AI and Telling Good Business Ideas from Silly Ones

AI can help you ask 'Would anyone actually pay for this?' before you spend a lot of time on it.

Some examples

• 'Would kids actually buy a school of dance for goldfish?' (probably not)
• 'Would parents pay for a sticker subscription box?' (maybe!)
• Ask AI: 'What might go wrong with this idea?'

Try it!

Make up a wild business idea. Ask AI: 'What's good about this and what's the problem?'

The three questions every good business idea must answer

Not every idea is a business — and that's okay. But before you spend time or money, it's worth stress-testing your idea with three simple questions. First: does this solve a real problem? If someone already has a perfectly good solution, your version has to be meaningfully better. Second: would people pay for it? Something can be helpful and still not worth paying for — free options already exist. Third: can you actually make it? Big ideas that require millions of dollars to build aren't great starting points for a kid business. AI is useful here because it will ask you uncomfortable questions — it acts like the tough investor or the friend who isn't afraid to say 'I don't think that would work because...' That kind of honest feedback, before you've invested anything, is the most valuable feedback there is. The goal isn't to crush your idea — it's to make it stronger by finding the weak spots early.

• Does this solve a REAL problem people actually have?
• Would people PAY for it, or is there already a free solution?
• Can you actually MAKE it with the resources you have?
• Who else is already doing this — and how are you different?
• What's the worst that happens if this doesn't work out?