • (2) Consultancy-like
  • (3) –
  • (4) –
• ChatGPT
  • (1) Extremely capital intensive
  • (2) –
  • (3) Several domains are mentioned (healthcare/legal/finance/climate )
  • (4) –

Examples

The most striking differences are listed here. It is up to the reader to take note of the complete list of examples.

• Copilot
  • (1) Cerebras, Hugging Face (research)
  • (2) No example startups are mentioned, but categories ML-labs, medical domains, and academic spin-offs for AI safety tools
  • (3) Jasper AI, UiPath, Runway, Gong
  • (4) AI tools: Website-builder, PDF-summarizer, email-replier
• ChatGPT
  • (1) Mistral AI
  • (2) Hugging Face, Stability AI
  • (3) Harvey, Klarna, Tempus
  • (4) SEO-content generators

Conclusion

This post makes it clear that for a specific study, it is best to consult multiple chatbots. In this case, the topic of AI startup types was chosen. Both founders and investors benefit from such research.