You program what you feel like doing. That's OK. But believe me, it won't be 3 months before you feel like you've put in so much effort that you should be getting paid for it. But who's going to buy that? And this is where most tech people hit a dead end. And yet...
There is a way out of the dead end
First of all, you should know that most AI tools do not save enough working time and that is why SMEs do not buy them. It is worth developing AI stuff that does not speed up work, but gives humanity new tools (no exaggeration!) that they can only get from this new technology. For example, an AI tool for the blind that reads colors from an image. This could be an aid for a packaging worker. In other words, those people can develop useful AI tools who can dream up AI tools like writers dreamed up television back in the day. (Just a parenthetical comment. Maybe it is worth reading science fiction novels with this kind of eye.) However, this is a very rare case. This is not the best way out of the impasse. The best way out is to rephrase your question.
Who is the SME leader who would buy an AI tool?
The ideal customer for AI tools is the SME executive coming from a multinational company. Why? Someone coming from a multinational faces two things in a medium-sized company that hurt them:
- Data vacuum: They are used to getting market analysis, competition monitoring and legal due diligence at the click of a button at the multinational. They are groping in the dark at the SME.
- Structural chaos: They see 10 people doing work that at the multinational was solved by well-configured software and 2 operators. For them, AI is not a "miracle weapon", but an infrastructure supplement.
But what tools would he or she actually buy?
Which is a painkiller for them. So, they respond to the following problems by spending money:
- Decision paralysis: They have no data on market trends -> They buy the AI-based predictive analytics.
- Scalability barrier: They would like to hire 20 more people, but they can't find them -> They buy the AI, which will double the efficiency of the existing 20 people.
- Audit fear: They are afraid that the colleges will cheat during an audit -> They buy the automated compliance/legal monitor.
How big is the market?
This sounds good so far, but how big is this market?
The statistics: About 18-22% of mid-market (100-500 employees) leaders will come from large-enterprise (Fortune 500 or Big Tech) backgrounds in 2025-26.
Why is it happening? Due to layoffs at large tech companies and burnout of "gray eminences", many senior leaders (VP, Director level) decide that they want to be a "big fish" at a smaller company, where they have real influence on processes.
The window: The first 90-180 days of a new leader is when they want to "set things right". This is your sales window.
A service can help you
You may think now that you can find these SME leaders. I can tell you: you needn’t. There is a person who is good at sales and programming who could bring you 2-3 such leads per day. The hourly rate for a senior developer (you) in 2026 should be $80. If you write the codes of a tool finding these leads yourself and maintain the necessary bots, and you clean the data, that's at least 10-20 hours per month. That's $800 - $1600 for you.
If you give it to service provider for $150/month, you are in pure profit. Would you give it a try…
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