If you’re still trying to become an AI business in 2026, you’re already losing. I’ve watched too many founders burn months trying to rebrand as tech companies when all they needed to do was pick one task and automate it.

I’ve used these eight moves to grow to over 2 million followers and run a business with thousands of paying customers. And I’m not special — I’m not a developer, and I don’t have a computer science degree. I just stopped chasing the shiny and started building.

Here’s how you can do the same.

• Why you don’t need to become an “AI company”
• How to train AI like a junior employee — not a genius
• The real reason nobody cares about your AI features
• Where to start: automate your own workflow first
• Why the next 18 months are a wealth window
• The secret to AI customer support that actually works

Stop Trying to Become an AI Company

You don’t need to rebuild your entire business. The people winning with AI right now are running tried-and-true business models — SaaS startups, local service providers, paid communities, info products — and using AI to help them scale. If you’re hunting for a proven model to plug AI into, I rounded up AI business ideas that make money right now on the blog.

Think about it like the early internet. You didn’t have to become an internet company. You just used the internet to make your existing business better. Same thing here.

Here’s your first move: Open up ChatGPT and run this exact prompt:

Ask me about the most time-consuming tasks I do every week, and show me how AI fits into one step of it.

Don’t try to make your entire business AI on the first shot. You’ll get overwhelmed, burnt out, and frustrated. Just pick one task. Run that prompt. Then ask AI: How do I automate this with AI, and what tools should I use?

Skip Courses and Build Along With YouTube

Here’s the thing — you don’t need expensive courses. Everything you need is already on YouTube for free. But you have to actually follow along, not just passively watch.

I see it all the time on Instagram. Everyone loves those comment-to-DM automations, but maybe 2% of people actually follow through and build it. That tiny percentage? Those are the ones who succeed.

Commit to 100 hours of building, not consuming. That sounds like a lot. But 5 hours per week? That’s 25 weeks. Roughly six months. And if you automate something that takes you 2 hours every single week, you’ve freed up a massive chunk of your life to focus on higher-leverage activities.

What’s higher leverage? Decisions only you can make. Building personal relationships and partnerships. Things that can’t be outsourced.

Train AI Like a Junior Employee

AI fails when you compare it to systems you’ve spent years perfecting. That’s unfair. Imagine dropping a new sales rep into a different company and expecting them to crush it on day one. You wouldn’t. You’d budget 3 to 6 months for onboarding.

Same with AI.

Day one AI = day one hire. Give it context. Give it scripts. Give it continuous feedback over time. Update the instructions when it figures out something better than you initially thought.

If you have SOPs, playbooks, call recordings — great. AI can digest all of it. But it’s still a continuous process. You have to say: Hey, you messed up the objection handling here. Next time, do it like this. Remember this for next time.

I do this constantly with Claude’s skills. I was literally updating a skill before writing this article. It’s ongoing. That’s how AI gets good.

It’s Not About AI

Nobody cares that you use AI. They care about the same age-old outcomes: making more money, saving time, looking good, gaining status, getting healthier.

You don’t advertise a product as “made using the internet.” Same with AI.

Try this: take your website homepage and ask ChatGPT or Claude to audit it. Tell it to find any mention of AI and replace it with the actual outcome. Saving time. Generating leads. Losing weight. Making a week’s worth of content in 60 seconds.

I’d be surprised if you find the word AI on my own website’s homepage. I lead with the outcome. You should too.

Deploy AI for Customer Support

Most support tickets are the same questions over and over. How do I connect accounts? What are the pricing plans? How do I do this basic thing?

Build an AI agent that reads your knowledge base and automatically replies. Most support systems — Intercom, Zendesk, Crisp — already have AI agent tooling built in.

I used Intercom’s Fin AI for a long time. It cost me $1,500 per month. So I rebuilt it myself. Now it costs $3 per month and handles the same volume.

The key is the feedback loop. When AI gets a question right, great. When it gets one wrong, a human expert steps in, improves the documentation, and the agent gets smarter. One person continuously monitoring and improving the AI agent — that’s the secret.

My agent has access to Stripe for billing. It can restart trials, cancel accounts, tell customers when their next invoice is. It’s not a clunky chatbot with crazy branching workflows anymore. With generative AI, you just maintain clean documentation and give it the right tools.

Automate Your Own Workflow First

Don’t start with your team. Start with yourself.

Pick a 4-hour block every week — Saturday morning, Sunday morning, whenever — and dedicate it to building systems. Maybe that system is just Claude reading your emails every morning and giving you a daily brief. That counts.

Here’s the process: Break down your daily activities. I read emails. I find the ones where I’m a blocker. I prioritize those. I write drafts. I send them. Maybe you escalate to a manager. Write down every step.

Then ask ChatGPT: Which of these can I use AI for, and which tool should I use? Walk me through it step by step.

Once you’ve automated your own stuff, you understand how it works. Then you can train your team. You lead by example instead of being the boss who tells everyone to do something they don’t understand.

Remove the Magic From Your Expertise

You have intuition. I get it. After years of doing something, you just know what works. But AI can’t read your mind.

Break that intuition into observable steps. What would a junior intern see you doing if they followed you around all day?

For YouTube ideas, here’s what that looks like: AI reads your calendar. It analyzes your call recordings. It generates video ideas based on what you actually talked about that week. It writes the scripts.

Write down every if-else branch. If this happens, I do X. If that happens, I do Y. Then plug it into Claude and ask: Which steps would a junior hire or AI agent need to do this without me? What else is missing that’s not observable?

You can even have Claude generate 10 examples, choose one, and explain why. That trains both you and the AI.

The 18-Month Wealth Window

We’re in a unique moment. People starting from zero right now will out-earn people who’ve been doing this for years but aren’t adopting AI. Once AI agents become normal and everybody has one, that opportunity closes.

I personally think there will always be opportunities. But I agree: there’s a massive gap right now between people who can build this stuff and everyone else.

Think about each function of your company. Marketing. Sales. Support. Product. HR. AI can be applied to every single one. Finding leads. Handling tickets 24/7. Vibe-coding MVPs. Evaluating resumes. Generating interview questions.

There are dozens of ways AI fits into each department. And very few people understand how to do it for any particular one.

That’s the arbitrage. That’s the window. Don’t sleep on it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I’m not technical and have never used AI before?
Start with one simple task using the prompt I shared earlier. Ask ChatGPT to help you identify one time-consuming task and the tools to automate it. You don’t need to code — modern AI tools are designed for non-developers.

How long does it take to train an AI to be useful?
Think of it like onboarding a junior employee. Budget 3–6 months of continuous feedback and refinement. In my experience, you’ll see significant improvements within weeks if you consistently correct and update the instructions.

Do I really need to spend 4 hours a week on this?
Yes, especially at the beginning. That 4-hour block is how you build the systems that save you 10+ hours later. Carve it out like a non-negotiable meeting — Saturday morning works for me.

Should I mention AI in my marketing?
No. Customers care about outcomes — saving time, making money, getting healthier. Audit your website with ChatGPT and replace every “AI” mention with the actual benefit. My own site barely mentions AI.

What’s the cheapest way to start with AI customer support?
If your current help desk already has native AI agent tooling, start there. I rebuilt my own Intercom Fin AI agent for about $3 per month by connecting it to my knowledge base and Stripe via a custom integration. The key is the feedback loop, not the price tag.

Is it too late to get ahead with AI?
Not even close. We’re in an 18-month window where early adopters still have a massive advantage. Once AI agents become table stakes, the opportunity narrows. But right now, most people are still confused — and that confusion is your edge.