I recently dove into a fascinating project, analyzing 87 Reddit posts across 32 AI-related subreddits to uncover what real-world problems people want AI to solve. I used a language model as my research assistant to categorize the content and extract key needs, and then manually reviewed the findings to identify patterns. The results were eye-opening, and I wanted to share them with you.
It turns out that user needs cluster into four major categories, each with very specific pain points. The first category is Content Creation, where users want AI to help with tasks like keeping characters consistent across multiple images and scenes, or creating simple AI-powered filters for haircuts and face swaps. The second category is Productivity & Automation, where people want AI to act as a ‘copilot’ that can help with tasks like targeted practice problems for students or generating actionable plans for creatives and entrepreneurs.
The third category is Data Handling, where trust and privacy are paramount. Users want AI to help with tasks like analyzing personal finances, but are hesitant to upload sensitive data to cloud services. The fourth category is Niche ‘Expert’ AI, where needs are becoming hyper-specific, like identifying bones on anatomy charts or analyzing trends in medical AI papers.
My takeaway from this project is that the next big opportunities in AI might not be in building a bigger, all-knowing model, but in going niche and polished. Find a real, painful problem in a specific domain and use AI to solve it beautifully.
What do you think? Does this resonate with you? What’s the number one thing on your personal AI wishlist?