This weekend I caught up with a friend who’s an entrepreneur. His company builds single-family homes. I love chatting with him because we operate in completely different worlds. His world is coordinating with skilled laborers building million-dollar-ish homes. But this weekend our conversation was different. He was excited to tell me about how he and his peers have embraced AI.

My friend shared that another builder was struggling to sell his completed spec homes. The carry costs were adding up, so the builder was anxious to sell them. The builder’s granddaughter told him to use ChatGPT to help him with his problem. The builder isn’t tech savvy (he’s in his 70s), but he figured he didn’t have anything to lose. He fired up ChatGPT, and after some dialogue it suggested a marketing strategy that included offering rate buydowns and other incentives to incentivize buyers and their real estate agents. These types of incentives aren’t new, but they were foreign to the builder because he left the marketing and financing to his real estate agent and banking partners. Nevertheless, he took the advice, instructing his agent and bankers to follow the strategy ChatGPT suggested. The result: the homes sold in a few weeks. The builder’s mind was blown, and he now uses AI regularly to talk through ideas and problems.

My friend is more tech savvy, but he hasn’t needed to use AI for work. Recently, though, he’s been using AI to build a side-hustle e-commerce business for his wife. Within a week or two, he had a name, branding, a strategy, and a manufacturing plan. He and his wife are now aiming to launch the brand soon. He was amazed that AI was able to take his wife’s idea, help him work through the unknowns, and get it to a stage where it’s close to launching. This normally would have taken months and thousands of dollars paid to designers and other contractors. AI now has him thinking about other business ideas he can test cheaply. In his free time, he’s using AI regularly now.

This weekend confirmed something I’ve been thinking for some time. When Main Street entrepreneurs (i.e., not tech entrepreneurs) learn how to leverage AI, a massive wave of entrepreneurship will be unleashed. As more people who deeply understand problems and how to solve them pair with AI that can turn their ideas into reality, we’ll see more people embrace entrepreneurship.