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 do I wait 3 weeks for a GP appointment, then get 7 minutes?

Patients wait weeks for a primary-care slot, then get a rushed visit where the doctor types instead of listening. Triage, history-taking and follow-up all happen in the same compressed 7 minutes.

Category: HealthTech · Trend: Agents · Opportunity score: 8.4 / 10

What is the “Why do I wait 3 weeks for a GP appointment, then get 7 minutes?” problem in 2026?

Patients wait weeks for a primary-care slot, then get a rushed visit where the doctor types instead of listening. Triage, history-taking and follow-up all happen in the same compressed 7 minutes.

Who has this problem?

Patients and small GP practices in Ireland, UK and Australia under access pressure.

Evidence this problem is real

“Three weeks for the appointment. Then 7 minutes, and 4 of them were the doctor typing my history into the computer. The actual talking-about-my-problem time was almost nothing.”

Sourced from 2026 primary-care access reports (HSE, NHS), r/ireland and r/AskUK GP-wait threads, practice-workflow discussions.

Existing players in this space

Patient portals — Booking, not pre-visit triage
Ambient scribes (Nabla, Abridge) — Help the doctor type, not the patient prep
NHS 111 / triage lines — Phone triage, not integrated with the visit

What existing players are missing

A pre-visit agent that takes a structured history from the patient before the appointment, drafts the chart, flags red-flag symptoms for urgent routing, and hands the doctor a ready summary so the 7 minutes are spent on care, not typing. Built for the small practice, priced for it.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 8.4 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

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

How to build a solution: stack hints

Conversational pre-visit history intake
Red-flag symptom triage model
Chart pre-draft into the practice EHR
Doctor-facing visit summary