The biggest opportunities for AI startups today
We surveyed my readers about how they're using AI today, and more importantly, how they want to be using AI.
For PMs, the biggest opportunity is research. User research shows the largest demand gap of any task. Only 4.7% say it’s their primary AI use case today, but nearly a third want it to be. PMs have figured out how to use AI for output tasks like writing PRDs and drafting communications, but they’re hungry to apply it upstream, to the messy work of understanding what to build.
Prototyping is a breakout category across functions, both today and in the future. For PMs, “creating mockups/prototypes” jumps from 19.8% (currently using) to 44.4% (want to use next), a +24.6pp swing that makes it the single most-wanted future use case.
For designers, prototyping and interaction design show similar momentum (+27.8pp). This tracks with the rise of tools like Lovable, v0, Replit, and Figma Make.
Engineers are shifting their use of AI to handle work after writing the code. Writing code is by far their most popular use case (51% current), but it has a demand gap of only +5.6pp. However, documentation (+25.8pp), code review (+24.5pp), and writing tests (+23.5pp) all show massive opportunities for growth in engineering AI tooling.
Founders are doubling down on AI as a thinking partner. Product ideation shows massive demand, jumping from 19.6% (currently using) to 48.6% (want to use next), a +29.0pp gap. Growth strategy and GTM planning (+24.7pp) and market analysis (+24.0pp) follow close behind.
Founders already use AI heavily for personal productivity (32.9% currently), but they want to move upstream. They’re looking for pressure-test ideas, explore markets, and think through go-to-market. AI as a co-founder, not just an assistant.
Full report by @noamseg: https://t.co/2ra234FE8e
I'm reminded that most people think companies/products outside of their own expertise are trivial/worthless. People working close to the metal will assume the application layer is worthless.
By the exact same logic Uber should have been worthless... which is off by $200B...
Everyone's rooting for the app layer in AI. Where are the consumer AI apps? When do they show up? The party's dull without them 🎊🎉
Truth be told - For consumer apps to grow, they need distribution, but now that's ttly blocked out by BigTech. Viral channels have converged massively - Tw, LI, WA, IG, TT... concentrating immense leverage. The viral taps can be turned off anytime by the Gods that be!
This happened earlier as well (Web 1.0) but to far lesser extent.
AI will struggle for new consumer apps or experiences precisely for this reason. Though if you ask around, you'll hear all sorts of excuses for no show of apps - inference costs, vertical integration, LLM cannabalization etc etc.
Case in point... WA has turned off external LLMs 👇
Today we are launching my favorite feature of ChatGPT so far, called Pulse. It is initially available to Pro subscribers.
Pulse works for you overnight, and keeps thinking about your interests, your connected data, your recent chats, and more. Every morning, you get a custom-generated set of stuff you might be interested in.
It performs super well if you tell ChatGPT more about what's important to you. In regular chat, you could mention “I’d like to go visit Bora Bora someday” or “My kid is 6 months old and I’m interested in developmental milestones” and in the future you might get useful updates.
Think of treating ChatGPT like a super-competent personal assistant: sometimes you ask for things you need in the moment, but if you share general preferences, it will do a good job for you proactively.
This also points to what I believe is the future of ChatGPT: a shift from being all reactive to being significantly proactive, and extremely personalized.
This is an early look, and right now only available to Pro subscribers. We will work hard to improve the quality over time and to find a way to bring it to Plus subscribers too.
Huge congrats to @ChristinaHartW, @_samirism, and the team for building this.
most consumer app founders over-design their apps for the average user. the average user has no taste. they just need the path of least resistance to get what they came to the app to do
Isn't THIS the masterstroke business model of @cursor_ai? Half of those fast requests return with garbage code or complete refactoring (which is basically, garbage again!). Of course I should do better prompt engineering, but ain't that what $20pm to #Cursor should give me?
The timing of India & Pakistan war is very interesting.
The moment Apple & others announce moving business away from China to India, this happens.
Tariffs are destroying 🇨🇳 & this is their way of causing chaos for the one country that can take business away from them.
🇮🇳
Pl retweet this 🙏
Update >> Airtel officially told me yday SimilarWeb (https://t.co/sFz0LoqFzk) has been blocked at ISP level in India… and won't be available to Airtel subscribers (they didn't assign a reason).
This marks a week of effort - I talked twice to their social media team, 5/6 calls with their customer care & visit by 2 service enggs to my residence to verify.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why SimilarWeb shld be blocked. And as evinced by this thread, it seems accessible on Jio & Vi networks. Can't but believe this is some inadvertent misunderstanding!
@Similarweb if you at all care for your Indian business, do follow up with this to get yourself unblocked on India's largest ISP.
Also request others in the tech ecosystem.... startups, investors, VCs, tech companies et al - do file complaints with Airtel - a collective voice may force them to go into the root cause and fix this stupidity!
I'd have reviewed 100+ resumes so far, for engineering roles I'm hiring for. Did not find anyone mention #VibeCoding or #Cursor or #AICoding or such. I think, if you're a smart engineer looking for work, evidence of you coding with #AI should be 1st item in your pitch today.
I just validated my startup idea using a multi-agent AI debate.
→ GPT-4o (Founder)
→ Gemini (VC)
→ Claude (Customer)
The result? Shockingly real...and honestly everyone should try this: 👇
China just destroyed the $400B global BIG luxury Brands market in a week.
Sales are plummeting for LV, Gucci, Hermès, Chanel
Chinese creators are exposing the truth...
Thread🧵