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The Top 5 AI Businesses To Start In 2026 · The Empire of Wealth

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Everywhere you look right now, people are talking about AI.
• 0:02
  It's the biggest.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Shift we've seen in business in decades.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: But most of what you're hearing is either hype, outdated advice,
• 0:10
  or ideas that will only work if you already have
• 0:12
  big teams and big pockets. To help you out, I'm
• 0:15
  going to give you the five best proven AI businesses
• 0:19
  that are possible in 2026. Each idea in this list
• 0:22
  is ranked and scored based on how much it costs
• 0:25
  to start, how hard it is to learn, how fast
• 0:28
  you can make money, and how scalable it actually is.
• 0:31
  If you're serious about starting a business in 2026 using AI,
• 0:34
  then this video is what you should watch to the end.
• 0:37
  Idea zero, AI e-commerce. Before I break down the other
• 0:41
  four businesses, as I promised, I have to start with
• 0:43
  the one model that rules them all. I'm calling this
• 0:46
  idea zero because it gives you the benchmark that I
• 0:48
  measure everything else against.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: And today, I'm going to be honest with you.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Most of the new AI business ideas that you see
• 0:55
  people hyping up right now are very fragile. Most people
• 0:58
  are trying to use AI to sell services. They're building agencies,
• 1:01
  writing copy or making faceless videos. The problem, AI is
• 1:05
  aggressively driving down the cost of digital labor to zero.
• 1:09
  If an AI can do the work instantly for free,
• 1:12
  the value of selling that service drops every single day.
• 1:15
  You're fighting a losing battle against the algorithm. This is
• 1:18
  why I believe the safest, most anti-fragile business you can
• 1:21
  start in 2026 is AI e-commerce. See, AI can replace
• 1:25
  every service provider, but it cannot replace the physical products
• 1:29
  that people know and love.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: People always want to buy things.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And when you build an AI e-commerce brand, you aren't
• 1:34
  just selling time or prompts for quick dollars. You're building
• 1:38
  a genuine asset with customers that you own. This is
• 1:40
  the exact model that allowed me to scale my brands
• 1:43
  over a billion dollars in sales. You simply cannot do
• 1:46
  that with a service agency. You cannot sell hustle for
• 1:49
  a multi-million dollar exit.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: You need a brand.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Now, I know what you're thinking. Davey, isn't e-commerce hard?
• 1:55
  Doesn't it take a lot of time and money? In
• 1:57
  the past, definitely. But now it's becoming cheaper and cheaper.
• 2:00
  Back when I started, I had to beg my mom
• 2:02
  and girlfriend to model for photo shoots. I spent weeks
• 2:05
  building a store, risking money on stock and months praying
• 2:08
  for that actual brand would actually work. AI has broken
• 2:11
  this barrier. The business model hasn't changed, but the speed has.
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  Instead of spending weeks researching, you can use AI to
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  find a winning product in a single afternoon. Instead of
• 2:20
  hiring a developer, you can build a high converting Shopify
• 2:22
  store in under an hour. Instead of hiring a camera crew,
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  you can generate realistic video ads that look like they
• 2:28
  cost thousands of dollars to produce. You are taking the
• 2:30
  most proven business model in history, selling physical products and
• 2:34
  running it with the superpower of a hundred person team
• 2:37
  at your fingertips.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So I'm putting this first on the list.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: While the other ideas are great for generating income, this
• 2:43
  is the one that I think builds wealth the most.
• 2:45
  So let's score it to see how it stacks up
• 2:47
  against the rest. Startup cost, 4 out of 10. I'm
• 2:49
  going to be real with you. This isn't free like
• 2:52
  a lot of the other ideas. Maybe you'll need $ 500
• 2:55
  to $ 1, 000 to get started. But I consider that a
• 2:58
  good thing because it can keep competition low. Skill required,
• 3:01
  6 out of 10. You don't need to be a
• 3:03
  coding genius, but you do need to be resourceful enough
• 3:05
  to use the AI tools that I talk about on
• 3:07
  my channel. Speed to money, 8 out of 10. With AI,
• 3:11
  you can launch a store this weekend. Profit potential, 10
• 3:14
  out of 10. Really, the profit potential is uncapped. This
• 3:16
  is the model where you can make 10K a month today,
• 3:19
  and you could also make $ 10 million check in three
• 3:22
  years selling the brand. Now, on to the next idea,
• 3:24
  which is create an AI product business. Now, if you
• 3:27
  aren't ready to build a full brand yet and you
• 3:29
  want some high leverage cash, then you can create an
• 3:31
  AI product business. Let me explain what this means before
• 3:35
  I go deeper. When most people think of AI, they
• 3:37
  imagine giant billion dollar companies, billion dollar systems or apps
• 3:41
  that need a team of engineers. But the reality is
• 3:44
  there's a massive space for smaller companies. simpler tools products
• 3:48
  that use ai in the background to solve one everyday
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  problem really well imagine that you build a browser extension
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  that rewrites product descriptions for ecom stores or a small
• 3:57
  website that turns meeting notes into task lists that's an
• 4:00
  ai product a focused helpful tool that quietly uses chat
• 4:04
  gpt cord or another model to do one clear job
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  for a specific type of user You're not.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Trying to reinvent AI.
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  Speaker 1: You're just packaging it into something that people instantly understand
• 4:13
  and want to pay for. Think about a really annoying
• 4:16
  small problem that people deal with every day. It's probably
• 4:19
  something that you're dealing with. Repetitive reports, writing emails, cleaning data,
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  summarizing info. Every single one of those pain points can
• 4:26
  be turned into a small AI tool that saves people time.
• 4:29
  That's all a good AI product really needs to be.
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  It's a shortcut for people that are willing to pay for.
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  The best part of this is you don't even need
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  to learn to code to do it. There's a ton
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  of tools out there like cursor where you can simply
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  use a prompt, develop the tool, and there's a ton
• 4:43
  of tutorials on that. The goal here isn't to create
• 4:45
  something complex. It's to create something useful and marketable. The
• 4:49
  key word here is marketable. Your idea is only as
• 4:52
  good as your marketing considering the cost of creating the
• 4:55
  product has now been so simplified through AI. There are
• 4:59
  hundreds of micro SaaS tools that technically work, but nobody
• 5:02
  uses them because nobody knows they exist. In most cases,
• 5:05
  it's not the product that wins. It's the person who
• 5:07
  knows how to sell it. using TikTok, viral marketing, those
• 5:11
  kind of things. If you're a marketer or operator, this
• 5:13
  business model is perfect for you because you already understand
• 5:16
  what makes people buy. The biggest mistake people make here
• 5:19
  is focusing too much on the tech instead of the problem.
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  You're not building for developers to admire the tech of
• 5:24
  the tool. You're building for people who want a specific outcome.
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  So if you're trying to start an AI product business today,
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  start with a question. What's a problem that you've faced
• 5:33
  or watch others struggle with that you can solve with AI?
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  Find a problem, test a simple solution, and see if
• 5:39
  anyone will actually pay for it. So let's score it.
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  Startup cost, 8 out of 10. You can start for
• 5:44
  literally $ 100, $ 200, but you'll need to invest time into
• 5:48
  learning these no-code platforms. Skill required, 6 out of 10.
• 5:52
  You don't specifically need to learn how to code, but
• 5:54
  you are going to run into hurdles where you're going
• 5:56
  to have to understand it and debug it. You're also
• 5:59
  going to need to understand positioning and users. Speed to money,
• 6:03
  5 out of 10. You'll probably need a week or two,
• 6:06
  probably even longer to get something live and test it.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Profit potential, 8 out of 10.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: If you find the product market fit, this can definitely
• 6:12
  scale fast, but I do think that there's a limit
• 6:14
  to it. The next business idea is one of the
• 6:16
  most practical ways to make money with AI right now,
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  which is building an AI automation service. We pay these
• 6:22
  people at our own company. Instead of building a new
• 6:24
  product from scratch, this business is about helping companies streamline
• 6:27
  their repetitive, time-consuming parts of their existing workflows using tools
• 6:32
  like ChatGBT, Zapier, Make.com, or even NAN. You're not pitching
• 6:36
  AI for the sake of it. You're helping businesses become
• 6:39
  more efficient, reduce wasted hours, and free up their teams
• 6:42
  to focus on what actually drives revenue.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Now, I know what you're thinking. You've probably heard of
• 6:47
  this before.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Everyone online seems to be talking about AI automations, and
• 6:50
  that is somewhat true. Unlike them, I have a unique
• 6:53
  way of getting your first paying client that flips this
• 6:56
  whole model on its head. And this even works if
• 6:59
  you've never sold anything before. I want you to think
• 7:01
  about the average business for a second. They all have
• 7:03
  these repetitive tasks that staff hate doing. These are high volume,
• 7:07
  low skill processes that automation is perfect for. Even in
• 7:11
  our own team, we use these NAN flows to compile
• 7:14
  all of our competitors' top creatives and send them to
• 7:17
  our editors. It saves hours of manual research every single week.
• 7:20
  And it's a perfect example of how these tiny automations
• 7:23
  can make massive impacts. And most businesses have no idea
• 7:26
  how to set up any of these. And that's where
• 7:28
  you come in. Start by finding one real problem. Maybe
• 7:31
  the gym that spends hours manually replying to leads, or
• 7:34
  maybe it's a store that wants to automatically email customers
• 7:37
  after purchase, but it needs to be quite a customized email.
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  Speaker 2: You don't need to be technical.
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  Speaker 1: Most of this can be done with a drag and
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  drop workflow using NAN or Zapier. Instead of cold pitching
• 7:46
  random businesses and hoping someone says yes, start by building
• 7:50
  a tiny example of the automation that solves this problem.
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  Show it to them in a way that makes the
• 7:55
  value very obvious. It doesn't need to be actually using
• 7:59
  their data or fully built out. Even if it's a
• 8:01
  simple mock-up or demo version, just enough to spark interest.
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  Send them a video exactly how it works with this
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  example data. When the business can see how it would
• 8:10
  actually fit into their workflow, it removes the guesswork and
• 8:13
  makes the conversation 10 times easier. That's why this approach
• 8:17
  works even for beginners. You're not asking them to imagine
• 8:20
  the value, you're showing them exactly what the value is.
• 8:22
  And when you start landing clients, it's crucial to price
• 8:25
  it right. Most automation projects include an upfront setup fee,
• 8:28
  maybe $ 1, 000 to $ 3, 000, and then a monthly retainer for maintenance, updates,
• 8:32
  and API changes. Because these systems run constantly, deciding how
• 8:36
  to charge is crucial. You want recurring revenue that grows
• 8:39
  with each client. Be prepared for some iteration and maintenance.
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  You'll make small tweaks, fix breaks, or expand what you've
• 8:45
  built for the client. Remember, they don't want an AI revolution.
• 8:49
  They just want simple automations that save them lots of money.
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  One final tip here is the people that stand out
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  in this space are the ones who differentiate their offer,
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  the ones who niche down and use their existing knowledge
• 9:02
  such as If you understand e-commerce, sell automation for stores.
• 9:06
  If you understand real estate, automate something in that space.
• 9:09
  Use what you know already. So let's score it. Startup costs,
• 9:13
  8 out of 10. Tools like NAN and Zapier have
• 9:15
  free plans, so you can get started for pretty much nothing.
• 9:18
  Skills required, 6 out of 10. You need to understand
• 9:20
  systems and logic, but not deep coding. Speed to money,
• 9:23
  8 out of 10. You can get your first client
• 9:25
  in a week by offering quick wins. Profit potential, 7
• 9:28
  out of 10. It is very hard to scale this
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  to a very, very big business, but it's enough to
• 9:33
  get started. Next up is the AI consulting business. And
• 9:36
  this one connects perfectly to the last idea. If the
• 9:39
  automation business is about building AI systems for clients, consulting
• 9:43
  is about identifying where those systems should exist in the
• 9:47
  first place.
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  Speaker 2: Because here's the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Most business owners don't know what to automate automatically. what
• 9:52
  tools to use, or even what AI fits into their operations.
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  They know they're missing out, but they're not sure where.
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  That's where an AI consultant comes in. your job is
• 10:00
  to look at a business identify where ai can save
• 10:04
  them money and time and create a roadmap they can
• 10:07
  clearly actually understand and execute you're not building a workflow
• 10:11
  yet you're diagnosing the problem think of it like being
• 10:15
  a doctor for a business You find the pain points
• 10:18
  before prescribing the medicine.
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  Speaker 2: And this is important. You don't need to be an
• 10:22
  expert coder or build your own models from scratch. You
• 10:26
  do need to show real proof.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: That you understand what you're talking about. You need to
• 10:31
  be able to demonstrate results, case studies, or at least
• 10:34
  hands-on experience using AI tools to solve business problems. That's
• 10:38
  what earns trust and gets clients to take you seriously.
• 10:42
  The best consultants are just translators. They take complex technology
• 10:45
  and explain it in plain English that a business owner.
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  Speaker 2: Can act on.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Start with industries that you already understand, but think of
• 10:53
  it less as a rule and more of a shortcut.
• 10:56
  If you worked in a specific industry, you already know
• 10:58
  where the inefficiencies are, like customer support, fulfillment, content production, reporting.
• 11:03
  If you're new, pick an industry that genuinely interests you
• 11:06
  and learn how this operates first. Have calls with the
• 11:09
  founders of these businesses and connect the AI.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Those insights are your advantage.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Similar to the last idea, your first few clients might
• 11:17
  come from your network, but if you don't have one,
• 11:20
  start by reaching out to local businesses or even online communities.
• 11:24
  You can start cold calling customers or maybe DMing them
• 11:27
  exactly how AI will help their business. Offer a free
• 11:30
  AI audit to local businesses, analyzing their operations, identify... where
• 11:35
  their time is actually being wasted, and outline a few
• 11:38
  practical automations or tools that could actually fix this.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: You don't actually need to implement it for them.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: You're just proving that you can spot opportunities that they
• 11:47
  are blind to. Once you have a few wins, you
• 11:49
  can package that audit process into a paid service, charge $ 500,
• 11:52
  maybe $ 2, 000 for a strategy session, or $ 2, 000 to $ 10, 000
• 11:54
  for a full AI roadmap. Just one thing to note
• 12:01
  here is many consultants will transition from diagnosing the problems
• 12:04
  to implementing them because chances are when you give all
• 12:06
  of these solutions to the actual owner of the business
• 12:09
  that you're consulting for, they won't be able to implement
• 12:12
  them and they'll rely on you. So let's score this.
• 12:15
  Startup cost, 9 out of 10. You can start with
• 12:17
  zero tools, just research.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Outreach, and knowledge.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Skills required, 7 out of 10. You need business sense, communication,
• 12:24
  and enough AI literacy to identify these opportunities. Speed to money,
• 12:28
  7 out of 10. You can land a small paid
• 12:31
  order within your first few weeks. Profit potential, 6 out
• 12:34
  of 10. This is definitely, again, limited scale unless you
• 12:37
  move into implementation. The last idea we'll cover is probably
• 12:41
  one that you've heard about, but it's evolving fast. It's
• 12:43
  the AI creative agency. Now, before you roll your eyes,
• 12:47
  this isn't just about AI generated content. Everyone's seen enough
• 12:50
  of that. The real opportunity here is using AI to
• 12:53
  make creative work faster, cheaper, and more personalized.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Not replacing creativity, but multiplying it.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Think about all the long form content out there, podcasts,
• 13:03
  YouTube videos, webinars, just sitting unused. With AI, you can
• 13:08
  automatically turn that into short form clips, reels or social
• 13:11
  media posts in minutes and so many people aren't doing it.
• 13:14
  Every brand, creator and business is sitting on hours of
• 13:18
  unused video and written content that should be repurposed into
• 13:21
  hundreds of posts. You can easily sell automated repurposing and
• 13:26
  editing that save people 20.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Hours a week of work. Or take ad creatives.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Right now, top performing agencies are using AI to test
• 13:34
  dozens of ad variations overnight, swapping headlines, visuals, or voiceovers
• 13:38
  to see which combinations convert best. You can take human-made
• 13:42
  creatives and use AI tools to generate 10, 20, or
• 13:45
  even 100 variations in different formats, even languages. I filmed
• 13:50
  a full course on this in Daily Mentor for e-commerce
• 13:52
  brands showing the top tools where I created a brand
• 13:55
  and got thousands of dollars in sales in just a
• 13:57
  few weeks using AI creatives.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I'll leave a link in the description.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: AI creatives that convert is real business value because you're
• 14:04
  helping brands increase engagement, test more creative angles and drive
• 14:08
  measurable revenue, not just making pretty videos. And we're not
• 14:12
  talking about using one tool. We're talking about you combining
• 14:15
  multiple tools and understanding the business. AI video editors, voice cloning,
• 14:20
  script generators and automation platforms. The real money is in
• 14:23
  combining AI creative tools with automation workflows so you can
• 14:27
  produce content at scale without needing a big team. If
• 14:30
  you're someone with creative or marketing experience, this is where
• 14:33
  you can use AI as leverage. You already understand what
• 14:36
  makes an ad platform work, or what makes content engaging,
• 14:40
  AI just lets you move 10 times faster. You could
• 14:42
  start by offering a few free ads or video makeovers
• 14:45
  to local brands, take their existing content, use AI to
• 14:49
  clean it up, caption it, translate it, or make variants,
• 14:52
  then show them the before and after. Once they see
• 14:55
  the speed and quality, you could easily charge $ 2, 000 a
• 14:58
  month and probably provide them more creatives than they can
• 15:00
  create for $ 10, 000. So let's score it. Startup costs, six
• 15:05
  out of 10. Most tools have free or cheap plans,
• 15:07
  but you'll be likely spending $ 100 to $ 300 a month
• 15:11
  for good quality output. Skills required, six out of 10.
• 15:14
  You need basic creative taste and understanding of what actually converts.
• 15:19
  Speed to money, seven out of 10. You can get
• 15:21
  paid quite quickly if you show samples. And profit potential,
• 15:24
  seven out of 10. Again, hard to scale, but the
• 15:27
  niche is growing so quickly and it's very clear on
• 15:29
  the value that you're providing.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: So I think you can scale it quite far.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I just recently shot this free video on YouTube about
• 15:35
  building this AI store. If you want to learn more
• 15:38
  about AI side hustles, make sure you go watch. I'll
• 15:40
  put it on the screen now. Peace.