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 does finding childcare still mean calling 30 daycares to hear 'waitlist closed'?

Parents searching for a daycare or creche spot phone dozens of providers one by one, each with a different waitlist, fee and availability state that is never published. Months of dead-end calls.

Category: Others · Trend: Agents · Opportunity score: 8.5 / 10

What is the “Why does finding childcare still mean calling 30 daycares to hear 'waitlist closed'?” problem in 2026?

Parents searching for a daycare or creche spot phone dozens of providers one by one, each with a different waitlist, fee and availability state that is never published. Months of dead-end calls.

Who has this problem?

Working parents of under-5s in the US, UK, Ireland and Australia.

Recorded source context

Dataset source note: I called 31 creches. 19 had closed waitlists, 8 never called back, 3 had a spot in 14 months. There is no single place that just shows me what is actually open near me.

This note may summarize the referenced material rather than quote it verbatim. Source label: r/Parenting and r/daddit 2026 childcare-search threads, App Store reviews of daycare-finder apps, childcare-access policy reports..

Existing players in this space

Winnie / daycare directories: Listings, rarely live availability
Council / government lists: Static, no availability or fees
Facebook parent groups: Word of mouth, no structure

What existing players are missing

A childcare-availability agent that calls and checks providers on the parent's behalf, tracks real waitlist and fee status, and alerts the moment a matching spot opens. The thing every parent builds in their head as a spreadsheet and nobody has productised well.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 8.5 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

Problem severity: 9 / 10
AI feasibility today: 8 / 10
Market signal: 9 / 10
Competition gap: 8 / 10

How to build a solution: stack hints

Voice agent for availability calls
Provider database with live waitlist state
Geo + age + budget matching
Spot-opens alerting