What do you think of high-ticket offers around local AI deployments for companies that want to own their AI layer for privacy — fine-tuning and deploying on their own cloud, or smaller assistants fine-tuned for their workflows? How would you go about getting these deals?
Local AI deployments for companies afraid of giving their information to the big LLM companies like OpenAI or Anthropic are a quickly emerging niche. A lot of companies are shifting to Chinese open-source models that are quantized and fast enough to run on local infrastructure while still being good enough for knowledge work. So I think it's a good niche. The problem is you'll probably find that the people thinking that many steps ahead are already technically endowed enough not to need your services. You could probably do it as a consultant, but as a repeatable, reliable, recurring service it doesn't seem super viable right now. Most companies that even realize they need this kind of strategic shift will likely want to do it in-house, because if they're that privacy and compliance minded, they're probably big enough to have hired people in compliance and privacy. It could work, and I might be wrong, but it'd probably be pretty tough to scale unless you become known as the local AI guy, which would almost certainly come through some kind of inbound brand. And if you already have an inbound brand capable of generating customers like multi-billion-dollar enterprises, you might as well sell other things, because it'll probably make you more money.
In general, the best niches for an AI service are high ticket, so these are services that themselves get a lot of money when they close a deal. They also tend to be digital, meaning services that you can scrape online fairly easily. And finally, they tend to be really low compliance need — services that don't require you to check a bunch of HIPAA boxes or do a bunch of SOC 2 compliance in order to enter the space. The reason why: high ticket means if you get them a single client, you pay for yourself for a long time. Digital means it's really easy to scrape, so low friction. And low compliance needs means you're not going to screw anything up — there are a lot of hidden risks that people constantly consider before accepting a project with an outside vendor if they are in a compliance-heavy industry.
If you are selling AI or automation services, working with local businesses is sort of a double-edged sword. The reason it's great is because you're working locally with businesses that typically don't have a lot of technical experience, so there's usually a big overhang between what is achievable with technology and what they are currently doing. Even a couple of little sprinkles of AI can really change their workflow and revolutionize their business. But the bad part of that double-edged sword is they're typically not very technically capable, which means they might struggle understanding the value of technology. You might actually have to build that value up in your explanations and sales calls from the floor all the way up to where the value actually is. A lot of people won't even realize why they might want to automate something like a purchase order automation — they'll just be like, well no, this is the same way we've always done things, and that's fine, and I don't really want to grow all that much anyway. That is pretty difficult to convince. If somebody's in a position where they're like, ah no, I'm cool doing it the same way I've always done it because they don't want more work anyway, how are you going to sell them on a big return on investment? Unfortunately, the same thing that leads to a lot of local business owners only having one simple brick-and-mortar storefront is the same thing that leads to them not really wanting to buy a service like this, because they just don't give a [care] about growth. Another thing is their data isn't scrapable, which is a problem. If you're trying to sell them voice and chat agents, it might be difficult to get enough of a base of local businesses in an email list to even pitch them a chat or voice agent to begin with. Your only way of doing that might be through something like cold calling, because a lot of these local businesses don't look at their email as much but they'll certainly look at their phone — they'll be around the front desk when people come into their shops. So that necessitates a change in strategy. These are all reasons why I don't really like local businesses. If you're wondering how you can implement AI features in digital businesses instead of local businesses, know that you are typically dealing with an audience that is more B2B oriented. They typically understand the economics of value exchange a little bit more. They understand the whole idea of, hey, I will provide you massive return on investment and I'll make a little bit for that, and here's how. They typically already use AI or have experience with AI, so it's not going to be starting from scratch — it'll just be a lot easier across the stack. And just be careful what you're selling them. For voice and chat agents for digital businesses, don't pick voice and chat agents before you've verified the niche. In general, don't pick the thing that you're going to sell before you know who you're going to sell it to. Experiment with a bunch of different approaches to a bunch of different people and then just go based off what works.
local businessdigital businessai agencyniche selection
You want three things. First, target niches with high lifetime value (LTV). The higher the LTV, the more you can spend to acquire a client and still make a profit. For example, a shoe‑shine service might generate a few hundred dollars per year, whereas a personal injury firm could bring tens or hundreds of thousands. Second, choose industries where the prospect data is easily scrapable or digitally acquirable—LinkedIn Sales Navigator, keyword searches, etc.—so you can find decision‑makers who can sign checks. Third, consider compliance: heavily regulated sectors like healthcare or government‑related services are hard to automate with AI and carry legal risk. Also avoid platforms that could ban you if you automate them. In short, focus on high‑LTV, digitally reachable, low‑regulation niches.
Don't overthink the exact method—pick a few approaches and test them. Choose three different ways of reaching people, set a minimum daily outreach for each, and stick with it for a month or two (30‑60 days). See what works, then double down.