How Businesses Are Making Money Selling AI Apps and Data

Imagine sitting at your desk, sorting through customer feedback spreadsheets, and realising that this organised information could actually be a brand new source of income. For a long time, only giant tech companies could make money from data. Today, businesses of all sizes are packaged up their unique insights and custom AI tools to sell them directly to others.

If you have ever wondered how your business can participate in this growing digital economy, here is how the world of data marketplaces and custom AI applications works in plain English.

What is a data marketplace?

In the past, if you wanted to share or sell information to another company, you had to email files back and forth or set up complex, risky connections.

Now, companies use a data marketplace (an online shop where organisations can securely buy, sell, or share data sets and ready-to-use software).

These marketplaces sit on top of a data warehouse (a secure digital storage room where a company keeps all its business information in one place). Because everything is stored securely in the cloud, you can give another business access to your data instantly, without actually sending them a physical copy of your files.

The rise of "Native Apps" and AI agents

Sharing raw numbers is useful, but the real magic happens when you combine data with artificial intelligence. Businesses are now building and selling two main things:

• Native Apps: This is software that plugs directly into a customer’s secure data storage so they do not have to send their private files to an outside server. It keeps everything safe and private.
• AI Agents: This is a smart virtual assistant designed to perform specific business tasks, like sorting logistics, drafting supply orders, or writing custom customer replies.

Instead of writing complex code from scratch, a business can simply go to a marketplace, find an AI agent built by an industry expert, and let it run inside their own secure digital environment.

How a typical business can participate

You do not need to be a global tech giant to benefit from this technology. Here are two common ways businesses are getting involved:

1. Selling your unique industry insights

Think about what your business knows better than anyone else. A local logistics firm might have years of anonymised data on delivery times and traffic bottlenecks. By listing this packaged data on a marketplace, retail brands can buy it to plan where to build their next physical stores.

2. Packaging your custom workflows

If your team built a clever internal tool—like an AI assistant that perfectly formats invoices for your industry—you can package it as a native app. Other businesses facing the exact same problem will happily pay a subscription to use your pre-built tool.

Wrap-up

The way we buy and sell business tools has shifted. By utilising secure marketplaces, your organisation can turn its daily administrative data and internal tools into valuable assets that other companies can subscribe to.

This week, sit down with your team and ask: What is the one unique database or custom workflow we have built that would make another business owner's life easier? That is your starting point.