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Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 117th edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.

What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?

Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.

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Q1: Content monetisation

Content creation and monetisation is hard work. It would be great if such content could be replicated across languages, thus increasing revenue and audiences. How can technology help here?

Q2: KPIs for society and environment

Socio-economic brands prioritise both profit and purpose, and aim to improve the well-being of society while also maintaining a profitable business. What kinds of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) would reflect this commitment and journey?

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Q3: AI impact

AI can improve efficiency and risk management for a number of business use cases. But AI can also show broader social impact. How is this seen in sectors like education and healthcare?

Q4: Freelancers and entrepreneurs

Freelancers and entrepreneurs both buck traditional approaches to employment as a safe option in large organisations. But there are significant differences between the two. What are some of these differences?

Q5: Customer interaction

Effective customer service improves brand loyalty and retention and increases customer likelihood of making further purchases. How can AI help move the needle on customer satisfaction?

Answers!

Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!

A1: Content monetisation

Founded by Akash Nidhi PS and Satvik Jagannath in 2020, Vitra.ai is an AI-based video translation platform. It helps customers translate media formats like videos, images, websites, podcasts, and text to over 75 languages with a single click.

The global market size for translation is expected to reach $98.11 billion by 2028. Vitra.ai’s primary focus is on news, social media, and video content creators, and is now expanding to corporate customers. Read more here about its drag-and-drop and no-code solutions.

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A2: KPIs for society and environment

Nitika Shahi, Founder and Director Government Relations at Summentor Pro, offers five socio-economic metrics for a business: Community Engagement Index, Environmental Footprint Offset, Inclusivity and Diversity Quotient, Social Media Impact Score, Circular Economy Contribution, Employee Wellbeing Index, and Philanthropic ROI.

“While many businesses measure their carbon footprint, a more nuanced KPI is the environmental footprint offset,” she explains. “The circular economy contribution KPI evaluates how effectively a brand closes the loop in its production and consumption cycles,” she adds. Read more here about how such KPIs also provide insights for improvement.

 A3: AI impact

At YourStory’s TechSparks Delhi conference, AI’s business and social impact were highlighted by panelists Rishabh Jain, Head of Engineering, Healthians; Santosh Bhat, Head of Data Science, PolicyBazaar; and Devesh Mishra, CTO, Physicswallah.

For example, Physicswallah has an AI tool that provides timely and quality solutions to student queries. Healthians leverages ChatGPT to access global data and offer empathetic and informed interactions for customers. Read more here about how AI can help make services more accessible and personalised, thus becoming a tool for social good.

A4: Freelancers and entrepreneurs

A freelancer’s aim is a steady source of revenue without full-time employment at one organisation, based on compensation for high work skills and quality. Their earnings are largely based on their number of working hours.

Entrepreneurs, however, take on more risk than freelancers. They create new organisations and scale their businesses, with income generated even beyond pre-determined work hours. Read more here about the differences between freelancers and entrepreneurs while you chart your own independent path.

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A5: Customer interaction

“Dynamic AI agents, encompassing both voice and chat functionalities, significantly enhance key customer satisfaction metrics,” explains Raghu Ravinutala, CEO and Co-founder of Yellow.ai.

“Built on large language models (LLMs) trained on massive datasets, advanced ChatGPT tools have refined text generation capabilities, surpassing the limitations of earlier chatbots,” he adds. Read more here about how dynamic AI agents can emulate more human-like and goal-based conversations, and improve time to respond, mean time to resolution, and customer satisfaction.

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).