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 one construction RFI cost me two days of idle crew and a filing-cabinet hunt?

RFIs, change orders, and submittals live across email, drawings, and three systems that never meet, so answers take days, the crew waits, and margin bleeds into schedule float.

Category: Others · Trend: Agents · Opportunity score: 6.8 / 10

What is the “Why does one construction RFI cost me two days of idle crew and a filing-cabinet hunt?” problem in 2026?

RFIs, change orders, and submittals live across email, drawings, and three systems that never meet, so answers take days, the crew waits, and margin bleeds into schedule float.

Who has this problem?

Project coordinators and PMs at small and mid-size general contractors.

Evidence this problem is real

“RFIs pile up. Responses take forever. The crew sits around waiting. And by the time you get your answer, you've already lost two days of production and burned through your schedule float.”

Sourced from Projul, 'Construction RFI Management: The Complete Guide (2026)'. (link)

Existing players in this space

Procore / Autodesk Build: Powerful but enterprise-priced and heavy for small GCs
Email plus Excel logs: The 1995 workflow most mid-size contractors still run
Generic PM tools (Asana): No RFI/submittal/drawing linkage

What existing players are missing

An affordable agent that drafts RFIs from a photo or note, links them to the right drawing sheet, routes to the architect, chases the response, and files the answer back where the field can find it.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 6.8 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

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

How to build a solution: stack hints

Photo/voice RFI capture
Drawing-sheet linking
Automated routing and reminders
Change-order and submittal tracking

Why this problem is archived

Trimmed to 100-cap (lowest opportunity_score)