Is AI Making It Easier To Build A Startup, Or Just More Difficult To Stand Out? The Experts Weigh In

Building a startup has never been an easy endeavour. Between developing a product, finding customers and managing costs, founders have traditionally needed considerable time, money and expertise to get a business off the ground, never mind to keep it going. But these days, AI is changing the equation, allowing smaller teams to do more with less and turn ideas into working products faster than ever.

There is, however, a catch. And that is, if everyone has access to the same tools, building something is no longer necessarily what sets a startup apart. It’s introduced a change in terms of what used to be a competitive advantage and what is now. Indeed, the challenge is becoming less about getting started and more about giving customers a reason to choose you.

For founders, that creates a dilemma in terms of what AI is actually doing for them in the long run. In one sense, it may be lowering the barriers to entry, but in another, it could also be making competition more fierce than ever before.

 

Building a Startup Is Getting Easier

 

For many entrepreneurs, AI is already making the practicalities of starting a business less daunting. Alex Brooks, Founder and Managing Director at Shift7, says it helped his business navigate everything from market research to understanding tax, payroll and HMRC requirements when it launched 12 months ago. “That saved us time and money, and most of all, cut the stress of not knowing what to do next and who we should ask or pay for help,” he explains.

AI is also changing what’s possible for small teams. Matt Rouif, CEO and Co-Founder of Photoroom, says more people can now launch businesses with less money and fewer employees. In a survey of nearly 1,400 sellers using Photoroom, 58% reported cutting image production time from around 15 minutes to under five, while 36% used the time saved to list more products.

The potential impact here goes beyond efficiency. According to Alexandre Chupin, Founder and AI Architect at The Agentic Tribe, a founder with a clear idea and one technical partner can now ship a working product in weeks rather than quarters. That speed gives aspiring entrepreneurs more opportunities to test ideas, experiment and bring products to market without the resources that might once have been necessary.

 

 

But Easier To Build Doesn’t Mean Easier To Succeed

 

When the cost of developing a product falls, more people can enter the market. That is good news for entrepreneurship, but it also means founders may find themselves competing against a growing number of businesses offering remarkably similar things. Rodion Sorokin, Co-Founder and CTO at The Capital Index, believes this second effect could be more significant than the first: “Both, and the second effect is bigger,” he says. “AI has collapsed the cost of building a first version: a two-person team can now ship what used to take ten. But when everyone can build, building stops being the moat.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Olga Kokhan, Founder and CEO at Tinkogroup, who argues that AI is lowering the barriers to entry while simultaneously raising the barriers to differentiation. Having access to the same technology as competitors isn’t, in itself, a competitive advantage.

As Chupin puts it, “Speed is now a commodity. Insight is not.”

For startups, that means a working product is only the beginning. Founders still need to understand their customers, solve meaningful problems and build something that competitors cannot easily replicate.

 

What Will Make Startups Stand Out?

 

Figuring out what the new competitive advantage may become is a tricky question. Indeed, the answer may lie in what AI can’t readily provide: deep industry knowledge, customer trust, proprietary data and sound judgement.

Luis Antonio Diaz, CEO of OfferioAI and Blü AI Technologies, says that his experience judging international AI hackathons has shown him how quickly teams can produce similar products using the same underlying models. “What stands out now is what AI can’t generate for you: proprietary data, a regulated or hard-to-enter market, and a reason customers trust you with something that matters,” he says.

Naomi Bilder, Founder and Creative Director at Bilder Studio, makes a similar point from a creative perspective. As AI makes generating content easier, the ability to decide what is worth producing (and recognise when something isn’t good enough) becomes increasingly important.

So for founders, the opportunity isn’t just to use AI as much as possible to produce more. Rather, it’s to use the time and resources it saves to understand customers better, improve products and deliver something genuinely valuable.

Paul Scott, Managing Director at Small Strategies, offers a practical point at which to start: “If you’re excited to build a startup with AI, focus on solving a big problem for a small group of people.”

AI is making it easier to start a business, but it hasn’t removed the hard work of building one that lasts. In a market where more people can turn ideas into products, those who end up being successful are unlikely to be those who build fastest alone. It’s more probably that it’ll be the ones who understand what customers need and give them a compelling reason to stay.

 

Our Experts:

 

• Anne Cantelo: Fractional Communications Director at Onyx Media and Communications Ltd.
• Alexandre Chupin: Founder and AI Architect, The Agentic Tribe
• Paul Scott: Managing Director at Small Strategies
• Rodion Sorokin: Co-Founder and CTO at The Capital Index
• Olga Kokhan: Founder and CEO at Tinkogroup
• Sean Campbell: CEO at Cascade Insights
• Luis Antonio Diaz: CEO of OfferioAI and Blü AI Technologies
• Naomi Bilder: Founder and Creative Director, Bilder Studio
• Alex Brooks: Founder and Managing Director at Shift7
• Jurek Sikorski: Director of the Henley Enterprise Lab at Henley Business School
• Matt Rouif: CEO and Co-Founder of Photoroom
• Vassili Philippov: CEO and Co-Founder of Glite
• Kenza Zayani: Investor at RTP Global
• Nic Conner: Partner at Parisi
• Jamie Stewart: Founder and CEO at Binq

 

Anne Cantelo, Fractional Communications Director at Onyx Media and Communications Ltd. 

 

 

“Through my communications work, I get to know many start-ups and growing businesses closely: their business models, customers and what drives them. I’m seeing AI change both what customers need and the time it takes to deliver services. That creates new opportunities while making some existing offers redundant.

“Faster delivery doesn’t automatically mean lower prices: expertise, judgement and accountability still have value. But businesses can’t pretend the workload is unchanged when AI has reduced it dramatically.

“Some are embracing this, redesigning their services and pricing to give customers better value. Others are trying to preserve their old model by concealing how much has changed. That smoke and mirrors approach will be found out and risks making the business unviable.

“AI makes starting easier; building a lasting business means adapting what you offer and being honest about its value.”

 

Alexandre Chupin, Founder and AI Architect at The Agentic Tribe

 

 

“Both are true. AI has made building cheap and fast: a founder with a clear idea and one technical partner can now ship a working product in weeks, not quarters. That is exactly why the product alone no longer sets anyone apart. Competitors have the same models, the same tools and the same speed.

“What AI cannot generate is field knowledge. We are currently building a property valuation platform with a real estate professional. They know what investors actually check, which data can be trusted, and what a valuation must show to be credible. We turn that knowledge into software. Pairing a domain expert, or someone straight from the field, with a technical profile has become more valuable than ever, because AI multiplies whoever knows what to build. Speed is now a commodity. Insight is not.”

 

Paul Scott, Managing Director at Small Strategies

 

 

“AI is absolutely making it easier to build a start up, but quality of the start up is key.

“Anyone can build anything nowadays with a bit of AI knowledge. But not everyone can build a successful product that people actually need or want to use.

“It’s easy to get lost trying to create the next global app or product.

“What AI is doing, however, is building a new generation of entrepreneurs. It’s showing people that you can do much more than work a 9-to-5, even when you might lack certain skills. And you’ve either got to get on board, or watch the opportunities disappear.

“If you’re excited to build a start up with AI, focus on solving a big problem for a small group of people. Look at what problems you face every day, either personally or professionally. That’s where you can win.”

 

Rodion Sorokin, Co-Founder and CTO at The Capital Index

 

 

“Both, and the second effect is bigger. AI has collapsed the cost of building a first version: a two-person team can now ship what used to take ten. But when everyone can build, building stops being the moat. The data shows the squeeze. AI took a record 82.7% of U.S. venture dollars through the third quarter of 2026, according to PitchBook-NVCA, yet AI startups that shut down in the first half of the year did so at a median age of 2.3 years, versus 3.8 for other companies, according to SimpleClosure.

“Cheap to start, fast to fail. The startups that stand out own something a model can’t copy overnight: proprietary data, distribution, regulatory trust or a genuinely hard technical problem. If your product is a prompt, your competitor is a weekend.”

 

Olga Kokhan, Founder and CEO at Tinkogroup 

 

 

“AI is lowering the barriers to entry for starting a business but raising the barriers to differentiation. Founders are able to use AI tools to research markets, automate mundane tasks, generate content, and test ideas at a faster pace than ever before. It reduces the cost of experimentation so small teams can do work that in the past would have taken much more time and resources.

“But when everyone has access to the same tools, AI is not a competitive advantage in and of itself. The real difference is in knowing your customers, in solving a specific problem well, and in consistently doing quality work. Artificial intelligence can help a startup move faster, but it can’t replace good judgment, customer trust, or a clear reason to choose one business over another.

“I’m the founder and CEO of Tinkogroup, a data services company. I believe the best startups will be those that combine the power of AI with human expertise and a deep understanding of their customers. The opportunity is not just to do more with AI but to deliver more meaningful value.”

 

Sean Campbell, CEO at Cascade Insights 

 

 

“Easier to build a startup period. It will take new founders longer until they need to hire, and AI can help fill in some of their early skill gaps as a founder can only have domain expertise in so many different areas.

“And it’s always hard to stand out, so that’s not changed.”

 

Luis Antonio Diaz, CEO of OfferioAI and Blü AI Technologies

 

 

“Both, and for the same reason. AI has collapsed the cost of building to almost nothing, which means the thing you built is no longer the thing that makes you different.

“I judge international AI hackathons, and I see dozens of teams every year ship in a weekend what would have taken a funded startup a year in 2019. Most of them are the same product with a different logo, because they’re all built on the same three models.

“What stands out now is what AI can’t generate for you: proprietary data, a regulated or hard-to-enter market, and a reason customers trust you with something that matters. We bet our company on building our own model for clients who can’t send their data to a public one. It was slower and more expensive. It’s also the only reason anyone remembers us.”

 

Naomi Bilder, Founder and Creative Director at Bilder Studio 

 

 

“Both, and for most founders the second matters more. AI has made starting cheap. I run an AI imagery studio in Manchester on my own, doing work that used to need a photographer, a studio and a retoucher’s week. But everyone has the same tools now, so the first version of anything looks like everyone else’s first version, and customers have learned to spot it. Standing out has moved from the making to the judgement: deciding what is worth making, and recognising when something that looks finished isn’t good enough yet.

“In my work that means binning most of what I generate and finishing the rest by hand. The founders who stand out will be the ones who spend the time AI saves thinking harder about what they make, rather than making more of it.”

 

Alex Brooks, Founder and Managing Director at Shift7

 

 

“When we started our business 12 months ago, AI made life a lot easier. We’ve used it for proofing content, market research and improving what we offer, including new services, but the biggest help was working out where to actually start.

“Starting a business is complex and daunting. AI helped us build checklists for setting up the company, ask silly questions about tax and payroll and get our heads round HMRC requirements. That saved us time and money, and most of all, cut the stress of not knowing what to do next and who we should ask or pay for help.

“When it comes to standing out from the competition, though, so many businesses now lean on AI for everything, from their websites and design to their content and what they sell, and it shows. Probably too many are doing this in my opinion. So, I don’t think AI has made it harder to stand out. If anything, it has opened a window of opportunity for start-ups. Being genuine and doing the work yourself counts for more.

“Yes, AI can help you get going and sharpen everything. However, your own judgement, ideas and effort are what give people a reason to pick you. Used well, it buys a new business some breathing space to build something worth choosing.”

 

Jurek Sikorski, Director of the Henley Enterprise Lab at Henley Business School

 

 

“Generally, AI makes it easier for aspiring/experienced entrepreneurs to start a business. AI lowers barriers by helping with market research, business planning, branding, content creation, customer service, and software development, often at a fraction of the cost it would normally be. Entrepreneurs can use AI tools to test ideas quickly, automate routine tasks, and reach customers more efficiently, allowing them to focus on strategy and growth.

“However, AI can and does create challenges because it reduces the cost of starting a business and therefore lowers the barriers to new competitors entering the market. AI makes it easier for others to copy ideas that lack a sustainable competitive advantage, such as strong intellectual property, superior processes like a sales and marketing process, and a viable economic model. As a result, entrepreneurs must learn how to use AI effectively to ensure that their products, services, and customer-facing relationships remain competitive.”

 

Matt Rouif, CEO and Co-Founder of Photoroom

 

 

“AI is making it much easier to start a business. More people can launch with less money and a smaller team, and that should be good for entrepreneurship. At Photoroom, which is trusted by over 1 million businesses, we surveyed nearly 1,400 of our sellers: 58% cut image production time from around 15 minutes to under five, and 36% used the time saved to list more products.

“The harder part is standing out, because everyone now has the same tools. A small brand can generate a thousand images, but so can its competitors. What sets you apart is judgement: knowing which output is accurate and on-brand. We tested 4,250 AI-generated product images and the strongest model passed a full product-fidelity check only 29% of the time. Choosing the right tools to close that gap is now how a startup stands out.”

 

Vassili Philippov, CEO and Co-Founder of Glite

 

 

“It is both easier to build a startup with AI and also harder to stand out. My first startup, SPB Software, was co-founded in 1999 and sold to Yandex in 2011. 12 years is a long time by any measure. My AI language learning app Glite, on the other hand, was incorporated in February 2024, had its first vocabulary test taken three weeks after that, and more than three million people have now taken a Glite English test. AI has compressed the distance between an idea and a working product from years to weeks.”

“Which is exactly why standing out is harder: everyone got the same compression. What AI will not hand you is proprietary evidence. In the case of Glite, that is millions of real answers showing which English meanings people actually know, priceless insight to an app that teaches language. In the AI era, engineering capacity has stopped being scarce, but data nobody else can generate, which is often where true business differentiation can be found, has not.”

 

Kenza Zayani, Investor at RTP Global

 

 

“AI has made it easier to launch a startup. A founder can reach a working product with a fraction of the engineering and capital it once took. What it hasn’t changed is how hard it is to build a company that lasts. Software that once took years to replicate can now be copied in weeks, which puts the weight back on distribution, brand, and building something customers genuinely rely on.

“That changes what founders should obsess over. Early growth tells you there’s demand and that people will pay for it. It doesn’t tell you whether the product has become essential. Whether customers stay, and spend more over time, does. The silver lining is that AI itself makes it easier to improve products over time. A product that learns from how its customers use it becomes steadily more useful to them, and harder to leave. That’s a real dividend for founders.”

 

Nic Conner, Partner, Parisi 

 

 

“AI makes it easier to build a startup without substantial overheads. We founded Parisi in 2024 after our previous agency unexpectedly and suddenly closed. Within a week, we had established the business and agreed work with nine clients.

“We embraced AI to handle routine tasks, freeing us to apply our decades of experience to clients’ challenges. In the same spirit, we set up the Parisi Collective, bringing in senior specialists when needed to deliver specific results while keeping client costs down.

“We developed proprietary AI software; Parisi:Blue, which uses AI agents to understand and analyse the content and context of global media coverage and parliamentary debate, helping clients identify emerging issues and prioritise action. Analysis that historically took four people a week now takes minutes.

“AI helps us compete with big agencies while staying nimble, freeing experienced professionals from time-consuming work so they can focus on the judgement and advice that deliver results for clients.”

 

Jamie Stewart, Founder and CEO at Binq 

 

 

“It’s never been easier to start a business. At Binq, I usually find the AI way to do a role before I’ve even thought about writing a job description. For an impatient entrepreneur, that’s perfect: the speed and scale you can build at now is incredible. Starting from scratch also means there’s no legacy, no ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ holding you back. We use AI everywhere, from lead scoring to matching SMEs with the right lenders and helping them improve their business credit. Does it make it harder to stand out? Only if AI is your story. Anyone can bolt on a chatbot. The winners will be those using it to deliver something customers actually feel: faster decisions and better outcomes.”