In this article, we’re going to be talking about Ai based passive income ideas and the ways to make money Using Ai tools. For each method, I’m going to be breaking down how hard it is to get started, how difficult it is to make your first $100 a month, and how much effort it takes to maintain once you’re actually running it to make it truly passive.
Now, for me personally, these five AI-related income streams have generated around $10,000 per week these days with varying degrees of passiveness. Obviously, this has taken me around 10 years to build up. So, don’t expect to hit these numbers when you first get started. But this is the article that I wish I had when I first discovered how AI could create incredible passive income opportunities.
Understanding “Passive” Income
Before we dive in, I do want to just say that to be clear when I talk about passive income ideas, I always use air quotes because there’s really no such thing as truly passive income. There’s no way to make money without doing anything at all. What I mean by passive income is money that’s not directly tied to our time.
So, let’s say you create an AI powered tool. You do the work once to build and launch that tool, but after that, people can use it and pay for it while you sleep. And that’s passive income. And that’s how I built my first businesses. You could literally be making money while you’re on vacation because you’ve created something that generates income without your active involvement. Meaning, you can spend time on the things that you enjoy.
The other thing with passive income is that it always takes time to get going. If you see any ads talking about how you can get rich quick with some AI scheme, or if you see people pretending to offer random get-rich-quick methods, then it’s likely all a scam. It’s just not going to work because there’s no way to get rich quick. It’s all about hard work built up over time.
The only real way to make money is to provide value. And the only way to make passive income is to provide value in a way that’s not directly tied to our time. With AI tools becoming more and more accessible, there are some incredible opportunities to create this kind of value really quickly.
1. AI Automation Services
If you’re not familiar with AI automation, this is where we set up systems that automatically solve problems for our clients using large language models like OpenAI’s models or Claude and no-code platforms like Voice Flow, Gum Loop or Cursor to build code and market for customers who are short on time.
Starting Difficulty: 2 out of 5 – It’s actually pretty easy to get started because you can leverage existing no-code AI platforms and APIs out there. You just need some technical knowledge to connect these services together and create workflows that help people. But you don’t need to be a machine learning engineer to do that.
Making Your First $100: If you’re charging $20 per month for access to your custom AI content generation tool, you’d need just five customers to reach that threshold. The challenge is really creating something valuable enough that people would pay for it rather than just using ChatGPT directly or a custom GPT that they can create.
If you then run this as an agency in a niche like voice agent customer service for medical practices using something like Voice Flow, you can easily command a monthly retainer for a few thousand bucks a month, too.
The Key to Success: The key here is in specialization and the niche. Instead of a general content creation tool, you might create an AI system that specifically generates real estate listings, product descriptions for e-commerce, or social media captions with built-in SEO optimization. By focusing down on a niche and adding your own templates, training, and customization, you can provide much more value than just generic tools offer.
Maintenance: 3 out of 5 – You’ll need to regularly update your prompts as AI models evolve, fix any bugs for customers, and ensure high-quality output. You’ll also need to manage customer service, and you’re going to be dealing with customers, which is going to take up time, whether that’s over emails or in-person meetings.
2. Creating and Selling AI Generated Digital Products
This includes things like ebooks, stock photos, music, design templates, and even code snippets, all created with the help of AI.
Starting Difficulty: 3 to 4 out of 5 – You need to become skilled at prompt engineering to get high-quality outputs from your AI tools, and you’ll still need to edit and refine what the AI produces. You also need to create a system for selling your products and marketing them.
Making Your First $100: To make $100 a month selling digital products, let’s say you create an AI generated cookbook that sells for $10. You’d need to sell 10 copies per month. And is that hard? Well, it depends really on your marketing skills and the quality of the product itself.
The beauty here is that AI lets you create products much faster than traditional methods. So, instead of spending months writing an ebook, you might spend weeks or even days. The AI handles the first draft and then you refine it. Tools like Midjourney and Leonardo are really your friends here. And you can always build something custom using a cursor too.
Maintenance: 2 out of 5 – Once you’ve created and listed your digital products, there’s minimal ongoing work unless you want to produce a new or updated version. You might need to update products occasionally or create new ones to maintain interest, but it’s relatively low maintenance.
The skill here really is in marketing. And this is why you can use tools like Gum Loop or other AI marketing tools to post things on social media, build up an audience through a newsletter, and then push out some of these digital products to solve problems for people passively.
3. Building AI Powered Software as a Service Tools
This is where you create applications that solve specific problems using artificial intelligence. And spoiler alert, it’s one of my favorites and where 90% of my revenue comes from.
Starting Difficulty: 5 out of 5 – You need substantial technical skills to build a SaaS product. Even with today’s AI tools helping with the coding, you’ll need to understand how to integrate AI models, build good user interfaces, handle payments, and manage hosting. That being said, it’s a lot easier to get started now than it used to be with tools out there like Lovable, Replit, and Cursor really there to help you along the way.
Making Your First $100: If you’re charging a $20 per month subscription for your tool, you just need five paying customers initially. But getting those five customers can be challenging. I’d rate this 4 out of 5 in difficulty.
The good news here is that once you’ve built a useful AI tool, it can provide immense value that people are willing to pay for passively. Think of tools that analyze data, automate tedious tasks, or provide specialist insights. For example, an AI that analyzes restaurant reviews and generates actionable reports for restaurant owners or a tool that automatically optimizes product listings for e-commerce managers.
Maintenance: 3 out of 5 – Software always requires regular updates, bug fixes, and customer support. And you’ll also want to be updating your product and expanding it. However, as you grow, you can always hire people to help manage these aspects and try to automate as much of this as possible.
From my personal experience, whether you’re bootstrapping a SaaS or going down the venture capital route, it’s a really great way to build generational wealth and completely change your life. And with AI coding tools and marketing tools now available to pretty much anyone, if you’ve got a great idea and have people who are willing to buy your solution to solve a problem, then you’re going to get ahead of 99% of other people.
4. Creating Educational Content Using AI
This includes YouTube channels, online courses, ebooks, or membership sites that can focus on teaching things like AI itself or pretty much anything else.
Starting Difficulty: 2 out of 5 – If you have knowledge about AI or any specific expertise, you can begin creating content with minimal equipment. A smartphone camera and basic editing software is all you really need. You can even use 11 Labs and other tools to build a digital avatar to run a faceless YouTube or Instagram channel for you.
Making Your First $100: If you create a $50 mini course on prompt engineering, for example, you need to sell just two products per month. And that’s pretty achievable, especially as demand for things like AI skills continues to explode. I’d rate this a 2 out of 5 difficulty in general.
Finding Your Niche: The key is finding your unique angle. Instead of general intro to AI content, you might focus on AI for real estate or AI for cooking or prompt engineering for graphic designers. Niche-down content attracts more dedicated audiences willing to pay for specialist knowledge.
Maintenance: 3 out of 5 – You’ll need to keep your content updated as AI evolves rapidly, and what was cutting edge 6 months ago might be outdated tomorrow. So, you really need to keep putting out the content and making sure you’ve got time to do that and have a really good flow and method for sitting down in front of a camera, talking conversationally, and then editing that and then selling it to people who want it.
5. AI Podcasting Services
Podcasts are still popping up everywhere, and lots of businesses and entrepreneurs want to use them for marketing. The services we provide will include audio and video editing and spinning out clips and show notes for podcasters who just want to host and have minimal admin time.
Starting Difficulty: 2 or 3 out of 5 – The real difficulty is that you need to have a good understanding about podcasting and how to structure a winning show. But from there, it’s actually really easy with tools like Riverside able to capture high-quality content and then automatically edit clips and even fix audio for you.
If you want the audio and visuals to really pop and stand out, you can also use CapCut to generate your clips and Premiere Pro to really optimize that audio.
Making Your First $100: You could get started by listing your services on Fiverr and charging $40 to $100 for 30 minutes of unedited footage. This has a difficulty level of 3 out of 5 overall, mainly because you need to build visibility and create truly unique and valuable content.
Maintenance: 3 out of 5 – The maintenance is pretty low here. If you can pick up a bunch of business clients, you can easily bring these on for a retainer and then outsource the AI editing itself.
Getting Started: Your Action Plan
There you have it. Five different ways that you can build passive income streams using AI right now. Remember, all of these methods require some upfront work and expertise. And nothing is truly passive, but the payoff comes later. As you build these systems that can generate income without your direct time involvement in the next 6 to 12 months, start with just one method that aligns with your skills and interests. Perfect it and then consider adding additional streams.
I’d also recommend sharing your journey. If you’re reading this article just starting off, why not post about your progress on a platform like YouTube or any other social media network and grow that audience as you learn and you develop yourself? There’ll be people who will just be a few steps behind you who really want to understand some of your unique insights on the bleeding edge of AI development.
Key Takeaways for Success:
- Start with one method that matches your current skills and interests
- Focus on providing real value rather than chasing quick money
- Choose a specific niche rather than trying to serve everyone
- Be prepared for upfront work before seeing passive income
- Document and share your journey to build an audience
- Expect 6-12 months before seeing significant passive income
The AI revolution is creating unprecedented opportunities for those willing to learn and adapt. While these income streams require initial effort and aren’t truly passive, they can eventually generate significant revenue with minimal ongoing time investment. The key is starting now, while the opportunities are still abundant and the competition is relatively low.
Remember, the people making serious money with AI aren’t necessarily the most technical – they’re the ones who understand how to solve real problems for real people using these powerful tools. Pick one method, from above passive income ideas and commit to it, and start building your AI-powered passive income stream today.