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 can one 'clinically proven' line in a product description get my store flagged?

Small online sellers paste supplier copy with health, safety or eco claims they cannot back up, and they find out when a payment processor or platform risk team flags the store, not before the listing goes live.

Category: LegalTech & Compliance · Trend: LLM · Opportunity score: 7.3 / 10

What is the “Why can one 'clinically proven' line in a product description get my store flagged?” problem in 2026?

Who has this problem?

Shopify and marketplace sellers in supplements, skincare, baby goods and eco products, and the agencies writing their listings.

Recorded source context

Dataset source note: Some product descriptions might include claims about health, safety, materials, sustainability etc. How do you flag words that should be checked?

This note may summarize the referenced material rather than quote it verbatim. Source label: Shopify Community thread on handling unsupported or risky product descriptions, 22 September 2026, 10 posts, 42 likes. (primary source).

Existing players in this space

Shopify Flow: Can tag a product when a description contains a word, but someone has to build and maintain the word list.
Writer: Brand and style rules for marketing teams, not product claim rules by category and country.
Acrolinx: Enterprise content governance, priced and scoped far beyond a small store.

What existing players are missing

A listing checker that reads every new or edited product description, flags medical, safety and green claims by category and selling country, asks for the proof document before publishing, and suggests a safer wording that keeps the selling point.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 7.3 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

Problem severity: 7 / 10
AI feasibility today: 8 / 10
Market signal: 7 / 10
Competition gap: 7 / 10

How to build a solution: stack hints

LLM claim classifier by product category and region
Shopify product create and update webhooks
Evidence storage in product metafields
Rewrite suggestions with reviewer approval