3 AI Side Hustles That Can Make You Thousands per Month

As someone who writes words for a living, I'll admit I'm more than a little nervous about artificial intelligence. I've read (too many) opinions for and against the technology, and everyone seems to be making many early promises that it will improve work or destroy jobs.

Of course, it could do both. Research from Goldman Sachs shows AI could expose 300 million jobs to automation, but also noted that some of those jobs will be complemented by the tech.

We're clearly in a transition period right now. It's a time when many people are dabbling in AI, trying to figure out creative ways to use it -- and how to make money with it. So while we're all assessing how AI will make us obsolete, er, I mean improve our lives, here are three ways AI is already helping people improve their personal finances by earning them thousands of dollars.

1. Book publishing

It's pretty easy to find stories online of people who have already used AI to publish books. Ammaar Reshi, a design manager for a tech startup, used OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to create a children's book in a weekend. Reshi said on X, formerly Twitter, that he used ChatGPT to write the story and Midjourney -- an AI image generator -- to illustrate the book.

It cost him just $30 for the monthly Midjourney subscription. He then posted the book on Amazon, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble, and sales of the book quickly jumped to $2,600, according to Business Insider.

There are some caveats with using AI to create and publish books. First, while this one example generated a good amount of money for a weekend's worth of work, there's no guarantee that other people will be as successful with their AI book project.

Second, online platforms take a significant percentage of book sale revenue, which will eat into anyone's profits if they publish their AI work on those platforms. Still, Reshi's side project showed the possibility of making thousands of dollars from an AI project that took less than a weekend.

2. Creating pitch decks

Pitch decks are presentations given to investors by startups in need of money. If your company is looking to raise capital, you create a pitch deck -- or have someone make it for you -- and go through the presentation to convince people to invest in your company.

Some people have already started using AI to help create pitch decks and are making good money doing so. Larry Lundtrom, a pastor in Alabama, makes a few pitch decks each week with the help of Tome, an AI pitch deck app, earning between $500 to $1,000 per project. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that by using AI, Lundstrom was able to cut parts of his creative process down from two weeks to just two and a half days.

And to add an extra layer of AI oddity to all of this, TechCrunch recently wrote about a company called DeckMatch, that uses AI to evaluate pitch decks submitted to venture capitalist firms. So, AI can help create the pitch decks, and then AI can also evaluate them. What a world.

3. Freelance writing

This one hits a little too close to home, but of course, there are lots of people out there already using ChatGPT and other AI writing tools like Jasper to create blog posts, articles, web content, and more.

And while the content that AI tools churn out isn't always the best quality, writers who spend time finessing the AI-generated text can boost their writing productivity. The Wall Street Journal noted that a Boston marketing company was able to take on 10 additional clients -- and make $25,000 from them -- by using AI to speed up their writing process.

Upwork, a popular platform for freelance workers, says the average freelance writer makes $42,000. If a writer uses AI to help speed up their process of writing, then that could translate into helping them earn a few thousand dollars each month.

AI is a rapidly evolving side hustle

While the above AI side hustles may be able to make you some money right now, keep in mind that this space is rapidly evolving. There are still a lot of unknowns about the benefits of using AI in the workplace.

This means that what makes a few thousand dollars a month may not generate a steady income into your savings account. But tapping into AI right now to boost productivity and help you earn extra income even in the short term could be a good way to help pay off debt or save for a vacation. Just maybe don't jump all-in on AI article writing -- I'm not ready for retirement just yet.