AI has become a key tool for most business plans we review in the Draft Program® and the INVEST Incubator. This article shares the practices and prompts that reliably improve plan quality, assuming your idea is already reasonably validated, so you can draft faster, think more clearly, and make better decisions.
September 11, 2025
Heikki Immonen, Karelia University of Applied Sciences
This article draws on our experiences working with startup teams in both the Draft Program® and the INVEST Incubator. Based on these experiences, it is safe to say that most people are already using AI tools to help them develop business plans. Importantly, both programs, the Draft Program and the INVEST Incubator, actively encourage the use of AI in this process.
The purpose of this article is to share some practices that have proven effective and that contribute to the quality of a business plan. NOTE: These instructions can be applied also when your writing the one-page business plan, when applying to the Draft Program, or INVEST Incubator.
For those who have already a well-tested and analyzed business idea
It is important to note that the techniques and prompts described here assume that the business idea itself is already well developed and that major uncertainties have been at least partly validated. It is also assumed that the person preparing the business plan is knowledgeable about the subject matter, which is necessary for verifying the outputs AI produces.
If you are still at a very early stage of idea development, your focus should remain on testing, learning, and validation rather than drafting a business plan. Also note that while business plans are almost always accompanied by financial calculations, this article does not cover those calculations or their analysis.
Understanding business plans and AI
In this section, we first discuss when and why to write a business plan, what makes a strong plan, and then explore how AI is reshaping the process of business plan creation.
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a structured document that outlines a company’s goals, the strategies for achieving them, and the operational steps required to execute those strategies. It describes, for example, what the company is selling, the market it serves, how production is carried out, and how marketing and sales are handled.
Note: Business plans are typically accompanied by financial calculations.
When do you need a business plan?
A business plan is essential when you want to:
- Apply for funding. Funding providers review the plan (and accompanying calculations) to decide whether to invest, and under what conditions.
- Ensure that all members of the founding team share a common understanding of the business.
- Identify missing perspectives before launching the business.
- Align future decisions with the company’s long-term direction.
- Attract new partners by clearly presenting what the business is about.
- Educate key employees on the company’s purpose and strategy.
When can you skip writing a business plan?
You may not need a business plan if:
- The business is still in an early ideation stage and lacks a clear concept.
- The project is short-term or low stakes.
- A simpler document, such as a pitch deck, is sufficient for your needs.
What makes a good business plan?
A strong business plan (together with its financial calculations) is:
- Purposefully structured: The format should be tailored to the purpose. For instance, if the plan is for a bank loan, it should follow the bank’s required structure.
- Internally coherent: All sections of the plan should align logically without contradictions. For example, it would be inconsistent to claim that the team consists of 20 members but also describe it as “small and agile.”
- Based on validated information: The plan should be built on reliable data and assumptions, such as expert opinions, documented facts, scientific principles, observations, past work experience or test results.
- Viable: The business itself should have a strong chance of success. Viability is often assessed across three dimensions:
- Product–market fit: Are there enough customers who want to buy the product at the proposed price?
- Feasibility: Can the company deliver the product or service with its planned resources and at the required scale?
- Profitability: Will the company generate the desired profits?
- Personally meaningful: The plan should resonate with the motivations, goals, and lifestyle of the founders.
The business plan creation process
Developing a business plan is an iterative process. A strong plan should be purposefully structured, coherent, based on validated information, viable, and personally meaningful.
How AI is changing business plan creation
AI produces outputs that resemble the thinking of a relatively knowledgeable person, including insights into business topics. These outputs are becoming increasingly sophisticated. As a result, AI is transforming traditional business plan creation in several ways:
- Speed: Tasks that once required significant time and effort can now be completed in seconds. With more processing time, AI generally produces even better results.
- Critical evaluation: AI can assess plans, identify knowledge gaps, and flag areas of uncertainty.
- Support in validation: AI can suggest efficient methods for closing knowledge gaps and validating assumptions, making the plan more credible than one created in the same timeframe without AI.
- Personalized tutoring: AI can act as a business advisor and teacher, enabling entrepreneurs with less prior knowledge to produce high-quality business plans.
Taken together, these capabilities make business plan creation significantly faster and less resource-intensive. This means that new insights and changes can be integrated quickly, allowing entrepreneurs to work with full business plans much earlier in the idea development process than was previously possible.
Business plan creation with AI: step-by-step
To create a high-quality business plan with AI, follow these steps. Your input is needed at each stage. If you already have a structured business plan, you may skip steps 1–3 and proceed directly to step 4.
1. Find a business plan template
Use AI to locate a template that fits your purpose. For example, if you are applying for a startup grant (Starttiraha), use the structure required by the funding provider.
- Select an AI tool that searches online.
- Ask AI:
“Find me an official business plan template that best fits my purpose: [describe your purpose]. If no official template exists, suggest an optimal structure with rationale. After finding the template, list its elements and provide the source. If a downloadable version is available, provide a link.” - Follow up:
“Are there any other official requirements related to the business plan?” - Verify the sources and save the template and requirements in separate documents.
2. Generate the business plan
Provide the AI with:
- The template or structure
- Any requirements
- A description of your business idea and supporting materials
- Select an AI tool capable of deeper reasoning.
- Ask AI:
“Using the attached structure, requirements, and business idea materials, draft a complete business plan (excluding financial calculations and appendices). Be precise and concise. If information is missing, generate content based on assumptions. For each section, note whether content is based on source material or AI assumptions. Number sections exactly as in the structure.”
Check that the structure matches the template. Save the output as Business Plan Version 1.
3. Understand the generated plan
Next, use AI as your tutor to fully understand the plan.
- Provide AI with Business Plan Version 1.
- Ask AI:
“Let’s go through the plan section by section. Start with the first section. Move to the next when I say ‘Next.’ For each section, produce: (1) a table showing the original text and a simplified version, and (2) a list of business or technical concepts with short definitions.”
Go through the explanation carefully. If AI loses track in a long chat, re-upload the prompt and plan, and continue from where it left off.
Make edits if needed and save as Business Plan Version 2.
4. Evaluate the plan for coherence and viability
Provide the AI with the business plan and ask:
“Evaluate the attached plan from four perspectives: 1) internal consistency, 2) product–market fit, 3) feasibility, and 4) profitability. Assume the information is valid. Suggest one edit or adjustment for each perspective, with rationale, in plain language.”
Save useful suggestions as a List of Edits.
5. Adjust the plan
Finally, adjust the plan based on the suggestions.
You can:
- Make the edits yourself, or
- Ask AI to implement them directly:
“Apply the List of Edits to the attached business plan. Change only what is listed. Output the full revised version.”
Repeat steps 3 and 4 as needed until the plan feels complete.
About This Article
This article was prepared with the support of the INVEST 2.0 project (www.invest-alliance.eu), funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. INVEST Incubator is an international startup incubator program developed in the INVEST 2.0 project.
The views expressed are solely those of the author. The European Commission and the Agency bear no responsibility for any use of the information contained herein.
The AI tools used to test the prompts described in this article were funded by a development project supported by the William and Ester Otsakorpi Foundation.
References
- Anthony, S. D. (2014). The First Mile: A Launch Manual for Getting Great Ideas into the Market. Harvard Business Review Press.
- Aulet, B. (2013). Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup. Wiley.
- Blank, S., & Dorf, B. (2012). The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. K&S Ranch Press.
Use of AI
Artificial intelligence was utilized in the preparation of this publication for language editing tasks. The header image of this article was also generated using AI.
