From the AI breakthroughs of the last few months, a wave of new startup opportunities have been unlocked. Here are some of the ideas we think will be especially interesting to build now: ycombinator.com/rfs
A Secure AI App Store @garrytan There is a small window today for a startup to create an AI App Store that provides computer use APIs and local LLaMA versioning with secure privacy controls, discovery, and payments. We hope you might build it.
Compliance and Audit @t_blom 4 million people in the US & Europe work in compliance & audit. LLMs will automate the testing that these folks currently do by hand: spotting anomalies in data, identifying incomplete records, or highlighting contradictory policies.
DocuSign 2.0 @mwseibel There is an opportunity with AI to finally make the process of filling out and signing documents delightful.
Browser/Computer Automation @snowmaker AI agents can now browse the web and use desktop applications. It means that every website and every app now effectively has an API, and any workflow that people can do on a computer can be automated.
AI Personal Staff for Everyone @dflieb The world’s richest people employ large staffs of humans, like tax accountants, lawyers, money managers, personal trainers, and even private doctors. AI will soon be good enough to do all these jobs for everyone.
Devtools for AI Agents @dessaigne AI agents are the next wave: autonomous tools that reason, decide, and amplify human productivity. We’re funding startups building devtools for agents, whether you’re creating agent builders or building blocks to perform complex tasks.
The Future of Software Engineering @koomen AI will bring the cost of building software down to zero, but this means we’ll need MORE human developers, not fewer. We’d like to fund startups building tools for this future.
@ycombinator @koomen The people over-selling AI are the real tools.
@ycombinator @koomen Agreed, software built for people will be built by people, even if AI is writing the code.
@ycombinator @koomen "Language models can already write code better than most humans" I agree. AI is better than me, and my grandpa on average.
@ycombinator @koomen So no longer engineers but agent managers 🤔
@ycombinator @koomen I would take his message more seriously if he would be practitioner himself. I mean how much software has @koomen built himself?
@ycombinator @koomen none of this is true. you're talking about turning developers into full time debugger-slaves to a tin can. of course they will be paid less. "the AI is doing all the job", right?
@ycombinator @koomen If your focus is the future of software engineering, harnessing AI to make the tools of the future then would love to talk
@ycombinator @koomen This is embarrassing for YC. This will only serve to produce piles of junk software. Quality is already more or less absent in software and this will lead to engineers who don't have a clue what the underlying code is doing. To make all of that autonomous? Holy shit.
@ycombinator @koomen Isn’t this a game where the best agent wins, as scaling isn’t an issue for them, giving the highest-funded player the biggest advantage?
@ycombinator @koomen Is it only me who found the first two premises of this message contradictory? Good luck to the applicants regardless
@ycombinator @koomen Exciting times ahead! As a product manager, I see huge potential for AI to streamline development. But we'll need skilled humans to guide AI tools effectively. Product Tapas helps PMs stay updated on these rapid changes.
@ycombinator @koomen While AI may improve efficiency, the UAE's investments in Industry 4.0 and advanced manufacturing technologies will drive innovation, providing opportunities for professionals.