4 EASIEST AI Businesses to Start in 2026 (as a beginner)

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Right now, everyone is obsessed with building AI businesses, agencies, apps, automated systems. And look, some of that stuff does work, but it's honestly one of the hardest ways that you could possibly start. Cuz here's what I've noticed after building multiple seven-figure businesses from [music] absolute scratch. People making consistent money every single month are running businesses nobody really talks about. And the reason nobody talks about them is because they are not sexy, they're not revolutionary, they sound embarrassingly simple, almost kind of boring. But that's exactly why they work. But to actually build one of these, you need to understand the model behind them first. Because once you do, you'll start seeing opportunities everywhere. Let's get into it. Now look, building something from scratch works.

[00:00:40]Some of the biggest companies in the world started that way. But for most people that are starting out, it's one of the hardest paths that you can take.

[00:00:47]So here's what most people don't realize. You don't need to create anything to start a business. And if you don't believe me, look at some of the biggest companies in the world. Amazon, they didn't create a revolutionary product, they just connect people with the products they want to buy. Uber, they didn't come out with a super futuristic car, right? They just connected drivers with people who needed a ride. They all do pretty much the exact same thing. They connect people who have something with people who need something. And then they take a cut for making that connection happen. That is the middleman model. You take something that already exists and you connect it to people who want it. And the best part is that you can use this model for literally any type of business. It could be cars, it could be cosmetics, sports, gaming, whatever you want. But not all of them are equal. Some are way easier to enter as a beginner. And the four businesses that I'm about to show you are the best ones to start right now. So the first one is one that most people would never think about starting. And honestly, that is exactly why it works.

[00:01:45]Here's the thing, when most people buy running gear, they're not just buying something that is functional, they're buying into who they are. The gear is a part of the identity that they want to show to the world. And it even has a name in psychology, it's called self-image congruence, which basically just means people buy things that make them feel like the person that they believe that they are. And believe it or not, runners are one of the most identity-driven communities on the entire planet. Running isn't just an exercise for these people, it is their entire life. These are the type of people that are posting their splits on running apps. They're wearing the gear everywhere. They're planning their weekends around race schedules, and run clubs have completely blown up right now. Memberships grew nearly 60% in the last year alone. Running stopped being just a simple workout, and it became a whole lifestyle and an identity. People are building literal communities around it. Brands are forming out of those communities, and the spending that follows is absolutely crazy. Now, here's where the opportunity comes in. The big brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, they're trying to sell to everyone, right? Which means that their stuff ends up being just fine and okay. It does the job, but it doesn't feel personal. And the reason that they can't change that is because their whole business model requires mass appeal, right? They physically cannot go deep on one single community because that's just not how these massive companies operate. So, you don't need to compete directly with Nike, you just need to serve the runners that they're ignoring. That is the middleman play. So, you become the connection between the passionate runners and the gear that they actually reflect who they are. And the best proof of what's possible here is 247 by Represent. So, the Heaton brothers started this whole thing, which was screen printing t-shirts in their parents' garden shed back in 2011. So, George was training every single day and kept reaching for the same Nike tracksuit bottoms, but they never fit quite right or exactly how he wanted them to look. So, what he did, he just built what he wanted, and that became 247. And what started as a personal frustration turned into a brand that's doing close to 100 million pounds [music] a year in revenue. And here's what made it work. They didn't just launch a product, they built a community around the lifestyle first. So, they started with group runs, meet-ups, a whole entire movement. So, by the time that the product dropped, the community was already there waiting to buy. Now, you're not going to go ahead and build Represent overnight, but the model behind it is something that anyone can start applying right now. So, here's how you actually get started. So, the first thing is picking one specific product to sell. You could start with socks, you could start with headbands, hydration gear, running belts, apparel, whatever it may be. And to figure out which one you need to go where runners are already talking. So, Strava groups, local run clubs, running subreddits. You want to read what they are constantly complaining about, what they wish existed on the market, and then what keeps coming up over and over again. Or, you could just go and literally ask them directly. A great example of this is Chicken Legs. Chicken Legs is a running brand that was built entirely around bold personality-driven gear for the running community. And one of the things that they do really well is run a design contest, which is really cool. basically when customers, they can go ahead and submit ideas for new prints, and the community votes on which ones actually get made. Now, this company isn't guessing what to sell next, and you can do the exact same thing even if you are just starting out. So, what you can do is you can go to communities, show three product ideas, see which one people actually respond to, and that one post could cost you literally nothing if you're simply submitting it to a community or a forum. It could save you from spending money on something that nobody wants. That is literally how you start. And once you know what you're selling, you need somewhere to actually sell it. Now, let me show you how to get this sorted out in a couple minutes for basically nothing. So, the first thing that you need is Shopify. It's one of the main platforms that pretty much everyone uses. And right now, you can get it for a dollar for the next 3 months. All you have to do is go to the description of this video, uh the one that you're watching, and you simply have to go to this link right here, and you will see the attached offer for a single dollar for the next 3 months, when it's normally $30 a month. But, once you've got your account, the next thing is your domain because right now your store URL is going to look something like a bunch of random letters.myshopify.com just like this, which doesn't really look like a real business. So, you're going to want a proper domain. And the one that I go with is a.store domain.

[00:06:03]Now, when someone sees your brand.store, they immediately know that it's an online store, right? There's no confusion, there's no second-guessing.

[00:06:09]And then there's actual data that shows that.store domains tend to get more clicks. And as you can see here, some of the biggest names and brands are using.store. So, this has really become the standard when it comes to selling online. So, super straightforward. All you have to do is insert the brand name that you would like. Uh so, we'll type in RunGear for the sake of this example.

[00:06:30]We'll press search. And then as you can see, this domain is available, which is really cool. So, RunGear.store, all we have to do is add this to cart and proceed like this. And then the domain for a year is $29, but if you use my code, which is Andy, and you apply it, you can see that you get a $28 discount so that the domain ends up being only 99 cents. So, pretty much a no-brainer. All you have to do is press place order and then go back to your Shopify and connect your.store domain with your Shopify store. And then once you make that connection, your URL is no longer going to be a bunch of random letters.myshopify.com, it's going to be RunGear.store or your brand.store. Now, these businesses that I'm going over are some of the best opportunities out there right now. And if you want help actually building out one of these, that is what my mentorship program is for. So, we'll help you figure out what products to sell, how to get your first customers, and make the right call so that you are not second-guessing anything throughout this whole process. Now, if this sounds like something that you'd value, feel free to apply below and we'll see if you're a good fit. Now, the middleman model works best when you find a community where the current options aren't actually built for them. And this next business is maybe the clearest example of this. Now, when a group of people enter a space that was traditionally dominated by a different group. You're not just buying products because they are useful, they're buying to feel like they belong. Now, this is exactly what happened with women's athletic gear for decades. Women's workout clothes were literally just smaller versions of men's clothes. That is all the market was offering. But then brands like Lululemon came along and designed clothes specifically for the women's body, and they built billion-dollar businesses because of that. And the exact same opportunity exists right now in women's boxing gear.

[00:08:11]So, women's boxing and combat fitness have exploded over the past few years and went from a very niche-like thing to one of the fastest-growing fitness categories. [music] So, right now there are hundreds of boutique boxing studios, women's boxing clubs, and then there's combat fitness content that's getting millions of views. So, needless to say the community is massive and still growing. But here's the problem, almost all the boxing gear is still designed for men. The gloves, the wraps, the bags, pretty much everything. All of it is still built for male bodies and preferences. So, women in the space are constantly frustrated because they have to find ways to use gear that really doesn't actually fit them properly or isn't designed to fit them properly. So, they're almost desperate for a brand that actually gets them. And a great example of this is KO Studio. They're making products that are functional and that make women feel like they truly belong in this space. You can look how they position their products, the branding, how they speak to their community, and then of course what their products look like. It's clear that they understand exactly what this community wanted. So, business is connecting women from combat fitness communities with products specifically designed for them.

[00:09:15]So, you can sell products like gloves, wraps, boxing apparel, and training accessories. But the most important part here is going to be the branding because it needs to reflect both the strength and the femininity at the same time, and the generic stuff in this case just isn't going to work. And to get an idea of what they really want, you can search boxing hashtags on Instagram. So, combat fitness influencers or studio communities, these will give you a really good sense of what the community is looking for at the moment. Now, after you have a solid idea of what to sell, you need to find a way to get in front of people who would want to buy the product. And one of the best ways is to make content around your progress.

[00:09:51]That's exactly what the founder of KO Studio actually did. She was 18 years old when she started this brand, and she didn't launch with a full product line or a big marketing budget, right? What she did was really just get Tik Tok, create an account, and document everything from the sourcing process, the prototyping, the stuff that didn't work, and then, you know, of course, her wins. She basically put it all out there, but by the time her first gloves were actually ready to ship, she already had over 100,000 followers emotionally invested into seeing her succeed. So, what did they do? They went ahead and supported her and bought her products.

[00:10:23]Now, she didn't get to 100,000 followers overnight, right? That took showing up every single day, putting in work when she probably didn't want to put in the work, but the principle behind it is something that anyone can start right now. Pick the community that you want to serve, open up an account, and just start documenting the process. So, what you're researching, what you're testing, what's working and what isn't. When you do launch, these people already know your story, they came to you. Okay, so this next business is maybe the most underrated opportunity on this entire list, and I say that because when most people hear what it is, their first reaction, honestly, my first reaction, too, is seriously. If I tell you that there's massive opportunity in sports, you're probably going to think that I'm talking about football, soccer, basketball, but the problem with going for the most popular sports is going to be the competition. Thousands of people are fighting over the same customers with the same products. So, you'd end up competing on price and making almost nothing for each sale. So, instead, you want to go for something that's more underground in this case. Now, the reason for this is pretty simple.

[00:11:23]Underground sports are some of the best markets in the world. Even though that doesn't sound intuitive, they are because communities are really passionate, and they'll buy anything to prove it. Now, the sport that I would choose right now is disc golf. Disc golf went from a fringe hobby to a legitimate sport with over 5 million active players, and the numbers of courses worldwide has nearly tripled since 2015.

[00:11:47]Now, the best part is that these aren't casual players that shop one time a year, right? They're constantly buying new discs, upgrading their bags, trying new types of gear. The spending never really stops, and the competition from giant corporation is basically zero because they prefer to be in more popular markets. Now, if you want proof that you can build a real business here, you can go ahead and look at this company called Dynamic Discs. It's estimated that they make around $6 million a year. And here's the thing, this didn't start as some massive huge business plan. The guy was just a college student who noticed that the same disc sitting on the shelf for $15 could be sourced directly from manufacturer for less than that. So, he just became the person in the middle connecting the two. That's literally it.

[00:12:28]And that one insight turned into a company doing $6 million a year. You could sell discs for different throws, bags, mini markers, towels, and accessories, but it won't work if you don't know what this community really wants. So, look for golf subreddits. You can look at Facebook groups, YouTube channels, local leagues. Do your research and build your brand and marketing around that. Because in a community this tight, word travels pretty fast. One person buys your disc, they show it to their friend group, and then suddenly you got 10 new customers.

[00:12:58]Now, the fourth business is the one that I saved for last because it might be the best example of a business that sounds so boring, but it quietly is making an insane amount of money. So, if you know anything about pet owners, you know that they'll do anything for their pets. They will buy the best food. They'll make sure that they sleep well. They'll basically treat them like family. So, it's clearly a good market. But when I say pet owners, you probably think that I'm thinking of dogs or cats. And because everyone thinks the same thing, the competition for dog and cat products is pretty much brutal. Instead, you want to think of something smaller, something like fish. Now, thing is, smaller doesn't necessarily mean less money. The global aquarium market is worth billions of dollars, and for the last 5 years, it's only been growing. Aquarium hobbyists are one of the highest spending and most dedicated communities out there. These people, believe it or not, they truly care about their fish, and they build them entire ecosystems to live in, even if that cost them hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. And because of the nature of how aquariums work, they need to perform maintenance constantly. Tanks, filtration, lighting, plants, substrate, fish, and an endless stream of accessories and supplies.

[00:14:05]Every aquarium is a project that pretty much never ends, which means that spending never ends, either. And here's why this is a gold mine for a middleman.

[00:14:12]The big retail chains, like PetSmart and Petco, sell generic, low-quality aquarium stuff. And the people who are serious about this, they can't stand it, and they voice their opinion. They want specialized products and better quality from brands that actually understand what they want. Now, Aquarium Co-op is the proof that this works. These guys built a business. They did over half a million dollars in a single month last year alone. Now, there are two ways to get in front of this community. You can run ads, and that's honestly one of the fastest ways to get early sales or to test the market, or you can build content around the hobby. You can be the person that's teaching people how to set up better tanks and let the trust do the selling for you. Now, in Aquarium Co-op's case, they went the organic content route, and they built that $13.5 million business off the back of a YouTube channel. Now, in my opinion, the best move would just going to be to do both. So, run ads to get your first sales going, to gain proof of concept, and start making content on the side at the same time. So, the ads are going to bring in the money right now, and the content is just going to keep working in the background long after you post it.

[00:15:13]Now, all four of these businesses run on the same model, and honestly, the model itself is not the hard part. The hard part is the execution. So, picking the right community, knowing which products to test first, understanding when to scale and when to pull back. That is where pretty much majority of people get stuck and that's exactly what my mentorship program is for. Now, if you guys are really serious about building something of your own and you want a partner, I'll leave a link below for you guys to apply. Now, if you want to see one of these businesses getting built from zero, I put together a challenge video where I did the whole thing in 7 days. I honestly think it's worth a watch. If you want to, you can see it right here. Other than that, I will see you in the next one. Peace.