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 US homeowners with solar still get surprise true-up bills of $1,500 because no app reads their utility's rate plan changes?

After PG&E, SCE, and others migrated to NEM 3.0 and TOU rate plans, solar homeowners receive a once-a-year true-up bill that no monitoring app (Enphase, SolarEdge) predicts, because none ingest the live tariff PDF.

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

What is the “Why do US homeowners with solar still get surprise true-up bills of $1,500 because no app reads their utility's rate plan changes?” problem in 2026?

Who has this problem?

California homeowner with rooftop solar on NEM 2.0 or NEM 3.0.

Evidence this problem is real

“Enphase app said I was net positive all year. PG&E true-up just hit for $1,847. Nobody told me TOU export rates changed in September.”

Sourced from r/solar threads on NEM 3.0 true-up shock.

Existing players in this space

Enphase Enlighten — Shows kWh, not dollar value under current tariff.
SolarEdge — Generation focused, not bill-prediction.
Utility portal — Only shows the bill after it lands.

What existing players are missing

An app that ingests the utility tariff PDF or scrapes the rate plan page, reads Enphase or SolarEdge production data, and shows the homeowner the rolling true-up dollar figure with a 'shift load to 9am' nudge before the surprise hits.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

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

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

How to build a solution: stack hints

GPT-4o vision for tariff PDF parsing
Enphase API
PG&E Green Button API
Claude for plain-English nudges