How to pick a name for your AI startup

What’s in a name?

A name starts the story of your company or product. A great name won’t make a lousy product soar. And a terrible name won’t necessarily drown fantastic technology. But in this world of exploding innovation in the AI industry, a great name paired with a great product will make your technology rise above.

Before naming your AI technology or company, you should consider several key factors that may help determine the right naming strategy:

• Is this technology front and center with its users or powering an existing brand or experience?
• How early in development is your AI, and when will it be genuinely differentiated from others?
• Where should you be driving brand attribution and awareness long-term?

Should you use “AI” in your product or company name?

Let’s start with “AI” itself.

The acronym AI is used in many of the new names in the market, from established frontrunner OpenAI to Elon Musk’s newly launched xAI. This term is less likely to be a naming fad that will fade out of fashion because of its tangible nature.

“AI” will likely follow a similar trajectory with another trending tech term thanks to its tangible nature: “cloud.” At first, many naming experts feared the term would eventually sound dated and overused — but more than a decade after it began spreading as a naming word-part, “cloud” has proven it’s here to stay. It is still used in creative and descriptive product and company names (just read any tech product press release!).

Incorporating “AI” into your technology or company name can be done in a few different ways. For example, you may integrate it more creatively into your name (e.g., Clarifai, AEye). While this creates more distinctiveness and is a clever approach, it can also be tricky to create a word that is pronounceable and relevant to your value proposition.