This week, I met several aspiring entrepreneurs who’ve built software to solve niche problems they encounter daily. None of them knows how to write software code. All used AI to build their web apps in a matter of days. They all have normal day jobs and aren’t in the tech industry. My takeaways:

• The people who understand a problem deeply and have a vision for how the solution should work will build superior products.
• Distribution will be key for these individuals. Making potential customers aware that the product exists needs to be thought through.
• There will likely be a lot more competition. If anyone can build anything with AI, we’ll see more ideas, and good ideas get copied quickly.
• These people building solutions with AI don’t all want to be full-time entrepreneurs. They enjoy building things that solve problems they care about, but they don’t want the stress of being a full-time entrepreneur. These types of projects could be a good source of income to supplement their salary.
• Some of them will need a small amount of capital to grow these businesses; I’m thinking $50k–$100k. A gap in the market for providing capital to the best of these types of projects, as well as an opportunity for a new investment product, probably exist. But the returns will likely come from cash flows, not from selling the business.

AI is moving fast and democratizing the ability to create a product and a business in a way that will benefit people with an entrepreneurial spirit.