How to Find Profitable AI Business Ideas in 2025?

Building an AI-powered business can be exciting, but finding a profitable idea is often challenging. This guide offers 12 strategies to help you identify opportunities and ideas for building your AI business. Whether you're a developer or entrepreneur, these methods can guide you to create AI Businesses that meet real needs and stand out in the market.

Ideation framework by John Rush, a Serial Entrepreneur

John Rush, a serial entrepreneur and AI innovator, shared a powerful ideation framework in a tweet (X post). Rush runs "the most automated org on earth" using AI agents he built, is the mind behind ventures like Unicorn Platform, IndexRusher, ListingBott, SeoBotAI, and DevHunt. His framework provides a structured approach to generating business ideas, particularly for AI-powered solutions.

Breaking Down the Ideation Framework

• The "Pain" branch, marked as the "best" approach in green, encourages identifying pain points in various contexts: "At Work" (further divided into "My Work" and "Others' Work") and "Private Life" (split into "My Life" and "Life of People I Know" or "People I Don’t Know"). This aligns with strategies like solving personal pain points or friends' problems, emphasizing user-centric innovation.For example, an AI agent could address a pain point like manual data entry at work, a common frustration Rush likely encountered in his automation journey.
• The "Clone" branch, labeled "bad" in black, warns against simply copying existing solutions, though it suggests potential improvements like "OSS" (open-source software), "New Niche," "New Geography," "New Pricing," or "New Use Case." This mirrors the earlier strategy of leveraging validated ideas but cautions against direct replication.
• Finally, the "Technology" branch, marked "okay" in pink, focuses on applying technology to new contexts, which could tie into exploring Zapier workflows or targeting boring industries. Rush’s framework, rooted in his experience automating businesses, provides a practical lens for entrepreneurs to prioritize high-impact AI ideas while avoiding low-value cloning.

Levelsio Advice on Building Side Projects

Pieter Levels, the indie maker behind levels.io, shared valuable advice, emphasizing the importance of financial stability while pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.

He recommends maintaining a main job to cover expenses and building projects on the side, as creating without immediate income can be stressful and unsustainable. This approach, rooted in his own experience of turning side projects into profitable startups, allows for experimentation without the pressure of financial strain.

12 Strategies on Finding Profitable AI Business Ideas

Here are 12 strategies for finding profitable ideas for building AI businesses, with a bonus tip, for entrepreneurs and indie developers. Everyone wants to build an AI agent right now, but most people don't know what to build. This resonates with the rapid growth of AI, where identifying viable ideas is crucial.

1. Turn Your Knowledge/Unique Insights or Proprietary Data into AI Agents

Using a platform like Okara, you can create your own AI powered Chat applications that can be monetised for a monthly subscription plan. It takes 60 seconds to build a GPT wrapper with your unique data base and you can instantly go live with it. Okara offers multiple LLMs to choose from to power the AI app and has inbuilt payment, email automation, account creation, embeddable widget option, custom domain and much more.

2. Leverage Validated Ideas from Successful Platforms

Browse Indie Hackers and sort by AI, self-funded, and revenue (Stripe verified) to discover businesses that are already making money. These are proven ideas with paying customers, and you can build a faster, cheaper, or same product in a different niche. Sensor Tower, mentioned for mobile app data, can also help by analyzing top-performing AI apps. For example, Indie Hackers lists projects like "StealthGPT" ($347,372 revenue), offering inspiration for refinement.

3. Transform User Complaints into Product Opportunities

Spend 30 minutes on Reddit, X, HackerNews, or niche forums to find complaints like "Why is this still so hard?" or "I hate doing [task] every week." These pain points, such as users struggling with data entry, can be turned into AI agent ideas. This method leverages social media for direct user insights, ensuring relevance.

4. Explore Zapier Library for Workflow Patterns

Zapier has 6,000+ apps with triggers and actions, showing how people automate tasks. By analyzing these workflows, you can build an AI agent to run the entire process, offering a more integrated solution. For instance, if many connect email and CRM, an AI agent could automate customer follow-ups seamlessly. Discover most used Zapier automations and create a easy to use version of it.

A lot of professionals (business owners) do not have the skills, understanding, or patience to build complex workflows. If you can build similar automations with an intuitive interface, you can potentially build a business that has a ready to serve buyer audience.

5. Shadow a Small Business to Understand Manual Tasks

Go offline and spend a day with a local business owner, asking, "What manual tasks eat their time?" AI agents for SMBs, like automating inventory management, are a massive opportunity. This hands-on approach ensures your solution addresses real-world needs, particularly for resource-constrained businesses.

6. Scratch Your Own Itch

Identify repetitive tasks you do weekly, such as cold emailing or summarizing calls. Turn these into AI agents, as personal pain points often reflect broader market needs. For example, if scheduling meetings frustrates you, an AI agent could automate this, appealing to others with similar issues.

7. Build a “Copilot” for Specific Job Roles

Pick a job role, like recruiter or podcast editor, and research their workflow via interviews or YouTube videos. Build an AI copilot to assist with one painful task, such as resume screening for recruiters. This targeted approach can create highly valuable, role-specific solutions.

8. Analyze Tasks Being Outsourced on Freelance Platforms

Look at Fiverr or Upwork for services like resume rewrites or email replies, often manually done. An AI agent can do these cheaper, faster, and 24/7, tapping into a market where users already pay for such services. For example, automating job scraping could save hours for hiring managers.

9. Use AI Tools for Deep Research

Use Perplexity or ChatGPT to ask, "What are common time-consuming tasks for HR managers?" or "Biggest headaches for e-commerce founders?" Look for patterns, like HR managers struggling with onboarding, to identify AI agent opportunities. This method leverages AI's research capabilities for efficiency.

Here's a tip on how to leverage AI apps to brainstorm AI business ideas:

1. Write down a detailed prompt that includes your skill level, yours of experience, location, savings, risk appetite, and how much you can dedicate to the business you want to start.
2. You can further enhance the prompt with your goals, your passion, and so on.
3. You can also include your resume, LinkedIn or personal projects.
4. Additionally, you can write about your expertise (what is your edge)

And then reason and chat with AI to brainstorm business ideas that you can work on.

10. Explore Boring but Important Industries

Target high-margin industries with outdated systems, like law, accounting, logistics, and compliance, swimming in paperwork. AI agents can save time, such as automating legal document reviews. These sectors, often underserved, offer significant potential for disruption and profitability.

If you can offer speed, or help businesses save money, or help them cut inefficiencies in their systems with the help of AI and automations, you can build a business with consistent revenue. Often the challenging part in such businesses is get find the right decision makers or buyers in large complex industries.

11. Solve Your Friends' Problems

Ask five friends, "What’s the most annoying part of your work day?" Listen for friction, like endless email threads, and build an AI agent to address it. Don’t ask what they want built; let their complaints guide you. This method ensures immediate user feedback and relevance.

12. Bonus Tip and Additional Insights

Go to product review sections on AppSumo or G2 and look for products with 1-star ratings and negative reviews. For example, if users complain about a CRM lacking automation, an AI agent could fill that gap. This complements the complaint-based strategy, focusing on existing products' weaknesses.

Comparing Ideation Strategies

To organize and compare the strategies, consider the following table where we categorized them by approach:

ApproachStrategyExample Platform/ToolResearch-BasedLeverage validated ideas, Use AI for researchIndie Hackers, PerplexityUser-CentricTurn complaints, Solve friends' problemsReddit, X, Personal networkWorkflow AnalysisExplore Zapier, Analyze outsourced tasksZapier, FiverrField ObservationShadow small businesses, Build job role copilotsLocal businesses, YouTubeIndustry FocusExplore boring industriesLaw, Accounting, Logistics

This helps you visualise the diversity of methods, from online research to offline observation, ensuring that there is something out there that suits your profession, skill levels, and exposure to the world.

Conclusion

These 12 strategies, plus the bonus tip, provide a robust framework for finding profitable AI business ideas. They range from leveraging existing success (Indie Hackers, Sensor Tower) to identifying new needs (complaints, friends' problems), catering to various entrepreneurial styles. Success depends on execution, market fit, and adaptability, but these methods offer a starting point for innovation in the AI space.

If you've narrowed down on an idea to build, head to Okara and launch your AI Chat Agent in 60 seconds!