As an entrepreneur, your greatest asset isn’t just your idea, but rather the clarity behind it. While many entrepreneurs see AI as the perfect shortcut to building a business plan, the most successful founders turn to it for support instead of relying on it for direction. It’s a partner, not a co-founder.
To design a solid plan that reflects how your business will actually operate, you need to lead the conversation. Here’s how to move beyond generic prompts and turn AI into a strategic lever for your business.
The problem with AI-written business plans
I’m starting to see more business plans that are clearly written by AI. They’re easy to spot because they read like a generic MBA template. Lots of business language. Very little substance. Ironically, these plans signal the opposite of competence. Instead of reflecting confidence, they quietly say, “I don’t really know how this business will work.”
AI can do many things, but it can’t fix a weak idea or rescue a business plan that is still too early. It only amplifies what is already there. So, if your thinking is fuzzy, the AI output will be fuzzy. If your strategy is shallow, the plan will sound polished but will be empty.
Where people misuse AI
Here are the most common mistakes I see when aspiring entrepreneurs use AI to write a business plan:
- They invent a value proposition with no proof they can deliver it.
- They list a dozen marketing tactics with no priorities or specifics.
- They write vague, corporate-sounding statements like “we are committed to customer excellence.”
- They outline a huge range of products or services without any operational detail to support them.
None of this builds credibility. It just fills space.
AI is a partner, not a ghostwriter
AI works best as a partner, not a replacement for your thinking. Like any good partner, it needs direction, constraints and real-world facts. You still have to do the hard work of clarifying your idea, your customer and how you will actually execute. AI can help you think better; it can’t think for you.
Ask better questions, get better answers
The quality of your prompts determines the quality of the output. When working with an LLM (Large Language Model) like ChatGPT, ask specific, grounded questions tied to your real situation. And for the best output, focus on only one problem at a time.
For example, if you are launching a dog harness brand in Halifax, don’t ask a broad, generic question like, “Who are my online competitors?” Instead ask specific questions like these: Who are three small- to mid-sized competitors that launched one to three years ago? What channels did they use first? What price points worked? What mistakes did they make? What retailers in the Halifax area carry high quality dog harnesses?
You will learn far more from businesses slightly ahead of you than from giants like Amazon or Walmart, who compete mostly on price. Your advantage is likely quality, service and local presence. Tell AI that. Give it context, so you can extract lessons and shape a concrete strategy.
Narrow the focus
In a recent workshop on using AI for marketing plans, one participant told me she felt overwhelmed. AI gave her too many ideas, and she did not know where to start. That’s common. AI is great at generating options; it’s terrible at choosing for you. To fix this issue, narrow the scope.
Instead of asking for “a marketing plan,” ask something like this: “Based on these numbers and constraints, what are the top three activities that will drive sales in the next six months, ranked in order of priority?”
Now you are forcing AI to think with you, not for you.
Use AI to pressure test your assumptions
From there, you can ask better follow-up questions such as: “If we target 10 stores by month six, what should month one and month two actually look like? How many samples? How many retailer visits? What sales can we realistically expect?”
This is how AI becomes useful. Not by writing the plan, but by stress testing your assumptions and helping you think through the details. All this will help build out a realistic Sales Forecast Assumption (a crucial and mostly overlooked section of the business plan).
Making the strategy truly yours
A strong business plan is built on clarity, constraints and evidence. AI can support that work, but it can’t replace it. If you find yourself pasting a prompt into AI and copying the answer straight into your plan, you’re probably doing it wrong. Use AI to sharpen your questions, challenge your logic and test your strategy. Treat it like a smart assistant, not an author.
Because eventually you will have to talk about this plan with a real person. A lender. Someone from Futurpreneur (if you are submitting a plan to us). Maybe me. They will ask questions: Why this market? Why this price? Why this channel? How will you actually execute?
If the words in your business plan are AI’s and not yours, you will feel it immediately. You’ll struggle to explain. You’ll backpedal. And your credibility will disappear fast.
Dominik Loncar is an entrepreneurship coach at Futurpreneur. Over the last decade, he has dedicated his practical skills and expertise from building three businesses and running his own social purpose business to guide young entrepreneurs. Dominik believes that becoming an entrepreneur is a transformative identity shift and has worked with over 200 young entrepreneurs to launch social purpose ventures and both traditional and innovation-based businesses in a multitude of industries.
Ready to launch your business with confidence? Futurpreneur offers flexible loan financing, expert mentorship, and resources to empower you to reach your entrepreneurial goals. Get started today by exploring our resources, including the Business Plan Writer and register for a Rock My Business workshop, such as the Rock My Business Plan session, to refine your strategy.
