Brainstorming $10M AI Business Ideas with Airtable Founder Howie Liu

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the business landscape at an unprecedented pace, creating enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to harness its power. Howie Liu, the founder of Airtable—a company now valued around $10 billion—has witnessed this transformation firsthand. In a candid and insightful discussion, Howie shares seven compelling AI-driven business ideas he would pursue if he were twenty-one again or starting fresh without Airtable.

From live shopping with AI avatars to AI-powered personalized news and finance advisors, Howie’s ideas span diverse verticals

Brainstorming $10M AI Business Ideas with Airtable Founder Howie Liu, blending his deep technical expertise with a visionary outlook on the future of AI. Whether you’re an AI enthusiast, an entrepreneur brainstorming your next venture, or simply curious about where AI can take us next, this comprehensive exploration of Howie’s ideas will provide valuable inspiration and practical insights.

 

 

Table of Contents

• 1. Live Shopping with AI Avatars: The Future of Interactive Commerce
• 2. AI-Powered Personalized News: Your Smart No-BS Friend
• 3. AI Personal Finance Advisors: Democratizing Wealth Management
• 4. AI-Powered Private Equity: Automating Traditional Businesses
• 5. AI-Enhanced Productivity Tools: Cursor for Email and Beyond
• 6. AI-Native Social Apps: Redefining Consumer Engagement
• 7. Uncensored AI Search: Pushing the Boundaries of AI Conversations
• Conclusion: The AI Entrepreneur’s Playbook
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Live Shopping with AI Avatars: The Future of Interactive Commerce

Live shopping has exploded into a multi-billion-dollar phenomenon, especially in Asia. It involves influencers showcasing products in real-time, creating an engaging and interactive shopping experience that drives massive commerce volumes. Howie highlights platforms like TikTok and Whatnot as prime examples where influencers sell products live, weaving stories and personal experiences around items, making the shopping process feel like a social event.

But Howie envisions the next evolution: live shopping powered by AI avatars. Imagine engaging with a virtual celebrity avatar—say, an AI version of Kim Kardashian—who can answer your questions about SKIMS products in real-time, providing a personalized and immersive shopping experience. This concept leverages avatar technology like HeyGen, which offers easy-to-use, self-serve avatar products created from real human actors.

HeyGen, backed by Howie as an investor, stands out for its premade avatars and the ability to create custom ones. This technology enables businesses to generate personalized video content at scale, such as sending customized thank-you notes from a CEO to event attendees via avatar videos. The novelty and personalization of such experiences can greatly enhance customer engagement and brand loyalty.

Internally at Airtable, Howie and his team are already experimenting with avatar-generated video emails, using Airtable’s scripting capabilities integrated with HeyGen’s API. This fusion of no-code tools and AI avatars allows for automating personalized outreach, streamlining communication while maintaining a human touch.

The potential for AI avatars in live shopping is massive. It combines the authenticity and personality of influencer marketing with the scalability and customization of AI, creating a new frontier for e-commerce and digital interaction.

How to Get Started with AI Avatar Live Shopping

• Create a list of target customers or event attendees using Airtable or similar tools.
• Use scripting to connect Airtable with AI avatar APIs like HeyGen.
• Automatically generate personalized video messages or live interactions for each customer.
• Integrate these videos into your marketing funnels or customer outreach campaigns.
• Leverage influencer partnerships to enhance credibility and reach.

This approach not only personalizes customer engagement but also opens doors to innovative marketing strategies that blend AI and human elements seamlessly.

2. AI-Powered Personalized News: Your Smart No-BS Friend

News consumption habits are evolving rapidly, and Howie sees AI transforming the way we interact with information. While traditional front-page newspapers offer a curated, consistent experience for millions, the real opportunity lies in personalized, AI-driven news aggregation that understands your interests and delivers concise, relevant summaries.

Howie personally uses AI to summarize articles by copying content into tools like ChatGPT or Claude, extracting key insights effortlessly. However, he envisions a more sophisticated AI news aggregator that automatically scans for articles matching your interests and engages with you interactively, much like having a knowledgeable friend who can explain and debate any topic in real-time.

This AI “news friend” would be able to:

• Summarize articles tailored to your preferences.
• Answer follow-up questions with deeper insights.
• Provide expert commentary and context.
• Curate content dynamically based on evolving interests.

Such a platform could revolutionize newsletters and news delivery by combining the personalization of newsletters like The Hustle with the interactive power of AI. Creators could launch AI-powered branded newsletters, delivering customized content at scale, while readers get a highly engaging, one-of-a-kind experience.

Moreover, AI personalities with distinct styles—ranging from serious financial analysts to sensational gossip reporters—could cater to diverse audiences, making news consumption more engaging and personalized than ever before.

Why AI Personalized News Is a Big Opportunity

News is a high-engagement daily ritual for many. By automating and enhancing this experience with AI, businesses can tap into a gigantic market hungry for tailored, interactive content. The era of AI news is poised to be the next wave of growth for media companies, creators, and tech startups alike.

3. AI Personal Finance Advisors: Democratizing Wealth Management

Howie shares a personal affinity for personal finance technology, having been an early Mint user himself. He recognizes the challenges and tedium involved in financial planning, especially for individuals who don’t have access to high-end wealth advisors.

In traditional wealth management, ultra-high-net-worth clients benefit from strategic advisers who create tailored financial plans akin to a CFO’s role in a corporation. However, this level of service is inaccessible to most people due to cost and availability.

Howie’s vision is to leverage AI avatars to create personalized, strategic financial advisors available to anyone. These AI advisors would:

• Analyze your entire financial picture, including assets, liabilities, and goals.
• Generate comprehensive financial plans balancing cash flow needs and investment strategies.
• Provide a human-like interactive experience via avatars, making complex financial advice more approachable.
• Offer on-demand support to reduce financial stress and improve decision-making.

Such AI-powered advisors could democratize access to sophisticated wealth management, enabling individuals across wealth brackets to plan better and make informed financial decisions.

One practical example discussed is Kubera, a platform that aggregates financial accounts smoothly and integrates with AI tools like ChatGPT to provide personalized advice. Users can export their data in JSON format for AI consumption or connect directly to get real-time insights.

Combining Kubera’s aggregation capabilities with AI models trained on investment philosophies from gurus like Warren Buffett allows users to have personalized, actionable financial plans tailored to their goals, whether buying a house or growing net worth.

The Human Element vs. AI

While AI can provide excellent advice, Howie notes the importance of trust and empathy that comes from human advisors. However, he also suggests that much of this trust might stem from the psychology of interacting with a face rather than the fact that it’s a human. AI avatars could replicate this experience, offering comforting, trustworthy guidance at scale.

4. AI-Powered Private Equity: Automating Traditional Businesses

Beyond consumer-facing applications, Howie highlights a less obvious but powerful AI opportunity: using AI to transform traditional, labor-intensive businesses. Specifically, he discusses the potential of AI to revolutionize sectors like property management and business process outsourcing (BPO).

For example, property management firms have significant portions of their cost structure tied up in repetitive, automatable tasks. A German company is already buying property management firms and deploying AI to automate these tasks, increasing efficiency and margins without firing employees. This approach allows them to scale quickly and dominate the market.

This AI-driven private equity (PE) model involves:

• Acquiring existing businesses with labor-intensive operations.
• Implementing AI technologies to automate routine tasks and improve service quality.
• Increasing margins and scaling by taking on more business efficiently.
• Maintaining employment while boosting profitability.

Similar opportunities exist in call centers and other BPOs, where AI can automate client-agnostic support and research tasks, drastically reducing costs and improving outcomes. This model represents a new frontier in PE and operational efficiency, leveraging AI as a force multiplier.

Why This Matters

This approach upends traditional assumptions about labor-heavy industries, showing that AI can be used not only to cut costs but to grow businesses sustainably. Entrepreneurs and investors targeting these sectors can find significant value by combining AI with strategic acquisitions and operational improvements.

5. AI-Enhanced Productivity Tools: Cursor for Email and Beyond

Email remains one of the most time-consuming activities for professionals, yet it has seen little fundamental innovation in decades. Howie points to Cursor, an AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE) for coding, as a model for what’s possible in other productivity domains, including email.

Cursor builds on the familiar interface of Visual Studio Code but enhances it with AI agents that assist with coding tasks, making developers far more productive. Howie believes similar AI augmentation can revolutionize email, transforming it from a passive inbox into an active assistant capable of:

• Pre-reading emails and highlighting important messages.
• Conducting research across calendars, documents, and web sources to provide context.
• Recommending responses or actions, such as whether a meeting request is worth accepting.
• Automating routine email management tasks.

While current AI email integrations exist, such as Gemini and Claude’s email plugins, Howie advocates for blended experiences where AI is seamlessly embedded in the email client, enhancing rather than replacing workflows.

The Challenge of Building AI-First Email Clients

Email platforms like Gmail dominate the ecosystem, making it difficult to build independent clients or plugins without facing technical and legal challenges. Howie recalls his early startup experience building Gmail plugins using browser extensions that manipulated Gmail’s HTML, a fragile and often unsanctioned approach.

Superhuman, a premium email client recently acquired for nearly $800 million, succeeded by building a standalone client focused on speed and user experience. However, Howie believes AI-powered email tools can leapfrog existing products by offering radical improvements in productivity and personalization.

He highlights that the key to success lies in targeting power users—those for whom email is central to their work—who would be willing to pay premium prices for tools that save hours each week and help them avoid costly missed opportunities.

One former Airtable employee is currently building in this space with the startup Chief.so, backed by Howie, illustrating the growing momentum around AI-enhanced email productivity.

6. AI-Native Social Apps: Redefining Consumer Engagement

Howie believes the next wave of consumer social apps will be AI-native, fundamentally different from today’s platforms. Instead of simply adding AI features to existing formats like Instagram or TikTok, these apps will integrate AI deeply, creating new social dynamics and engagement models.

One intriguing concept is social networks or chat groups where AI avatars participate as full members alongside humans. These AI personas could contribute content, moderate discussions, or even simulate relationships, blurring the lines between human and AI interaction.

This shift could lead to hyper-engaging consumer experiences that surpass current social media addiction levels, offering personalized companionship, entertainment, and social validation at scale.

What This Means for Creators and Users

AI-native social apps will open new creative possibilities, where consumer psychology and behavior evolve alongside AI capabilities. Artists and designers—not just technologists—will play a key role in shaping these experiences, crafting AI personalities and narratives that resonate emotionally with users.

This frontier remains largely unexplored, offering fertile ground for startups willing to experiment with AI-driven social innovation.

7. Uncensored AI Search: Pushing the Boundaries of AI Conversations

Finally, Howie touches on the emerging niche of uncensored or "unhinged" AI search and chat experiences. Current AI models like ChatGPT are carefully moderated to avoid controversial or sensitive topics, but there is growing interest in versions that relax these constraints.

For example, Grok, Elon Musk’s AI product, offers an unhinged mode and even a "sexy mode" that removes many safety filters, enabling more explicit and unrestricted conversations. This raises questions about free speech, censorship, and cultural norms in AI usage.

Howie notes that much of AI’s early adoption was driven by technologists, but the next phase will see more artists and cultural creators pushing boundaries and exploring new forms of expression with AI, including controversial or taboo topics.

He also mentions the fascinating phenomenon of scam-baiting YouTube channels that use AI and human ingenuity to turn the tables on phone scammers, showcasing both the playful and disruptive potential of AI.

The Ethical and Cultural Challenge

The balance between safety and freedom in AI is complex. Different cultures have varying moral standards, making universal censorship difficult. The evolution of uncensored AI will likely spark ongoing debates about responsibility, regulation, and innovation.

Conclusion: The AI Entrepreneur’s Playbook

Howie Liu’s seven AI business ideas offer a powerful framework for entrepreneurs looking to build $10 million-plus companies in today’s rapidly evolving AI landscape. Key takeaways include:

• Leverage AI for personalization and scalability: Whether through avatars, news, or finance, AI enables customized experiences at scale.
• Target high-value users and verticals: Focus on niches with significant pain points and willingness to pay, from power email users to property management firms.
• Combine AI with human elements: Use avatars and interactive agents to replicate the trust and empathy of human interactions.
• Innovate beyond existing paradigms: Explore AI-native social apps and uncensored AI as new frontiers.
• Use AI to disrupt traditional industries: Automate labor-intensive businesses to unlock operational leverage and growth opportunities.

By blending deep technical understanding with creative vision, Howie Liu’s insights illuminate the path for the next generation of AI-powered startups. Whether you’re starting your first company or looking to pivot into AI, these ideas provide a rich source of inspiration and practical guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is live shopping with AI avatars, and why is it important?

Live shopping with AI avatars involves using virtual influencers or celebrity avatars to interact with customers in real-time during shopping sessions. This creates a highly personalized and engaging experience, combining influencer marketing with scalable AI technology. It’s important because it can dramatically enhance customer engagement and drive sales in e-commerce.

How can AI personalize the news reading experience?

AI can aggregate and summarize news articles based on individual interests, delivering tailored content. More advanced systems act as interactive agents, answering questions and providing context, much like a knowledgeable friend. This makes news consumption more efficient and engaging.

What are the benefits of AI personal finance advisors?

AI personal finance advisors democratize access to sophisticated financial planning by providing personalized, strategic advice via human-like avatars. They help users manage cash flow, investments, and financial goals with on-demand support, reducing stress and improving financial outcomes.

How does AI impact traditional businesses like property management?

AI automates repetitive, labor-intensive tasks within traditional businesses, improving efficiency and margins. By acquiring firms and integrating AI, companies can scale rapidly without layoffs, transforming low-margin industries into profitable ventures.

Why is AI-enhanced email productivity a promising area?

Email remains a major time sink for professionals, yet it has seen little innovation. AI can augment email workflows by prioritizing messages, providing context, and automating routine tasks, saving users significant time and helping them avoid missed opportunities.

What are AI-native social apps?

AI-native social apps are platforms where AI is deeply integrated into the social experience, including AI avatars participating alongside humans. These apps redefine engagement and content creation, offering novel, hyper-personalized social interactions.

What challenges exist with uncensored AI chat and search?

Uncensored AI challenges include balancing freedom of expression with safety, ethical concerns, and cultural differences. While uncensored AI can offer more authentic conversations, it also risks misuse and controversy, necessitating thoughtful regulation and innovation.

How can entrepreneurs apply Howie Liu’s AI business ideas?

Entrepreneurs should focus on large or deeply vertical markets with clear pain points, leverage AI to create personalized and scalable solutions, and blend human and AI interactions to build trust. Experimenting with emerging AI trends and adopting a long-term vision are also crucial.