If you’re thinking of starting a new business and need advice on what to do, your first move should be turning to an artificial intelligence chatbot tool, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude.

That’s according to Steve Blank, who has written four books on the subject of entrepreneurship. He helped build eight different tech startups, of which he co-founded four, before retiring over two decades ago. His final startup, business software company Epiphany, sold to SSA Global Technologies for $329 million in 2005.

Blank is currently an adjunct professor at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on innovation and his Lean Startup method.

For years, Steve Blank has advised students and the founders he advises to “get the heck outside” of the office or classroom to talk to actual potential customers and find out what it is they want and build their prospective businesses accordingly. Now, he says, AI’s generative tech can make that process even more effective.

“AI [is] a force multiplier to everything you do,” Blank tells CNBC Make It. “AI could help you figure out where to get outside, probably faster than anything else. If you have a business idea, [ask] something like ChatGPT: ‘I have Idea X, has anybody done it? Why hasn’t [it] worked? Where should I best do this?’”

In addition to summarizing market research and offering feedback, some AI chatbots can write you a whole business plan. That free feature in ChatGPT, as well as in other platforms like Grammarly and Canva, can help give you a significant boost without the need to pay thousands of dollars for a freelance business consultant, Blank says.

“Just imagine you have Steve Blank over your shoulder, helping you ask these questions,” says Blank. With AI, “you have at your fingertips a pretty good consultant [who] in the past would have charged you $10,000.”