01-1 Why Startups Can't Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

Why Startups Can’t Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

If you’re in charge of a startup in 2025, it’s very important that you embrace AI now rather than waiting several years to incorporate it into your business. AI has already changed what people are expecting from apps and software. If your app doesn’t have some kind of useful automated features built into it, users are likely to see it as outdated or not good enough for their needs. Ignoring AI can hold you back and leave you lagging behind your competitors. If you’re ready to find out more about why AI is so important for your app strategy, read on.

People Expect Apps to Be Smart

If you think about the apps and websites people are using every day in 2025 like Google, ChatGPT and Spotify, all of these are using AI one way or another so they can make things easier, quicker and more personal for their users. When you ask a question, you expect to get the right answer, and you expect to get better suggestions once you have been using them for a while. If your app can’t do things like this, it can feel underwhelming compared to the other apps that people are using.

These features aren’t just nice to have in 2025; your users expect them. If you don’t offer them, you can start looking irrelevant compared to your competitors even if your products and other services are fine.

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03-1 Why Startups Can't Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

AI Can Help Your Startup Look Bigger

One of the biggest problems that start-ups have in their early days is that they don’t have a large number of staff. It could be just you, a co-founder and maybe one or two other staff. AI can carry out tasks that would normally take hours or need a huge team. For example, AI chatbots can deal with most customer queries 24 hours a day. AI content writers can help with writing emails, social media posts and product descriptions, and an AI assistant can summarise the feedback you’ve been given. This can save you lots of time and money whilst helping you to compete with companies that are much bigger than you. AI lets you do more with less, which can be very appealing for companies that are in their early stages of growth.

Investors Are Expecting to See AI

If you’re trying to raise money for your organisation, you can get investors on board by showing them that you’re making the most of AI. If you aren’t using AI, chances are that potential investors will ask why you’re not. Investors aren’t just jumping on the automation bandwagon, they know that AI can cut costs, improve the customer experience and give you a real competitive edge. If you don’t mention AI at all when pitching to investors, they may think you’re behind the times, don’t understand the benefits of the latest tech and could easily be leapfrogged by your competitors. Even if AI isn’t at the forefront of what you’re doing, it’s still important to incorporate it into your services in some way.

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05-1 Why Startups Can't Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

AI Helps You Grow Without Over-Hiring

With AI, you can serve growing numbers of customers without taking on more staff than you can currently afford. If thousands of people start downloading your app, they might have lots of questions and queries. Without AI, you might need to hire unaffordable support staff and train and manage them. Smart assistants and chatbots can handle most of this, guiding people through your app’s features and answering most common questions accurately. Chatbots and smart assistants can also learn from past conversations with your users and grow over time.

Remember, if you are thinking about incorporating AI into your 2025 app campaign, the experienced London app developers Appy Monkey are always here for you.

Your Competitors Are Using AI

There’s a big chance that most of your competitors are already adding AI to their products. They might be telling the world about it, but it’s more than likely that they’re using it to write content and emails automatically, predict what their customers require and handle customer support effectively. If you don’t keep up with what your competitors are doing, your digital offerings could look and feel slower, feel harder to use and appear less exciting. People are likely to look elsewhere if your app isn’t as smart or responsive as your competitors’.

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07-1 Why Startups Can't Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

AI Is Changing the Way People Use Apps

One of the biggest changes in the way people use apps today is that apps are much more conversational than they were in the past. People now expect to talk to apps in the same way they would talk to a person and get the responses that they need immediately.

People aren’t spending lots of time finding their way around apps anymore. They’re now using digital assistants to get the information that they need much more quickly. If you’re not offering these functions to your users, your app can feel extremely outdated. Today’s customers now expect companies and organisations to offer smarter and more helpful interactions. If you start to introduce these functions as soon as possible, you’ll be fully prepared as these expectations become more common.

Adding AI is Easier Than You Might Think in 2025

Just a few years ago, adding AI to your app was much more time-consuming and difficult than it is today. Advancements in technology mean that AI can now be added to your app with just a few plug-ins or lines of code. This means you don’t have to wait several weeks or months to get the functionality that you need when you want to bring AI into your app.

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9 Why Startups Can't Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

You’ll Have to Catch Up Later if You Skip AI for Now

If you’re not adding AI to your app now, you’ll need to include it later, and it will likely be tougher to do so then. Including AI in an app in a few years’ time could be more complex and much more expensive than it is now. In the meantime, your competitors may have pushed ahead of you with much smoother and smarter tools.

When you integrate AI today, you can future-proof your app, enhance the customer experience, streamline your processes and start getting much more valuable and useful insights from your data. The longer you wait, the more ground you’re likely to lose to faster, more efficient and intelligent apps offered by your competitors. This is why it’s so important to act now.

Startups That Embrace AI Are Being Noticed

The startups that everyone is talking about right now are the ones that are making the most of AI. They’re not just using AI to save time; they’re using it to make their apps as user-friendly as possible and become much more efficient. These teams are building smarter workflows, delivering faster support and offering features that users love.  AI can be the difference between a good app and a great one. If you want your product to stand out and stay relevant, it makes sense to make AI a part of it as soon as you can.

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11-2 Why Startups Can't Afford to Skip AI in Their 2025 App Strategy

There’s No Need to Add Everything at Once

If you are interested in adding AI to your app but are still a little hesitant, it’s worth remembering that you don’t have to add everything at once. Many startups begin with one feature that’s powered by AI and add more later once they’re happy with it.

This could be a chatbot, a smart recommendation feature or a search bar that’s powered by AI. Artificial Intelligence isn’t always being used to replace humans, it can make companies more efficient without them having to shed any staff or take on more than they can afford.

If you’re in the process of building a successful startup in 2025, you really should consider making AI part of your application. It can help you to grow faster, work smarter and win over more customers even if you don’t have a huge team or a big budget.

Let’s Start Building Something Smarter Together

At Appy Monkey, we specialise in helping ambitious startups and growing businesses make the most of AI. Whether you want to build a fully AI-powered app from scratch or integrate smart features into your existing one, our expert team is here to bring your vision to reality. We can design and build custom AI agents that are tailored to your specific goals, streamline your workflows and give your users the kind of intuitive experience they’ve come to expect in 2025.

We won’t confuse you with jargon or deliver anything that’s irrelevant to your brand. We’re simply here to give you clear advice and clever, powerful solutions that work. If you’re ready to take the next step when it comes to the evolution of your app, we’re ready to help.

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Contact us

You can get in touch with our London app developers today through our website, by emailing us or by giving us a call.

At Appy Monkey, we’re ready to talk about your vision and show you what’s possible right now.