How to Start a Side Hustle with Artificial Intelligence: Advice from an Entrepreneur

Joe Procopio is an American entrepreneur, technologist, and author with extensive experience in startups and AI. He describes himself as a "multi-exit, multi-failure entrepreneur." Joe was chief product officer at Automated Insights, a pioneer in commercial generative AI (their platform created automated news for Yahoo, AP, and others). The entrepreneur speaks in the publication Inc. How to create an AI assistant to make money.

"Now's the perfect time to figure out how AI fits with your entrepreneurial mindset," he writes. "I don't want to sound like another AI bro, but if you don't have your own AI side hustle yet, maybe you should set aside a weekend for it. Maybe even this weekend."

Let's try.

I'm not talking about launching a billion-dollar startup in 48 hours. That myth is gradually being debunked, as costs are no longer opaque and "magical." I'm talking about spending about $6 on a DigitalOcean droplet, another $10 on a domain, $20 on Claude Pro, and maybe $10-20 on API credits.

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So, about $50 and one weekend to build something—from a demo to a pilot, from an MVP to a full launch. It's up to you.

Because, if you put aside all the AI ​​hype and don't listen to the "gurus" and "experts," the only real way to know if you'll succeed in this new technological reality is to build a product that people are willing to pay for.

If you succeed, you will immediately separate yourself from all the AI ​​users, "hustlers" and, essentially, from 99% of the rest of the "AI bros".

Yes, you can do something better than anyone else, even though everyone has the same tools and access to the same instructions.

You don't need to build the next Kalshi (though that name still reminds me of boomer breakfast cereal). It doesn't have to be a platform, an app, or an army of bots. You don't need to be a programmer, a hacker, or a top manager. (Kalshi is the first federally regulated prediction market in the United States. It allows users to buy and sell contracts on the outcomes of real-world events: sports (basketball, football, etc.), elections, economic indicators, weather, cultural events (Oscars, Grammys), cryptocurrency, and more. The contract price reflects the probability of an event as judged by the crowd: if you guess right, the contract pays $1; if you guess wrong, it pays $0. The platform operates like a peer-to-peer exchange: traders trade with each other, not against a bookmaker. Kalshi is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is fully legal in the United States, and is available nationwide. It was founded in 2018 and launched in 2021. – Note. Ed.)

But you still have to start. And don't wait for the perfect moment; it will never come.

Here is how.

"Claude, I need a droplet."

This is where it all begins. There's a simple idea here that I'll come back to: "ask Claude."

And then Claude should ask you: “What do you need this droplet for, you wonderful person?”

And then you continue the dialogue.

Wait, is that the whole plan? Is that the instruction manual?

Yes. Look, I'm an early adopter of AI—and a skeptic at the same time. I'm halfway between the two camps. And that gives me hindsight: what really works, what doesn't, and when to do what.

And here's what I'll say as someone who's been in the field for a long time: times are changing, but right now there's a solid enough foundation that you don't have to be a professional programmer and still be able to put together something useful, even viable.

It wasn't like that before. Now it is.

Honestly, this morning I was asked to write a piece on the topic "Is it time to launch an AI side hustle?" And for the first time, I thought: yes, now really is the time. Because at this point, everything works in about 60% of cases.

Here's the thing: anyone can explain to you "how" to build an AI side hustle. And when I say "anyone," I mean even the AI ​​itself can explain it. And when I say "you," I mean the AI ​​can teach anyone "how."

We're all building the same damn AI boat. But boats that don't sink start with the question "why?"

Find the problem and solve it

This is where your advantage comes in. This is what sets you apart from the rest, because this is the step everyone skips.

Those who build 30 apps over the weekend aren't doing the most important thing—they're not solving the real problem. And the problem is, we don't need another 30 useless apps.

Start with something that solves one of your problems. The more annoying it is, the better. And turn it into a product that others can use.

Your first problem might be, “I don’t understand any of this.”

That's okay. The AI ​​has already solved this problem for you, so let's move on.

Take one of those small, silly, recurring problems that constantly plagues you and start there. For example, I have a semi-shadow startup that started with a simple idea: "It's taking too long to publish my Inc. posts on my website."

Six months later, this had evolved into a system that was ready to sell. It would never have come into being if I hadn't started with this small personal problem.

We are not unique snowflakes. There are thousands of people with the same problems as you.

Choose one. And start asking questions.

Now to the point: you can “question” almost everything until you get to a working version.

Pure programmers will disagree with me, but today almost all business and technical tasks can be accomplished using Claude or another chatbot. I'd say Claude is currently the leader.

But there are some important limitations: don't ask Claude to immediately come up with a business idea or build a business entirely for you. It's not good at that—that's not how AI works.

Another point: you can use agents for coding, testing, deployment, and security. Even if you have zero knowledge, you can come up with a working framework. But if you have little knowledge, you'll be vulnerable to errors, hacks, and financial problems.

Satisfied, perfectionists?

If you take small steps, learn as you go, and understand not only what works but why, then your chances of success are much higher and the risks are lower.

Things like server infrastructure, vulnerabilities, sudden cost spikes, and technical debt are the very "horror stories" that prevent people from getting started. But everyone has them, even experienced developers.

I'm not saying it's safe. I'm saying: if you're scared, turn on a flashlight and make sure there are no monsters there.

Although, yes, there are monsters there. But you're not a child anymore to stop because of that. Just keep that in mind.

Why now?

About seven years ago, I said roughly the same thing, but back then, I was talking about Bubble and no-code. Back then, I actually built a business on Bubble, adding custom features, a CMS, and a publishing system so others could make money too.

I did it partly to prove that it was possible to build a product that people would pay for.

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It's now a business with over $100,000 in annual revenue, with a roughly 80% margin. And, as Bubble emailed me last week, it's the ninth most-visited app in their ecosystem in the US. I spend about five hours a week on it, not counting writing posts—which I do manually, because the AI ​​can't do it.

I didn't have to quit my job. And I didn't have to raise investment.

Sounds like a typical "5 hours a week = $100K a year" article, right? But the difference is, it took years—seven years of experimentation, mistakes, restructuring, and refinement.

And here's my point: the era of "get rich quick" is ending. The era of "the door is open" is beginning. How you navigate it and what you build is up to you. But the moment is now.

Spend that $50 and a weekend asking questions, and then tell me what happened.

I myself try to approach weekdays as if they were the weekend."

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