If you’re researching how to make money with AI, you’ve probably seen a lot of hype. YouTube thumbnails promising “$10,000/month with ChatGPT,” courses selling “AI automation empires,” and endless claims about passive income flowing in while AI does all the work.
Here’s the reality: AI is an incredibly powerful tool that can absolutely help you make money. But it’s not a magic button that prints cash. The people actually making real income with AI aren’t using it to replace hard work—they’re using it to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.
After spending the last year testing different AI money-making methods and talking to people who are genuinely earning with these tools, I’ve learned something important: the best way to make money with AI isn’t by building complex AI agents or becoming a prompt engineer. It’s by using AI to enhance proven business models that already work.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the most realistic ways to make money with AI in 2026, from content creation to freelancing to complete business models. I’ll tell you what actually works, what’s overhyped, and most importantly—which approach offers the best combination of profitability, scalability, and long-term sustainability.
My #1 Recommendation for Making Money With AI
Before we dive into all the different methods, let me cut straight to what I’ve found works best.
Hey, Mark here…
After testing everything from AI-generated art to chatbot building to AI-enhanced freelancing, the most reliable way I’ve found to make money with AI is this: using AI tools to build and scale a local lead generation business.
This is what I do, I build simple 2 page sites that show up on Google and generate leads for local businesses. Each site I build (or AI builds) makes me $500 to $2000 a month like clockwork.
Go here to see the exact system I use to do this!
I’ve used this to make as much as $46k in a single month.
Here’s why this beats every other AI money-making method I’ve tested:
You’re building a real business with predictable, recurring income—not chasing one-off gigs or hoping your content goes viral. You use AI to handle the tedious parts (content creation, research, optimization) while you focus on the high-value work that actually makes money. The business model is proven to work without AI—you’re just using AI to make it 10x more efficient.
You own digital assets that generate passive income month after month, not just trade time for money.
The concept is simple: You build websites targeting local service businesses (plumbers, roofers, electricians, HVAC companies, etc.), rank them on Google for high-intent searches like “emergency plumber in [city],” and rent the leads to local businesses for $500-$2,000 per month.
Where does AI come in? It handles about 70% of the work:
- ChatGPT or Claude writes your website content in minutes instead of hours
- AI tools research keywords and find low-competition opportunities
- AI generates meta descriptions, title tags, and schema markup for better SEO
- AI creates content for Google Business Profiles to improve local rankings
- AI drafts outreach emails to contact local business owners
- AI helps optimize existing sites based on performance data
This isn’t some theoretical idea. I’ve personally used this approach to build multiple sites that generate consistent monthly income. And the best part? It’s infinitely scalable. Once you’ve done it in one city, you replicate the process in another city, another niche, rinse and repeat.
If you’re serious about building real, sustainable income with AI—not just experimenting with side hustles—this is the path I recommend.
👉 Click here to see exactly how I build local lead generation sites with AI
Now, let’s break down all the other ways you can make money with AI, so you can see how they compare.
Understanding How To Actually Make Money With AI (Not the Hype)
Before we get into specific methods, we need to address the elephant in the room: AI will not make you money by itself.
I know that’s not what the YouTube ads promised. But it’s the truth.
AI is a tool—an incredibly powerful tool—but it’s still just a tool. Think of it like a power drill. A power drill makes building things faster and easier, but it doesn’t build the house for you. You still need to know what you’re building, have a plan, and do the actual work.
The same goes for AI. It can:
- Speed up content creation by 10x
- Automate repetitive tasks
- Help you research and analyze data faster
- Generate ideas and first drafts
- Optimize processes and find patterns
But it can’t:
- Replace your judgment and decision-making
- Build relationships with clients for you
- Guarantee that your business idea will work
- Make money appear in your bank account without effort
The people making real money with AI understand this distinction. They’re not looking for AI to do everything. They’re strategically using AI to eliminate bottlenecks and scale what already works.
With that foundation established, let’s look at the real ways to make money with AI in 2026.
15 Legitimate Ways To Make Money With AI
1. AI-Enhanced Content Creation and Copywriting
What it is: Using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Jasper to help create blog posts, articles, social media content, ad copy, and marketing materials for clients or your own websites.
How AI helps: Instead of spending 4 hours writing a 2,000-word article, AI can generate a first draft in 10 minutes. You then edit, refine, and add your expertise to make it genuinely valuable.
Income potential: $500-$5,000+/month depending on client volume and rates
Reality check: AI-generated content is flooding the internet, which means quality matters more than ever. The writers making money aren’t just copy-pasting AI output—they’re using AI to speed up research and drafting, then adding human insight, fact-checking, and optimization.
Best for: People with writing skills who want to scale their output without burning out
2. AI-Powered Freelance Services
What it is: Offering traditional freelance services (graphic design, video editing, social media management, web development) but using AI tools to deliver faster and at higher quality.
How AI helps:
- Designers use Midjourney or DALL-E to generate design concepts in seconds
- Video editors use tools like Runway or Descript to automate editing tasks
- Social media managers use AI to generate content calendars and post ideas
- Web developers use AI coding assistants to write code faster
Income potential: $2,000-$10,000+/month with established client base
Reality check: You still need the underlying skill. AI makes good designers faster; it doesn’t make non-designers into designers. But if you have the foundation, AI can help you take on more clients and deliver better work.
Best for: Established freelancers looking to increase capacity and profits
3. Creating and Selling AI-Generated Art and Designs
What it is: Using AI image generators like Midjourney, DALL-E, or Stable Diffusion to create art, prints, digital downloads, or designs that you sell on platforms like Etsy, Redbubble, or your own website.
How AI helps: Generate unique artwork in seconds that would take hours or days to create manually. You can produce hundreds of designs quickly to test what sells.
Income potential: $100-$3,000+/month for successful stores
Reality check: The market is getting saturated fast. The people making money aren’t just uploading raw AI outputs—they’re curating, editing, understanding what their audience wants, and building brands around specific niches.
Best for: Creative people with an eye for design and a willingness to learn marketplace dynamics
4. Building Custom ChatGPT Assistants (GPTs)
What it is: Creating specialized AI chatbots using OpenAI’s GPT builder that solve specific problems for businesses or consumers, then monetizing them through subscriptions or one-time sales.
How AI helps: The GPT platform makes it relatively easy to build custom AI assistants without coding. You can create tools for customer service, content creation, education, productivity, and more.
Income potential: $100-$2,000+/month per successful GPT
Reality check: Competition is fierce, and most GPTs don’t get traction. The ones that succeed solve very specific problems for defined audiences and are marketed effectively.
Best for: People who understand a specific niche deeply and can identify pain points that AI can solve
5. AI-Assisted Affiliate Marketing
What it is: Promoting products or services through affiliate links, but using AI to create content, research products, write reviews, and optimize campaigns faster than traditional methods.
How AI helps:
- Generate product review articles quickly
- Research trending products and niches
- Create comparison content
- Write email sequences for affiliate promotions
- Optimize existing content for better conversions
Income potential: $500-$10,000+/month once established
Reality check: Affiliate marketing still requires traffic. AI can help you create content faster, but you still need to drive visitors to that content through SEO, paid ads, or social media. And Google is getting better at detecting thin AI content, so quality still matters.
Best for: People with marketing skills and patience to build traffic over time
6. AI-Enhanced Social Media Management
What it is: Managing social media accounts for businesses, using AI to generate content ideas, create posts, schedule content, analyze performance, and even create graphics or videos.
How AI helps:
- Generate content calendars in minutes
- Create platform-specific post variations
- Design graphics using AI image tools
- Analyze engagement data and suggest optimizations
- Write compelling captions and hooks
Income potential: $1,000-$5,000+/month with 5-10 clients
Reality check: Businesses still want authentic, engaging content that resonates with their audience. AI can speed up the process, but you need to understand social media strategy, brand voice, and audience psychology.
Best for: Social media savvy individuals who understand different platforms and content strategies
7. Creating and Selling AI-Powered Online Courses
What it is: Using AI to help create course content, quizzes, lesson plans, and supplementary materials that you sell on platforms like Teachable, Udemy, or your own website.
How AI helps:
- Outline comprehensive curricula quickly
- Generate quiz questions and assignments
- Create supplementary reading materials
- Develop personalized learning paths
- Write engaging lesson scripts
Income potential: $500-$5,000+/month for successful courses
Reality check: The course market is oversaturated. What sells isn’t just information (which AI can generate easily)—it’s transformation, community, accountability, and your unique expertise. AI can speed up course creation, but it can’t replace your knowledge and teaching ability.
Best for: Subject matter experts who want to package their knowledge into scalable products
8. AI-Assisted E-Commerce and Dropshipping
What it is: Running an e-commerce or dropshipping business, but using AI to automate product research, write descriptions, create marketing materials, and optimize operations.
How AI helps:
- Research trending products and analyze competition
- Write product descriptions at scale
- Generate ad copy and marketing materials
- Create product images and lifestyle photos
- Analyze customer data to optimize offerings
Income potential: $1,000-$10,000+/month depending on scale
Reality check: E-commerce and dropshipping are highly competitive. AI can help with operations, but you still need good product selection, reliable suppliers, effective marketing, and customer service. The margins can be thin, and success requires real business acumen.
Best for: Entrepreneurial people with marketing skills and startup capital
9. Offering AI Consulting and Implementation Services
What it is: Helping businesses understand and implement AI tools into their workflows, processes, and operations.
How AI helps: You position yourself as an expert who can identify where AI can save businesses time and money, then implement those solutions for them.
Income potential: $3,000-$15,000+/month with 5-10 clients
Reality check: This requires genuine expertise. You need to deeply understand both AI tools and business operations. But the demand is real—most businesses know they “should” be using AI but don’t know where to start.
Best for: Tech-savvy individuals with business consulting or operations experience
10. AI-Generated Video Content Creation
What it is: Creating video content for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or client projects using AI tools for scripting, voiceovers, editing, and even generating entire videos.
How AI helps:
- Generate video scripts quickly
- Create AI voiceovers that sound natural
- Automate editing with tools like Runway or Descript
- Generate B-roll footage or animations
- Optimize titles and descriptions for SEO
Income potential: $500-$5,000+/month through ad revenue, sponsorships, or client work
Reality check: AI can speed up video production significantly, but engaging video content still requires good storytelling, understanding your audience, and consistency. The algorithm doesn’t care if AI helped you—viewers still need to want to watch.
Best for: Creative people comfortable with video and willing to show up consistently
11. Automated Podcast Production
What it is: Creating podcast content with AI assistance, from script generation to editing to show notes and promotion.
How AI helps:
- Generate episode topics and outlines
- Create show notes and transcripts automatically
- Edit out filler words and silence
- Generate promotional social media content
- Optimize titles and descriptions
Income potential: $500-$3,000+/month through sponsorships and affiliate deals
Reality check: Podcasting is a long game. AI can help with production, but you still need an interesting angle, compelling content, and the patience to build an audience. Most podcasts fail because people quit too early, not because they lack AI tools.
Best for: People with subject matter expertise and good speaking skills
12. AI-Enhanced Email Marketing Services
What it is: Managing email marketing campaigns for businesses, using AI to write emails, segment audiences, personalize content, and optimize send times.
How AI helps:
- Write email sequences quickly
- Generate subject lines and preview text
- Personalize content at scale
- Analyze open rates and optimize campaigns
- Create A/B testing variations
Income potential: $1,500-$6,000+/month with several clients
Reality check: Email marketing still works, but only when it’s done well. AI can help with the writing and optimization, but you need to understand email marketing strategy, deliverability, and conversion psychology.
Best for: Marketers who understand customer journeys and sales funnels
13. Creating AI-Powered Digital Products
What it is: Building and selling digital products like templates, prompts, worksheets, planners, or tools that are created or enhanced with AI.
How AI helps:
- Generate content for digital planners or workbooks
- Create customizable templates quickly
- Build curated prompt libraries
- Design digital downloads and graphics
Income potential: $200-$2,000+/month for successful products
Reality check: Digital product marketplaces are crowded. Success requires understanding what your target audience actually needs, creating products that solve specific problems, and marketing effectively.
Best for: Organized people who can identify gaps in the market and create genuinely useful resources
14. AI-Assisted Translation and Localization Services
What it is: Offering translation and localization services for businesses expanding internationally, using AI to speed up the process while maintaining quality.
How AI helps:
- Generate initial translations quickly
- Identify cultural nuances and suggest localized alternatives
- Maintain consistency across large translation projects
- Speed up the review and editing process
Income potential: $2,000-$8,000+/month for proficient translators
Reality check: You need to actually know the languages. AI translations are getting better, but they still make mistakes, especially with nuance, idioms, and cultural context. This works best for bilingual people using AI to increase their capacity.
Best for: Bilingual individuals with strong writing skills in multiple languages
15. Building AI-Enhanced Local Lead Generation Sites (My #1 Pick)
What it is: Creating websites that rank on Google for local service searches, generate leads for local businesses, and renting those leads for monthly recurring revenue—all accelerated with AI.
How AI helps:
- Generate website content in minutes instead of hours
- Research profitable niches and low-competition keywords
- Create meta descriptions, title tags, and schema markup
- Write Google Business Profile content and posts
- Draft outreach emails to local business owners
- Optimize existing sites based on performance analytics
Income potential: $500-$2,000 per site per month, with potential to build 10, 20, or 50+ sites
Reality check: This isn’t passive income from day one—you need to learn basic SEO, build sites, and secure clients. But once a site ranks, it can generate income for years with minimal maintenance. AI dramatically reduces the time investment for each new site.
Best for: People willing to learn SEO basics and treat this like a real business, not a get-rich-quick scheme
Why Local Lead Generation With AI Is My Top Recommendation
After testing all of these methods, here’s why AI-enhanced local lead generation consistently comes out on top:
1. Real, Recurring Revenue
Most AI money-making methods require constant hustle. You’re trading time for money, whether it’s creating content, delivering client work, or managing social media accounts.
With local lead generation, you build assets that generate income month after month. Once a site ranks and you have a client paying for leads, that’s recurring revenue that doesn’t require daily effort.
I have sites I built two years ago that still bring in $1,000-$2,000 monthly with maybe an hour of maintenance every few months. That’s the power of building assets instead of trading time.
2. AI Provides Massive Leverage
The traditional bottleneck in building lead gen sites is content creation. Writing website content, service pages, blog posts, and location pages used to take days per site.
Now? I can use Claude or ChatGPT to generate all the content for a new site in under two hours. I review it, add local details, optimize it, and publish. What used to take a week now takes an afternoon.
That means I can build sites 10x faster than before, which means I can scale 10x faster.
3. Low Competition Compared to Content Creation
Everyone and their cousin is trying to make money with AI content creation. The market is flooded with AI writers, AI artists, AI social media managers.
But local lead generation? Still a relatively blue ocean. Most local businesses don’t know how to rank on Google. Most people trying to make money online aren’t thinking about targeting “plumber in Boise” or “HVAC repair in Tampa.”
Less competition means easier rankings, which means faster results.
4. You Own the Asset
With freelancing or content creation, you’re constantly looking for the next client or the next view. Stop working, and the income stops.
With lead gen sites, you own digital assets. They’re like rental properties that generate monthly income. You can sell them if you want to cash out, or hold them for passive income.
And unlike actual real estate, there’s no property tax, no maintenance calls at 2 AM, and no tenants destroying your investment.
5. Predictable, Scalable System
Once you’ve successfully ranked one site and secured one client, you have a repeatable system. You know exactly what works. Now it’s just about replicating that process in new cities and niches.
Want to make $5,000/month? Build and rent 5 sites at $1,000 each. Want to make $10,000/month? Build 10 sites. Want to make $20,000/month? Build 20 sites.
The path is clear. AI just makes it faster to execute.
👉 Click here to learn exactly how I build local lead generation sites with AI
How To Actually Get Started Making Money With AI (Step-by-Step)
If you’re ready to start making money with AI, here’s my recommended approach:
Step 1: Choose Your Path
Don’t try to do everything. Pick ONE method from this guide that aligns with:
- Your existing skills and interests
- The amount of time you can commit
- Your tolerance for risk and uncertainty
If you want the highest potential for sustainable income with the least competition, start with AI-enhanced local lead generation. If you’re more interested in creative work, maybe AI-assisted content creation or design makes more sense.
The key is to pick one thing and commit to it for at least 3-6 months before jumping to something else.
Step 2: Learn the Fundamentals (Without AI First)
This might sound counterintuitive in an article about making money with AI, but hear me out: you need to understand the underlying skill before AI can really help you.
If you want to make money with AI content creation, learn how to write good content first. If you want to use AI for design, learn design fundamentals. If you want to build lead gen sites, learn basic SEO.
AI makes experts faster. It doesn’t make beginners into experts. Spend a few weeks learning the fundamentals of whatever method you choose.
Step 3: Get the Right AI Tools
Once you understand the fundamentals, get the tools you need:
For content and copywriting:
- ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro ($20/month)
- Grammarly or similar editing tool
- Jasper or Copy.ai for specialized copywriting (optional)
For design and visuals:
- Midjourney ($10-$60/month depending on plan)
- Canva Pro with AI features ($13/month)
- DALL-E credits
For local lead generation (my recommendation):
- ChatGPT or Claude for content ($20/month)
- Ahrefs or SEMrush for keyword research ($99-$199/month, optional to start)
- Hosting for websites ($5-$10/month per site)
Don’t go overboard buying every AI tool that exists. Start with the essentials and add more as you need them.
Step 4: Start Small and Test
Don’t quit your job and dive in headfirst. Start with one small project:
- One lead gen site in one city
- One freelance client using AI to deliver faster
- One niche for AI-generated designs
Test the process. Learn what works. Make mistakes on a small scale where they don’t matter.
Step 5: Optimize and Scale What Works
Once you’ve successfully completed one project—ranked one site, delivered great work to one client, sold your first designs—analyze what worked.
Then do it again. And again. And again.
This is where AI really shines. Once you know the system that works, AI helps you replicate it 10x faster than you could manually.
Common Mistakes People Make Trying To Make Money With AI
After watching hundreds of people try to make money with AI, here are the biggest mistakes I see:
Mistake #1: Expecting AI To Do Everything
AI is a tool, not a business model. People who try to make money by “just letting AI do everything” inevitably fail because AI output without human judgment, editing, and strategy is mediocre at best.
Solution: Use AI to speed up and enhance your work, not replace your thinking.
Mistake #2: Jumping From Method to Method
Someone tries AI content writing for two weeks, doesn’t see immediate results, switches to AI art. Two weeks later, they’re trying to build GPTs. Two weeks after that, they’ve moved on to something else.
Solution: Pick one method and commit for at least 3-6 months. Success takes time.
Mistake #3: Ignoring Quality for Speed
Yes, AI can generate content in seconds. But that doesn’t mean you should publish everything it creates without review.
Solution: Use AI to create first drafts and speed up research, then add human expertise, fact-checking, and optimization.
Mistake #4: Not Learning the Underlying Skill
People think they can make money with AI design without learning design, or AI writing without learning to write. It doesn’t work that way.
Solution: Learn the fundamentals first, then use AI to amplify your abilities.
Mistake #5: Following Hype Instead of Demand
Just because everyone on Twitter is talking about a new AI money-making method doesn’t mean there’s actual market demand for it.
Solution: Find proven business models (like lead generation, freelancing, or e-commerce) and use AI to make them more efficient.
The Future of Making Money With AI
Here’s what I believe about the future of making money with AI:
AI will become table stakes, not a competitive advantage. Right now, using AI effectively gives you an edge. In two years, everyone will be using AI. The winners won’t be the people with the best AI tools—they’ll be the people with the best business fundamentals, strongest relationships, and deepest expertise.
Automation will increase, but human judgment will become more valuable. As AI handles more tasks, the ability to ask the right questions, spot opportunities, and make strategic decisions will become even more important.
The people making real money won’t be AI experts—they’ll be business builders who use AI as a tool. You don’t need to understand how the algorithms work. You just need to understand how to use the tools to build something valuable.
This is why I focus on AI-enhanced local lead generation. The business model works with or without AI. AI just makes it faster, more scalable, and more profitable. When AI tools improve, my business gets better. I’m not dependent on any one AI platform or capability.
Final Thoughts: Pick the Path That Works for You
There are genuinely dozens of ways to make money with AI in 2026. Some require technical skills. Some require creativity. Some require sales abilities. Some require patience and consistency.
The best method for you depends on:
- What you’re naturally good at
- How much time you can commit
- Your tolerance for risk and uncertainty
- Whether you want to build assets or trade time for money
For me, after testing everything in this guide, AI-enhanced local lead generation consistently wins because:
- It generates real recurring revenue
- It builds assets I own
- It’s scalable with a clear path to growth
- The competition is relatively low
- AI makes the entire process 10x more efficient
If that resonates with you and you’re ready to build a real business (not just experiment with AI), I’d encourage you to check out how I’m using AI to build and scale lead generation sites.
👉 Click here to learn my exact process for building local lead generation sites with AI
But whatever path you choose, remember this: AI is a powerful tool, but it’s still just a tool. The money comes from providing value, solving problems, and building systems—with AI helping you do it faster and better.
Pick your path. Learn the fundamentals. Use AI strategically. Stay consistent. And focus on building something real.
That’s how you actually make money with AI in 2026.
Mark is the founder of MarksInsights and has spent 15+ years testing online business programs and tools. He focuses on honest, experience-based reviews that help people avoid scams and find real, sustainable ways to make money online.