David Ogilvy once said, "When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."

Back in December, I wrote about experimenting with all the new and emergent AI platforms like Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini. My goal was to build an asset-light semi-automated business that would generate $100 per day in profits.

This has been an incredibly fun project and every month has been more profitable than the last, with May already surpassing about $32 per day in consistent profits. Not quite the level of profitability I’d expected by now, but there’s still plenty of time to keep scaling.

Here are three useful insights if you’re still on the fence about building an AI-powered business or think this technology is an overhyped fad.

This probably sounds morbid, but I like browsing a gig-economy subreddit populated almost entirely by Western expats living in Asia and South America while working dead-end online jobs. Many of the posters make between $10 and $11 per hour while constantly complaining about the platforms they work on and casually throwing around platitudes about the need to unionize.

A large number of people who could benefit enormously from embracing new technologies like AI either don’t realize it or fall back on some generic excuse about why they can’t or won’t.

It reminds me of William Gibson’s quote: “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed.”

If you’re looking to increase your cash flow, create a side hustle, or establish an additional stream of semi-passive income, learning how to create standard operating procedures that allow AI platforms to generate products and leads for you is still fairly easy.

As someone who has been online forever, I’d compare it to learning SEO and building affiliate niche sites back in the early 2010s.

It’s less competitive than you think.

What do The Oregon Files, Deathlands, and The Executioner all have in common?

They’re long-running book series written by ghostwriters, or “co-authors” in The Oregon Files’ case.

Likewise, most of the Die Hard films were adapted from unrelated books, with scripts reworked around series protagonist John McClane.

The point? While a lot of popular entertainment isn’t AI-generated per se, it’s also not the singular vision of some creative genius. Pop music is often created by entire teams working behind the scenes to craft the songs, dance moves, and personality of the onstage star.

Online, many influencers outsource their tweets, posts, replies, and messages to teams. There have also been numerous exposés on popular OnlyFans and adult content creators whose private “dirty talk” upsells are handled entirely by teams of virtual assistants working out of call centers in the Philippines and Pakistan.

AI streamlines the need for dozens of backend employees, and a lot of entertainment could very well become “public figure for marketing + AI content for product,” much like the Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler brands continue through name recognition and backend co-authors.

In the early 1900s, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company was the largest horse-drawn carriage manufacturer in the United States.

When automobiles began replacing horse-drawn buggies, Durant-Dort pivoted into car manufacturing. While the company itself was eventually dissolved, its founders leveraged their experience to create a new venture that still exists today: General Motors.

If you have a skill or know a market, you may have to reorient, but you won’t be replaced.

In fact, embracing the trend, like Durant and Dort did with cars, may actually fuel further success.

Running my AI business only takes a couple of hours each week, but it’s been enormously illuminating.

As someone who usually hates tech hype (remember the metaverse or NFTs?), I actually think AI is the future, and we’re still in the early-adopter phase. Like SEO in the early 2010s, when any scrappy writer could outrank the big names through sheer writing quality plus a few well-placed keywords and relevant images, the major players still haven’t fully caught on, and we’re probably a few years away from huge corporations fully embracing AI-driven tech.

If you’re looking to start a business while also learning how an emerging technology works, now’s your chance.

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Disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice, always do your own research.