Build an AI Tool for a Real Local Business
Maps to: Founder · AI Application Builder, Consultant, Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer
You're going to find a real local business, figure out their actual annoyance, build them an AI tool for it, and get them to use it for two weeks. The skill is customer empathy: building for what they actually needed, not the cool version in your head, and learning the difference when you watch them use it. That's the instinct that separates founders who build things people pay for from ones who build demos, and doing one tells you fast whether reading a real customer is your kind of work.
The plan
0/4 doneYou're 20% in just for starting, the hardest part. Mark your first step done to keep the momentum.
- Heads up: The wall comes first here: messaging a real business owner. Most people stall on sending that first message. Send it. That's the project working, not failing. Push through.
Pick a small business in your network and find their REAL annoyance by asking them, not guessing. (This first step is the wall: messaging a real business owner. Most people freeze here. Send the message.) Their actual pain, in their words, is your spec.
Objective: A real business + their actual annoyance, in their words.
- 1
Pick a business you have a way into (parent's friend, neighbor's shop, your barber). Message them and ask what eats their time.
- 2
Write down their actual annoyance in THEIR words, not the cool thing you want to build.
Your call
Pick the business and identify their actual annoyance, by talking to them, yourself.
The business's actual annoyance, in their words.
What good looks like: You messaged a real business owner and have their actual annoyance in their words, not the cool thing you wanted to build.
- The wall comes first here: messaging a real business owner. Most people stall on sending that first message. Send it.
- Ask what wastes their time; don't pitch your idea. Their answer is the project.
- 1
The bar to look back against
A working AI tool a real local business used for two weeks, with the results captured and a change decided based on what they actually needed versus what you assumed was cool. The customer read is the work: not 'I built a tool,' but 'a real business used it, and I learned what they actually needed.'
Finish the final step, then submit what you built. Your progress is saved.
Tools you'll use
Steps 2–5 · Build the tool
How this shows up on a resume or college app
I built a custom AI tool for a local business and they used it for two weeks, diagnosing their real annoyance, building for it, and then changing it based on what they actually needed vs. what I assumed was cool. I learned how much real businesses care about ROI versus how cool the tech is.