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Most people building with AI<\/a> are chasing the same thing: viral chatbots, cool demos or the next trending wrapper. But I think the real money \u2014 the serious, unicorn-level money \u2014 is somewhere else entirely.<\/p>\n It’s in the stuff nobody wants to touch. Tedious, time-wasting, must-do tasks. The things you hate doing, but have to. That’s where the next wave of AI companies will emerge.<\/p>\n Painful > pretty<\/p>\n AI that makes you laugh is fun. AI that gets your taxes filed, your Visa sorted or your documents organized? That’s life-changing.<\/p>\n When I moved to the UK on a Global Talent visa, I couldn’t find a single tool to track my absence days \u2014 something crucial for maintaining legal status. So I built it myself. Not to show off. Just to solve a problem I was quietly freaking out about.<\/p>\n That’s the kind of “boring<\/a>” problem most people overlook. But if it causes stress, repetition or fear \u2014 it’s valuable.<\/p>\n There’s more money in fixing one painful workflow than chasing 100 likes on a fancy AI-generated avatar.<\/p>\n Related: Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace Boring Ideas<\/a><\/p>\n The more annoying it is, the bigger the opportunity<\/p>\n Scheduling medical appointments. Submitting invoices. Picking wines from a 40-page restaurant list. These aren’t sexy problems. But they’re everywhere, and no one enjoys dealing with them.<\/p>\n I’ve built apps that take care of those exact scenarios. Some were simple side projects, but they solved problems that people repeatedly run into. That’s the magic formula.<\/p>\n In a piece I wrote earlier \u2014 7 AI-Based Business Ideas That Could Make You Rich<\/a> \u2014 I pointed out that the most profitable ideas are often hiding in plain sight. This is another example of that.<\/p>\n No team? No problem.<\/p>\n The tools available now are ridiculous. With GPT-4o, Supabase, Vercel and Claude, I’ve launched entire products in a week \u2014 solo.<\/p>\n No designers. No backend engineers. Just a painful idea, an AI stack and a few cups of coffee.<\/p>\n I’m not the only one. I’ve seen one-person shops build apps that manage apartment leases, prep legal docs and even coach you through IVF. They’re quiet tools with unflashy interfaces, but they’re deeply useful.<\/p>\n If you’re a founder today, your MVP<\/a> doesn’t need to be impressive \u2014 it just needs to make someone’s headache disappear.<\/p>\n Build for Tuesday, not for tech Twitter<\/p>\n Some of the smartest founders I know aren’t even trying to go viral. They’re building for Tuesdays \u2014 for that one problem that hits at 4:00 p.m. when you’re stuck in a bureaucratic loop and need someone (or something) to handle it for you.<\/p>\n And here’s the kicker: The more boring the problem, the less competition you’ll have. AI founders are still chasing novelty. That’s your advantage.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> on overlooked metaverse jobs made a similar point: There’s a fortune in places people ignore.<\/p>\n Boring doesn’t mean small<\/p>\n If you told someone a decade ago that accounting automation<\/a> or AI-powered scheduling tools would be billion-dollar companies, they’d probably laugh.<\/p>\n Now those tools run quietly in the background of almost every business.<\/p>\n The lesson: Don’t build for applause. Build for relief. If your product makes someone breathe easier, saves them time or reduces stress \u2014 they’ll pay for it.<\/p>\n Even if they never tweet about it.<\/p>\n Related: Why Unglamorous Entrepreneurial Opportunities Can Be Lucrative<\/a><\/p>\n Boring tools can still build billion-dollar companies<\/p>\n If you need proof, look at Expensify. It started by solving one thing: making expense reports less painful. It’s not exciting, not revolutionary \u2014 just useful. Nobody dreams about scanning receipts, but millions of people have to do it.<\/p>\n Now Expensify processes billions in transactions. All because it made one annoying task easier.<\/p>\n Same story with Calendly, which killed the back-and-forth of scheduling. DocuSign, which removed the pain of printing and scanning contracts. UiPath<\/a>, which built a massive business by automating office tasks.<\/p>\n None of these were flashy, but they fixed something people deal with every day. That’s what makes them work.<\/p>\n If you’re building with AI, forget the hype. Look for the problems people quietly suffer through. The ones they never talk about publicly, but deal with constantly. That’s where the best ideas live.<\/p>\n Boring isn’t a weakness. Boring is a business model.<\/p>\n You don’t need a revolutionary idea. You just need to make one annoying thing go away.<\/p>\n If you can do that, it won’t matter how it looks. It will sell.<\/p>\n