How Can Beginners Actually Make Money With AI in 2026? ft. Dan Martell

TL;DR

Beginners can make money with AI by asking creators or businesses about gaps in their processes, building a specific solution, and charging for it. Dan Martell says his 12-year-old son made $600 in one afternoon after calling people and asking where their businesses needed to move faster. The discussion also maps opportunities across attention, problem-solving, and time-saving automation, so read on to choose an offer and improve your outreach.

Transcript

In about 10 minutes, we're about to be with Dan Martell, one of the biggest YouTubers in the business space, explaining how you can make millions of dollars with AI. And that is a level of AI that most people are not doing. >> You can build 10 advertorials in a day now. And that volume will really negate the luck. And you'll start to hit a lot more... Read More

Key Insights

• Aligning monetization with what you naturally do while procrastinating is the winning move, because you end up doing for pay the same thing you would do for free, which makes the work sustainable and enjoyable.
• The fastest path to income is asking content creators or business owners where their process has a gap, then using AI to solve that specific problem and charging for it, waking up in six months earning money working with people you love.
• Dan Martell's 12-year-old son made $600 in one afternoon by picking up the phone, calling people, and asking where their business was having problems it wished it could solve faster.
• Value creators fall into three types: those who solve attention (making content and social posts), those who solve problems (building front ends with tools like Cursor), and those who solve time (building automation workflows).
• Voice and video outreach outperform text because the recipient cannot preview and skip the message, and hearing genuine passion makes them want to see the creatives or work you made specifically for their business.
• Twitter users receive far fewer DMs than Instagram users because Instagram is filled with non-business content, making Twitter a better channel for reaching businesses with cold outreach.
• Businesses that build features only to AI's current capability get cooked when the next model drops, so build modularly and treat tools like APIs so you can plug in the latest and greatest without being stuck.
• Using AI is a winning strategy even if you get disrupted, illustrated by the Gutenberg press: scribes who adopted the press became publishers, while scribes who refused it never did.

Questions & Answers

Q: How can a beginner start making money with AI in 2026?

Start by identifying what you naturally enjoy doing, then ask creators or businesses where their process has a gap. Use AI to solve a specific need such as ideation, editing, coordination, content creation, website work, or automation, and ask to be paid for the solution.

Q: What is the fastest practical way to find a first paying AI client?

Call a business owner and ask, “Where is your business having problems that you wish you could go faster?” Dan Martell says his 12-year-old son followed this approach and made $600 that afternoon by finding a problem, presenting a solution, and asking for money.

Q: What types of business problems can AI services solve?

The discussion groups opportunities into three categories: attention, problems, and time. Attention work includes content and social media posts, problem-solving can include building a website front end with Cursor, and time-saving work can involve automation workflows.

Q: How should someone choose which AI service to offer?

Look at what you do while procrastinating and find a way to monetize that interest with AI. The speakers also suggest experimenting until you recognize whether you fit more naturally into a marketer or operator role.

Q: What AI deliverables can beginners create for e-commerce brands?

The suggested outputs include product pages, SEO blog posts, Facebook creatives, and organic creatives. A beginner can ask ChatGPT what AI outputs brands require, create relevant examples, and then show those examples to prospective clients.

Q: How can AI freelancers improve cold outreach to business owners?

The speakers recommend Twitter because its users receive fewer direct messages than people on Instagram. Send a personal voice or video message, show that you have reviewed the recipient’s website, explain what makes your approach different, and tailor the proposed work to that business.

Q: Why are voice and video messages useful for AI service outreach?

A voice message cannot be dismissed from a text preview in the same way as an ordinary written message, and it lets the recipient hear your passion. Video can work even better because you can speak personally, display the business’s website, and present work created specifically for it.

Q: How can an AI business prepare for newer models and tools?

Build the business modularly so individual tools or systems can be replaced when something better becomes available. The discussion recommends treating components like APIs and using formats such as JSON, allowing the business to plug in newer models instead of remaining tied to one provider.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The core advice for beginners is to monetize what you naturally gravitate toward while procrastinating, because aligning paid work with what you would do for free guarantees you win. Instead of guessing, ask creators and business owners directly where their process has gaps you could solve with AI.

• There are three problem types you can solve for money: attention through content creation, problems through building tools like website front ends, and time through automation workflows. People naturally fit the marketer or operator archetype, and experimenting reveals which bucket suits you best over time.

• To future-proof an AI business, build it modularly like an API so you can swap in the newest models, since models are converging and leapfrogging each other by smaller margins each release. AI usage will expand from a fraction of the day toward constant use through wearables and home ecosystems.