anxiety.ai
it’s time to build a superhuman business
Unless you’ve been living on North Sentinel Island, you’ve probably heard a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI) recently.
And - if you’re an early to mid-career professional - AI may put you on the verge of a full-blown anxiety attack. Especially if you took out 6-figures of student loan debt to get a Creative Writing Degree from a B-Tier College… only for ChatGPT to master that skill in 30 seconds - yikes.
Am I making this worse? Sorry, I promise you’ll feel better by the end.
It is undeniable that AI is going to change all our lives (for better and worse). But I couldn’t be more excited as a young entrepreneur.
Why? Well, we’re entering the biggest innovation since the creation of the internet. Some say it’s more akin to the discovery of fire.
If you are in your mid-to-late twenties (like myself) you:
Definitely missed the ‘90s boom of the software revolution
Were more interested in Pokemon than Yahoo in the early 2000s (internet revolution)
Were still in high school during the release of the iPhone in the 2010s (mobile revolution)
MAYBE graduated from University in time to catch the social media boom + gig economy (Airbnb, Uber, Snapchat, etc.)
That last one pales in comparison to the first three. Young millennials and Gen Z have been waiting for our own ‘gold rush’ moment in technology. But unlike the past, this isn’t just another gold rush—it’s as if we’ve landed on an entirely new planet, rich with undiscovered resources, and only a select few have boarded the first spaceship to explore it.
I don’t know about you, but becoming an interstellar gold miner sounds pretty cool to me.
Here’s how you can position yourself ahead of the rush.
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stop selling shovels to gold miners, start digging.
There is an old adage in the start-up world that tells founders to ‘sell axe picks to gold miners’. For example, selling tax compliance software to cryptocurrency traders, rather than becoming a Bitcoin trader yourself - less competition and risk. This is how most software was built over the past decade. Focus on building a niche software tool that rode a macro-economic wave or start a service company that was ‘tech-enabled’.
Here’s the problem with that approach right now - AI is moving so fast that you’re going to drown before you get up on the surfboard.
Take a company like copy.ai - they were one of the first companies to use OpenAI’s early API to build a software interface to help people use AI to magically edit or write blogs. That company quickly crossed $10M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in October of 2022. Guess what? In short order, OpenAI released ChatGPT and copy.ai was left scrambling to pivot their businesses into something new. They had no defensive moat.
What does this mean for founders? Well, unless you’re in the top 0.00000000001% of human intelligence and building the next-best LLM (you’re not) - you’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and start building real-world businesses. Since every business is now ‘tech-enabled’, rather than a select few, your competitive advantage has to revolve around skills unique to humans - think of them as ‘human-enabled’ businesses. I’ll admit, that phrase doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
Instead, let’s call these businesses superhuman businesses, here’s how to build them.
how to build a superhuman business - my framework.
In a previous post, I ranked the top 25 digital businesses to own as an entrepreneur in 2025.
A majority of the list were service businesses that could superpower their employees in an AI-centric world.
For example, take #18 - Remote Window Cleaning Dispatch. Until robots start taking over all physical labour - humans are still going to have to use our unique ability to not only ‘wax on’ but to also ‘wax off’.
So, how can you superpower an existing window cleaning company? Well, if you were to call your local window cleaning company or visit their site the following is likely to happen:
You would call and nobody would pick up the phone (very common).
You would call and a human would answer the phone, write down your details, and manually book a consultation at your house and then have to remember to send a follow-up email to both you and the window washing team (this would put them in the top 10% of well-run businesses).
You would submit an email form on their website and either never hear back and/or you would hear back between 10 to 22 business days later. Not great.
All around a pretty lousy experience. Further, it’s not a great use of that admin’s time to manually call all prospects back and manually coordinate appointments.
Here’s how you could create a superhuman experience:
AI-Powered Booking System: Implement an AI chatbot on the website that instantly responds to inquiries, provides pricing estimates based on the customer’s location and property size, and schedules appointments in real time. This eliminates delays, improves response times, and ensures that no lead falls through the cracks. Some businesses are even using AI voice agents that can handle phone calls and are pretty much indistinguishable from a regular human voice 🤯
Automated Follow-Ups & Reminders: Set up an AI-driven email and SMS system that follows up with leads who didn’t book immediately, remind customers of upcoming appointments, and requests reviews after the job is complete. This ensures consistent communication without adding administrative burden.
Dynamic Pricing Optimization: Use AI to analyze historical demand patterns, weather forecasts, and competitor pricing to adjust pricing dynamically. During peak demand, prices can be optimized for higher margins, while off-peak discounts can be applied to keep crews busy year-round.
Route Optimization & Scheduling: AI can automatically optimize routes for window cleaners, ensuring that they take the most efficient paths between jobs, reducing travel time, fuel costs, and increasing the number of jobs completed per day.
Real-Time Job Tracking & Customer Updates: Implement a system where customers receive live updates on their cleaner’s location, estimated time of arrival, and even before-and-after photos of their windows. This builds trust and enhances customer experience.
Upselling & Cross-Selling Opportunities: AI can analyze customer purchase history and suggest relevant upsells to your human sales fleet—like gutter cleaning, pressure washing, or an annual subscription for recurring services. This increases revenue per customer without requiring additional sales effort.
Where do the humans fit into the picture? Closing sales with clients, completing the on-site work, addressing concerns and giving a white-glove service - instead of scrambling to each job and not having enough time to remember to invoice the client.
By integrating these AI-powered enhancements, a traditional window cleaning business evolves into a superhuman business—leveraging automation to deliver a superior customer experience, increase efficiency, and boost profitability.
the new competitive advantage: AI + humans.
The reality is, AI won’t replace entrepreneurs—it will separate the good ones from the great ones. The best founders won’t be those who sit on the sidelines hoping to ‘sell picks and shovels’ to the AI revolution. Instead, they’ll be the ones rolling up their sleeves, embracing AI, and using it as a force multiplier to build real-world businesses that scale faster and operate more efficiently than ever before.
The key takeaway? AI is the great enabler, but human ingenuity, grit, and execution remain the true differentiator. If you’re an ambitious entrepreneur, now is the time to stop waiting for the perfect software idea and start building something tangible—something that leverages AI but isn’t entirely dependent on it.
Because in this gold rush, the winners won’t be those selling shovels. The winners will be the ones striking gold.
every second counts.
*Acknowledgements & kudos to my editor for helping me with this story: ChatGPT ;)
Pssst - mystery reader,
If you’re enjoying my writing, you’re going to love my internet mail. It’s this groundbreaking concept where I send you cool stuff to your inbox each week—pretty revolutionary, right?
Curious? You can read it here.
