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 no MCP server actually let an agent touch QuickBooks or Xero for an SMB?

Every accounting MCP demo is for enterprises with full APIs; SMB owners on the QuickBooks Self-Employed or Xero starter plan cannot give Claude/Cursor real read-write access.

Category: FinTech · Trend: Agent · Opportunity score: 8.7 / 10

What is the “Why does no MCP server actually let an agent touch QuickBooks or Xero for an SMB?” problem in 2026?

Every accounting MCP demo is for enterprises with full APIs; SMB owners on the QuickBooks Self-Employed or Xero starter plan cannot give Claude/Cursor real read-write access.

Who has this problem?

SMB owners (under 25 employees) running QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Online Simple Start, or Xero Starter who want an agent to do their books.

Evidence this problem is real

“I want Claude to reconcile last month for me. The Intuit API doesn't even apply to my plan.”

Sourced from Anthropic MCP directory issues + QuickBooks community forums, 2026

Existing players in this space

Intuit API / Xero API — Available only on paid mid-market plans; not for SMB tier.
Native MCP tools — Built for the API tier; ignore the actual long tail.

What existing players are missing

A browser-agent MCP server that drives QuickBooks/Xero via the same UI a human would, exposing categorize / reconcile / pull-reports as MCP tools to any LLM.

How Real Problem AI scores this opportunity

Aggregate score: 8.7 / 10. Four-axis rubric:

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

How to build a solution: stack hints

Playwright in a sandbox
MCP server
OAuth-light cookie session
Audit log + reverse on demand