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Ankit Maloo explains how AI and new technologies will change startup development

Posted on by darion

In 2024, AI is no longer the future; it is the present. While concerns remain about the impact of AI on jobs and productivity, there is no denying that AI is accelerating innovation and growth in the current Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially in the startup ecosystem.

Ankit Maloo, Founding Partner Cogito Groupa comprehensive growth consulting firm and growth marketing expert that has helped dozens of companies, including two unicorn startups, reach new heights. With the added experience in the consulting industry, Ankit can look back on over 10 years of practical growth marketing.

We spoke with him in an exclusive interview about how AI and other new technologies will change the way startups grow and market themselves.

Artificial Intelligence and Marketing

Marketing today encompasses a wide range of disciplines, from something as simple as salespeople and outdoor advertising to highly technological practices like optimized digital advertising and search engine optimization. As Ankit says, while AI can certainly be used to help with all of these practices, some disciplines may use AI to a much greater extent (at least as of 2024).

One such area, he says, is content creation. According to Ankit, “AI does two things—it reduces the marginal cost of content creation to zero, and then it democratizes expertise and makes it available to everyone.”

This change has opened up new opportunities for marketers who want to create high-quality content, develop effective strategies, and reach their target audiences more effectively.

Businesses can now create a variety of engaging, personalized, and useful content using AI-powered tools. This includes everything from blog posts and social media posts to product descriptions and even entire websites.

AI is also significantly changing the way we market and analyze data—AI-powered analytics tools can sort through massive amounts of data, find patterns, and provide actionable suggestions to marketers.

From Ankit’s perspective, “Analytics, insights, strategy, all can be created with the click of a button, without any prior education required. You can ask one AI model to formulate ideas, then ask another to refine them, and you’ll have a plan that’s comparable to any in your market.”

Apple Intelligence and iOS 18

Of course, with the launch of the iPhone 16 that includes all-new AI-focused software updates from Apple, iOS 18 is the next hot topic to look out for as a marketer in 2024. In fact, the recent launch of iOS 18 brought significant changes to the Apple ecosystem, especially with the arrival of Apple Intelligence.

“With iOS 18, Apple has made a lot of changes to its APIs and introduced new ones,” explains Ankit. Apps can now enable Apple Intelligence to provide contextually aware functionality, thereby extending their apps and inherently increasing the ability to share their content.

One of the significant implications of iOS 18 is the fair environment it establishes for app development. As Ankit notes, “Now it becomes a level playing field. Existing apps can’t leverage contacts for development via the social graph, and new and existing apps can leverage Apple Intelligence and other features for development in ways that aren’t yet as well-known.”

Apple’s changes to its Contacts API, which now require users to selectively choose individual contacts to share, underscore the need for developers to adapt and explore new development strategies.

Developers need to embrace experimentation and innovation to capitalize on these opportunities. Ankit says Apple Intelligence offers “a great opportunity for many apps” to reshape their growth trajectories—and developers who adapt quickly to these changes will be best positioned for success.

The Fall of Meta and Google Ads

For years, startups have been heavily dependent on advertising through platforms like Meta and Google. However, as Ankit notes, these channels have become increasingly saturated and expensive this decade.

“Meta and Google are saturated, and the costs are too high for new and upcoming startups to make any headway,” he says. That has forced the development of alternative strategies.

Ankit expects influencer marketing, especially through specialized platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, will gain popularity as a result. “One of the things that caught my eye was influencer marketing and how well it works for B2B startups,” Ankit notes.

Instead of focusing on conventional advertising, startups can engage influencers who can skillfully convey the value of their products to a specific audience.

He cites companies like Perplexity and Cursor as examples, which have seen rapid growth by leveraging influencer campaigns instead of making significant investments in advertising.

The transition from popular advertising platforms can be a game-changer, especially for startups that need to optimize their marketing spend.

Ankit further stated, “There would be a lot of competition and CAC (customer acquisition costs) would be higher than ever. Startups need to focus on niche channels and influencer-driven campaigns to achieve sustainable growth.”

The Changing Playing Field

With AI adoption in full swing, various strategies are expected to gain momentum in the coming months and years. “I expect popular channels to be flooded with AI-generated ads. The competition would be fierce and CACs would be higher than ever, so much so that it would be almost unsustainable for new startups,” predicts Ankit.

“One of the things I’ve seen lately is how well niche audiences convert – it’s behind podcast ads, behind newsletter ads. They’re expensive on the surface, but they work surprisingly well when you look at the ROI and the lifetime value,” he concludes.