Which AI Side Hustles Are Actually Worth Starting?

TL;DR

The AI automation agency ranks S tier because it teaches the most valuable AI skills, has enormous earning potential, and works with no-code drag-and-drop tools. AI-powered drop shipping ranks F tier since it drains thousands of dollars in ad spend before any profit. Every hustle here is scored on a 50-point scale across skills gained, earnings, client acquisition, long-term potential, and beginner friendliness.

Transcript

99% of the AI side hustles that you see online are a complete waste of time. And I know this because I've started pretty much every kind of AI business you can over the past 3 years. I've been fortunate enough to have generated over $7 million from these businesses. And I've also seen the real world results from over $230,000 AI entrepreneurs in my... Read More

Key Insights

• The 50-point scoring rubric weighs five criteria: skills gained, earnings potential, ease of getting clients, long-term potential, and beginner friendliness. Beginner friendliness is called the most important because it measures how easy something is to start without risking a lot of time or money.
• Picking a side hustle is not only about money. The skills you learn and how valuable they will be in the future, how hard it is to actually get a paying client, and whether the hustle can grow into something real long term all matter alongside immediate income.
• The AI influencer model works by using AI image and video generation tools to build a completely fictional character with a personality and story line, then growing that character's social media audience until brands pay for product placements in the content.
• Drop shipping fails as a side hustle because the point of a side hustle is to put money in your pocket, not take it out. It requires pouring thousands of dollars into ads just to find one winning product, making it a full-time-money opportunity rather than a starter one.
• Meme marketing means finding trending memes and using AI tools to adapt them for businesses by injecting products or logos into the content. It requires no complex system at first: browse meme pages, spot what is trending, and rebuild it with tools like Higgsfield.
• The AI automation agency helps businesses in three ways: teaching their teams about AI such as how to use ChatGPT, pointing out where AI can help most (AI consulting), and building AI automations like agents that answer phones using no-code and low-code tools.
• The breakthrough that made the AI automation agency scale was the realization that it could be done with no-code tools, drag-and-drop builders that let anyone create powerful AI systems without writing a single line of code, removing the technical barrier entirely.
• AI-powered social media content creation is modern design and video freelancing supercharged with AI. The advantage is that you can walk into a local business with product photos and ads already made for them, which removes doubt about whether you can do the work.
• AI-assisted resume writing fails on customer economics rather than execution. Selling to job seekers means selling to people without income, and the speaker frames getting $500 from someone without a job as an uphill battle that makes the model unworkable.
• The AI automation agency opportunity mirrors the early internet, when businesses had no idea how to build an online presence and the people who helped them early made a fortune. Today AI is the technology businesses need guidance on, and the same opening exists.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the best AI side hustle to start in 2026?

The AI automation agency, or AAA, is ranked S tier and called the most proven model on the entire list. It scores high across every criterion: the skills learned are described as the most valuable available right now, the earning potential is enormous, and the long-term potential sets you up to build your own AI business in any direction. The speaker created the model in 2023 and used it to grow their agency, Morningside AI, from a spare bedroom to working with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Q: Why is AI drop shipping a bad side hustle for beginners?

Drop shipping is ranked F tier because it violates the core purpose of a side hustle, which is to put money into your pocket rather than take it out. It requires spending thousands of dollars on ads just to find a single winning product. The speaker started their own online business journey with drop shipping at 18, lost all their money multiple times, and took over 14 months to make a first dollar in profit. If you already have cash saved and are ready to go full-time it can be a real business, but as a low-risk side hustle it fails completely.

Q: How does an AI automation agency actually make money?

An AI automation agency helps businesses in three main ways. First, you can teach their teams about AI, such as how to understand and use ChatGPT. Second, you can do AI consulting, pointing out where AI can help the business most. Third, and this is described as the main one, you can build AI automations for them, including AI agents that answer their phones, using no-code and low-code tools. The speaker notes that a one-person version of this business exists that a single individual can start and run.

Q: Do you need coding skills to start an AI automation agency?

No. The breakthrough that made the AI automation agency model scale was the realization that it could be built entirely with no-code tools, described as drag-and-drop tools that allow anyone to build powerful AI systems without writing a single line of code. The speaker states that many of the tens of thousands of people they have seen succeed with this model started with absolutely no tech background at all, which is why it scores so highly on the beginner friendliness criterion.

Q: What criteria should you use to evaluate an AI side hustle?

Five criteria are used, scored on a 50-point scale. Skills gained asks how valuable the skills you learn will be looking into the future. Earnings potential asks how much you can realistically make. Ease of getting clients asks how hard it is to find someone who will pay you. Long-term potential asks whether you can grow beyond just a side hustle. Beginner friendliness, called the most important, asks how easy the hustle is to start without risking a large amount of time or money.

Q: How do AI influencers make money and is it worth it?

AI influencers are fictional characters created with AI image and video generation tools, given a personality and story line, and grown on social media through engaging or funny content. Examples mentioned include Bigfoot vlogs and Jar Monkey. Money comes from brand deals once an audience exists, where a brand pays to have the character hold their product in a video. It lands in B tier: the AI video and image skills are extremely valuable, but success depends entirely on being creative, funny, and consistently interesting, which is not a repeatable process a beginner can copy.

Q: What is meme marketing for brands and how do you start it?

Meme marketing means finding trending memes and using AI tools to adapt them for businesses, injecting the brand's products or logos directly into the content. Starting does not require a complex system: you browse meme pages, find what is currently trending, then use AI video tools such as Higgsfield to create ad creatives featuring the brand's products. Restaurants and local businesses are increasingly blowing up with this kind of organic, funny content. It is rated A tier because the creation process is now easy with AI, the work is high impact for brands, and it is more accessible than ever.

Q: Why is AI resume writing ranked the lowest tier?

AI-assisted resume writing, which involves using AI to help job seekers optimize their resumes, is placed in F tier. The fundamental problem is the customer base rather than the service itself: you are trying to sell to broke people. Getting $500 out of someone who has no job and no income is described as an uphill battle, which makes it a bad business model at its core. No amount of skill with the AI tools fixes a customer group that structurally cannot pay.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The ranking uses a 50-point scale built on five criteria: how valuable the skills gained will be in the future, realistic earnings potential, ease of getting clients, long-term potential beyond a side hustle, and beginner friendliness measured by how little time and money you risk to start.

• AI influencers land in B tier: building a fictional character with AI image and video tools teaches genuinely valuable skills and monetizes through brand deals, but success depends entirely on being creative, funny, and consistently interesting, which is not a process a beginner can simply copy.

• AI-powered drop shipping is placed in F tier. The speaker started their online business journey with it at 18, lost all their money multiple times, and took over 14 months to make a first dollar in profit, which fails the low-risk criteria a side hustle demands.

• The AI automation agency sits alone in S tier. The speaker created the model in 2023, runs the agency Morningside AI, and reports that over 20% of members in their free community make between $1 and $30,000 per month, many with no tech background at all.

• Meme marketing for brands and AI-powered social media content creation both earn A tier. Both use AI video and image tools to produce creative work faster and cheaper than traditional agencies, and both let you show finished samples to a local business before asking for payment.

• AI-assisted resume writing is rated F tier for a structural reason rather than a technical one: the customers are job seekers without income, and extracting $500 from someone who has no job is described as an uphill battle and a fundamentally bad business model.