Generative AI in Entrepreneurship: Applications, Opportunities, Challenges and Future Directions

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming entrepreneurship by helping entrepreneurs generate ideas, analyze information, create content, develop business models, support marketing, and make decisions. This review examines the growing role of GenAI in entrepreneurial activities, with a focus on opportunity recognition, creativity, innovation, SMEs, emerging economies, and responsible AI use. GenAI can reduce resource constraints and provide affordable support to small businesses, but challenges such as inaccurate information, overdependence, privacy concerns, and unequal digital skills remain. The article highlights the importance of human–AI collaboration and introduces the concept of AI entrepreneurial capability, which includes AI literacy, effective prompting, evaluation of AI outputs, decision-making, and responsible use of AI. The review concludes that future entrepreneurship should focus not only on using AI to generate more opportunities but also on improving the quality, sustainability, and responsible development of those opportunities.