2025 is shaping up to be the "year of AI agents". We've put together a list of startup ideas that we think are especially promising— some draw attention to trends that are already in full swing, and some of them are where we think things are going next. ycombinator.com/rfs
Full-stack AI companies @snowmaker If you build a great AI accountant, why sell it to legacy accounting firms when you could start an AI accounting firm and beat them? We think founders will increasingly choose to do just that, and we're excited to fund more of these full-stack AI companies.
More Design Founders @aaron_epstein As AI tools make coding easier, great design and taste matter more than ever. That's why more designers should become founders. Don't just design products – create companies.
Voice AI @gustaf Phone calls with businesses haven’t changed in decades—until now. Voice AI bots, powered by LLMs, are finally as good as humans. It’s the autonomous car moment for voice.
AI for Scientific Advancement @sdianahu AI is transforming how physical things are made. Many scientific tools haven’t changed in decades, but test-time compute is now enabling new startups to solve complex problems in fields like chemistry, biology, and materials science.
AI Personal Assistant @t_blom It’s high time we had AI personal assistants. Imagine an AI that has perfect understanding of your emails, projects, and scheduling preferences — and can take actions on your behalf. Apply to YC if you’re working on this idea!
AI Personal Tutor for Everyone @harjtaggar The latest multimodal and reasoning models make it possible to create an AI personal tutor that’s capable of explaining complicated concepts to anyone who’s interested in learning them. This could really change the world. We’d love to see you apply to YC if you’re working on this idea.
Healthcare AI @gustaf US healthcare spend is now more than $4T a year, but over $1T of that is spent on manual admin tasks. New agents and LLMs can automate this.
@ycombinator @harjtaggar We are literally building this into @ephor as we speak, I just pushed the PR yesterday for the first use case: a "spiky points of view" personal tutor. Can a team of intraentrepreneurs go through the program?
@ycombinator @harjtaggar personalized content ≠ good teaching the hard part is making the material active
@ycombinator @harjtaggar I love what @KA_Khanmigo is doing here. Would love to see AI tutors for: – Language learning – Accent reduction in any language – Personal finance coaching based on your own data That could be life-changing.
@ycombinator @harjtaggar Im solving a much harder version of this. Education isn't enough Language is all you need manifesto.danger.tech
@ycombinator @harjtaggar This is exactly what we are building with Building Blocks @blocksmap 🙌 Everyone should be able to learn what they need to learn 10x easier and faster!
@ycombinator @harjtaggar Love it! This is exactly what we are working on but much more because that itself isn’t enough. We want to scale this technology in a way that one of our founders did for algo trading.
@ycombinator @harjtaggar After testing Pykaso, I began making money on Fanvue within a few days. unbelievable outcomes.
@ycombinator @harjtaggar @harjtaggar #TruAI will include this as one of the features, Tutor Mode, it remembers where each user is at in their learning journey and tailors answers to age level. That's just one thing amongst many. Let's talk more about it! #Solofounder #DECACORN