What is Real Problem AI?

Real Problem AI is a curated directory of 100 real problems worth building an AI startup around. Each problem is scored honestly on severity, AI feasibility, market signal, and competition gap. We're for builders looking for what to build, not for ethics debates about AI.

What is the difference between Real Problem AI and AI ethics or AI risks indexes?

Real Problem AI catalogues problems AI can solve — productive, commercial opportunities for builders. AI ethics indexes catalogue problems with AI itself (bias, environmental cost, copyright, consciousness). Different intent, different audience: founders and indie hackers vs researchers and policy folks.

What should I build with AI in 2026?

Look for problems with high severity (it costs people hours, sleep, or revenue every week), high AI feasibility (LLMs, vision or voice are great at this today), strong market signal (Reddit threads + willingness to pay), and a clear competition gap (incumbents miss the same obvious thing). Real Problem AI scores 100 such problems for you on those four axes.

Where do Real Problem AI's startup ideas come from?

From three sources, scanned each cycle: 1) Reddit threads where people describe a real friction in their own words, 2) podcasts and talks of founders young builders trust (Nikhil Kamath, Aman Gupta, Ankur Warikoo, Raj Shamani, Andrej Karpathy, Greg Isenberg), and 3) a continuous 1,000+ source scan covering forums, app store reviews, regulator filings, and field interviews.

Is Real Problem AI free?

Yes. Browsing every problem, opening every score breakdown, raising your hand on a co-founder match, and the founder vault are all free. There is no paywall.

How is each problem scored?

Four axes, each 1-10, weighted: Problem Severity (30%), AI Feasibility (25%), Market Signal (25%), Competition Gap (20%). Weighted average is the Opportunity Score on each card. Only problems clearing 7.0+ make the live list.

Why do I lose a warranty claim because I can't find a receipt from 14 months ago?

The average household holds thousands of dollars in items under warranty, but claims fail for missing proof of purchase and most warranties simply expire forgotten.

Category: Others · Trend: Vision · Opportunity score: 6.3 / 10

What is the “Why do I lose a warranty claim because I can't find a receipt from 14 months ago?” problem in 2026?

The average household holds thousands of dollars in items under warranty, but claims fail for missing proof of purchase and most warranties simply expire forgotten.

Who has this problem?

Households and consumers managing appliances, electronics, and big-ticket purchases.

Evidence this problem is real

“A 2020 consumer report found that nearly 42% of warranty claims fail due to the absence of valid documentation.”

Sourced from YourProductPassport, 'Digital Warranty Solutions To The Rescue When You Lose Your Receipt'. (link)

Existing players in this space

WarrantyKeep / Vorby trackers: Manual entry, low adoption, no claim filing
Email receipts and photos: Scattered, no expiry reminders
Retailer order history: Fragmented across every store

What existing players are missing

An assistant that pulls receipts from email and photos, extracts product, serial, and purchase date, tracks each warranty's expiry, reminds before it lapses, and assembles the proof packet and claim when something breaks.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 6.3 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

Problem severity: 6 / 10
AI feasibility today: 7 / 10
Market signal: 6 / 10
Competition gap: 6 / 10

How to build a solution: stack hints

Email and photo receipt ingestion
OCR plus product/serial extraction
Warranty-term lookup and expiry tracking
Claim packet generator

Why this problem is archived

Trimmed to 100-cap (lowest opportunity_score)