In 2024, the generative AI established itself as a daily tool for thousands of project leaders. 15% of entrepreneurs use it to create their business plan.
In 2024, generative artificial intelligence was established as a daily tool for thousands of project leaders. Almost 15 % of French entrepreneurs claim to have used Chatgpt or an equivalent tool to help them build their business plan, according to an estimate from the France NUM / IFOP 2024 barometer. The promise is attractive: creating in a few clicks a professional, structuring and ready to be shared with investors or bankers. But this ease of access mask of major risks. Behind the fluid responses and presentable graphics sometimes hide biases, errors, and dangers for the very viability of the entrepreneurial project.
A generative AI increasingly accessible, but unsuitable for entrepreneurship
Generative AI, like Chatgpt, etc., has become more quickly democratic. Accessible free of charge or at low cost, it can write structured content, synthesize data, or offer various documents of documents. In a context where support for business creation remains heterogeneous in France, these tools appear as a replacement solution, or even help in action.
But their effectiveness quickly comes up against the reality of entrepreneurship. The generalist AI does not know how to differentiate between an original idea and a tenacious illusion, nor discern the commercial common sense of a project of an ambition disconnected from the market. Business plans produced by these models are often generic, pleasant to read but very unusable in the field.
The 5 major risks of an unspeakable use of the generalist AI
The apparent ease offered by the AI hides several traps, in particular for primary-creators that are not trained in project management or strategic marketing. Five major risks are emerging:
1. Transfer of discernment: by automating certain decisions, the entrepreneur may wrongly believe that he no longer needs to understand, compare or analyze. He became performer of his own project, without mastering the fundamentals.
2. The use of false or incomplete data: AI can produce figures without sources, or ignore essential local specificities: regulations, seasonalities, cultural practices, etc. It can also invent data. These errors can go unnoticed and ruin the credibility of a file.
3. Strengthening personal biases: many use AI to confirm their own ideas. Malted, AI becomes a tool for validating beliefs, even wrong, instead of playing a critical role.
4. The absence of feedback: AI offers customer acquisition strategies, but does not allow its efficiency to be measured. Without feedback, the entrepreneur can engage in hazardous expenses, without learning or progressing.
5. The perverse effect on funding: too “perfect” but artificial business plans can deceive banks or investors. If these errors multiply, this could lead to a systemic reaction: hardening of the granting criteria, increase in the contributions requested, even strict reporting obligation imposed by the public authorities.
Towards an AI trained, supervised and useful for project leaders
Rather than rejecting AI, it is necessary to rethink its use. General models have structural limits: they are drawn to generic, old, global data. The challenge is to adapt these tools to the realities on the ground: local ecosystems, recent sectoral data, legal constraints, or economic models specific to certain territories.
AI trained specially for business creation, nourished by reliable bases, and supervised by experts, can eventually become real strategic co -pilots. They are not intended to replace humans, but to strengthen their analytical capacities, structure their thinking, and save time on operational tasks.
To conclude: vigilance for banks and, responsibility for entrepreneurs
The dazzling success of AI in the entrepreneurial landscape should not hide its limits. By artificially facilitating access to financing via business plans too well presented, it can ultimately harm the whole ecosystem. Banks, deceived by overly optimistic forecasts, may protect themselves by hardening their criteria. Entrepreneurs must imperatively understand that AI is not a shortcut towards success, but a powerful tool, to be handled with rigor, critical spirit and supervision. Because, in terms of entrepreneurship as well as technology, method, discipline and verification remain the best guarantees of success.
