How should founders evaluate AI technology opportunities while staying focused on solving customer problems?

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Accepted Answer

Exactly. The mistake is building around the technology instead of the need.

I’d approach AI the same way I’ve always approached starting busineses: start with the customer problem, not the tool. People don’t buy AI for AI’s sake. They buy speed, clarity, confidence, convenience, lower cost, or better results. AI only matters if it delivers one of those in a meaningful way.

What makes AI different — and genuinely exciting — is that it gives us the ability to solve old problems in entirely new ways. That’s the opportunity. Not “Where can I use AI?” but “What longstanding frustration, inefficiency, or limitation can I now attack that used to be impossible or too expensive to fix?”

That’s where founders should focus. Find a real, painful, repeated problem. Then ask whether AI makes the solution dramatically faster, cheaper, or better.

Don’t fall in love with the technology. Fall in love with the problem — and use AI only when it creates real progress.