What is Real Problem AI?

Real Problem AI is a curated directory of 200+ 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 200+ 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 pulling $3,200 from my HSA three years later feel like asking for an IRS audit?

Fidelity HSA and Lively export distribution CSVs with no link to the actual medical receipt, so users hoard PDFs in Drive folders and panic when they pull a tax-free reimbursement three years later.

Category: FinTech · Trend: Vision · Opportunity score: 8.0 / 10

What is the “Why does pulling $3,200 from my HSA three years later feel like asking for an IRS audit?” problem in 2026?

Fidelity HSA and Lively export distribution CSVs with no link to the actual medical receipt, so users hoard PDFs in Drive folders and panic when they pull a tax-free reimbursement three years later.

Who has this problem?

FIRE-track engineer treating HSA as stealth retirement account.

Evidence this problem is real

“I have 4 years of HSA receipts in a Google Drive folder and just paid myself back $3,200 from 2022. If the IRS audits me I literally cannot prove which CVS receipt matches which Fidelity distribution.”

Sourced from r/personalfinance and r/Fire recurring threads on HSA receipt shoeboxing.

Existing players in this space

Lively — Stores receipts but does not match them to external Fidelity HSA distributions.
Fidelity HSA — No receipt vault at all, just a distribution ledger.
Truemed — Only covers wellness purchases at point of sale, not legacy receipts.

What existing players are missing

An OCR plus LLM agent that ingests a Drive folder of mixed receipts (CVS, dental, Warby Parker, vet flagged as non-qualified), classifies IRS Pub 502 eligibility, and ties each receipt to a specific distribution line on the 1099-SA.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 8.0 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

Problem severity: 8 / 10
AI feasibility today: 9 / 10
Market signal: 7 / 10
Competition gap: 8 / 10

How to build a solution: stack hints

Claude vision for messy CVS thermal receipt OCR
Plaid plus Fidelity HSA distribution sync
IRS Pub 502 RAG for eligibility classification
Audit-ready PDF binder export per tax year