How I’m Using AI to Build a Million-Dollar Business (And How You Can Too in 2026)

In 2025, I’m on track to generate just under $10 million USD online. My actual take-home profit from that is well over $1 million USD.

I’ve done this as a 25-year-old with no degree, no rich dad, and no corporate background—and I’ve done it by leaning heavily on AI tools. So much so that OpenAI literally sent my company an award to thank us for how we use their tools.

With 2026 right around the corner, I wanted to put together a clear blueprint of:

• The business model I recommend if you want to make serious money with AI
• The 10 AI tools I’d use if I were starting from scratch
• How to realistically go from beginner → $10k–$20k/month → $1M/year

I won’t sugarcoat this:
Making $1,000,000 in a year is extremely hard. Realistically, 99.9% of people reading this won’t hit that in 12 months.

But here’s the thing:
If this blueprint helps you reach $10k–$20k/month, that’s still life-changing.
You can:

• Quit your job
• Buy that car you’ve been thinking about
• Take your dream vacation
• Get those Taylor Swift tickets you’ve been stalking

More importantly, it gives you the foundation to go for a million-dollar year in 2027.

So you either hit your big goal or land on a very good “backup” outcome.
Either way, you win.

---

Why You Should Listen to Me (Even If You’re Skeptical)

If you’re new to my content, you might be thinking:

“Who’s this Gen Z kid with broccoli hair telling me I can make a million dollars?”

Good. You should be skeptical of big claims online.

One of my favourite quotes right now is:

“Skeptics sound smart. Optimists make money.”

So let’s make a deal.

If this article gave you even a 30% chance of making a million dollars in the next few years…
Would it still be worth your time to read it?

I know what my answer would be.

If you’re on the fence, you can:

• Check my YouTube channel – 3+ years of videos showing my journey from AI beginner to multi-million-dollar entrepreneur.
• See how I built my agency Morningside AI from my spare bedroom to working with:
• NBA teams
• NRL teams
• Publicly traded companies
• Join my 260,000+ person community around this method.
• Watch the podcasts where I interview people who used this same method and are now top voices in AI.
• Watch my vlog channel where I literally show my day-to-day running these businesses.

I’m not here to sell you “motivation”.
I’m here to give you a clear, practical path.

---

The First Truth: You Need a Business

If you want to make $1M in a year, you’re not going to do it by:

• Randomly using AI tools
• Playing with chatbots
• Doing surveys or low-ticket gigs

You need a business.

And that business needs to:

1. Be beginner-friendly
• You shouldn’t need $100k in capital or a CS degree.
2. Have a low barrier to entry
• Minimal starting costs, simple tools, and no complex infrastructure.
3. Be in a growing industry
• You want to ride a wave of growth, not fight against decline.
  (Don’t start a newspaper business right now.)
4. Follow a proven model
• You are not a guinea pig.
• You want something that’s already working for beginners like you.

The model that ticks all these boxes right now is:

💼 An AI Service Business that sells:
– AI Education
– AI Consulting
– AI (no-code/low-code) Development
🧑‍💼 To small and mid-sized businesses

You will be selling AI solutions to businesses.

Before you freak out and think:

“That sounds way too advanced for me…”

Relax.

If you have:

• A working brain
• A willingness to learn
• And ideally 10 fingers (but you could probably do it with 6 😅)

…you can do this.

---

How I Started (From Zero AI Experience)

At the start of 2023, I had:

• No AI experience
• No technical background in AI

I started Morningside AI, my agency, from scratch.
Since then, I’ve:

• Grown it to multi-six and seven-figure deals
• Started additional AI businesses
• Helped thousands of people use this same model

I recommend this AI service model because:

• It has worked for me
• It has worked for my friends
• It has worked for thousands of people consuming my content or joining my communities

This is not theory. It’s battle-tested.

---

The 3 Types of AI Services You Can Sell

You don’t need to sell all three.
But all roads to $1M/year in this model pass through some form of:

1. 🧠 AI Education
• Teaching teams how to use tools like ChatGPT and Claude properly
• Running workshops or creating training programs
2. 🧭 AI Consulting
• Running AI audits
• Finding use cases
• Recommending workflows and tools
3. ⚙️ AI Development (No-Code / Low-Code)
• Building automations and internal tools
• Using tools like Make.com, Lovable, Retell, etc.

Yes, it sounds scary at first.

But this is entrepreneurship.
You jump in, then learn to swim.

---

The Million-Dollar Pattern: Learn → Do → Teach

This is the most proven model I know for scaling to seven figures:

1. Learn the Thing
2. Do the Thing (for clients)
3. Teach the Thing (in scalable products)

Here’s how it looks in real life:

Example 1: AI Consulting → Course

• You start by doing AI tools audits for companies.
• After 20–30 audits, you realize:
• You see the same patterns
• You know which tools work best
• You have a repeatable process

So now you can:

• Keep doing high-ticket audits (e.g., $2,000–$10,000 each)
• And create a DIY course or playbook for companies that:
• Can’t afford your full service, or
• Want to train their teams internally

You’ve just made your knowledge scalable.

Example 2: AI Automation for Roofers → Program

• You build AI automations for roofing companies
• You see exactly which workflows give them the best ROI
• After 20 projects, you create:
• A program teaching roofers:
• The best AI use cases
• Templates
• How to hire builders
• How to implement it themselves

Now you have:

• A high-ticket agency offer
• And a scalable education offer

These feed each other:

• Client work → new insights → better course
• Course & community → new clients → more testimonials

This loop is how you get from:

🟢 $10–20k/month → 🟣 $50–100k/month → 🟡 $1M/year

---

Why You Must Keep “Doing the Thing”

This is where people go wrong and become fake gurus.

They:

• Do something once
• Get lucky
• Then stop doing the real work
• And only sell courses about it for years

Result:

• Their methods get outdated
• Students don’t get results
• Their reputation dies

You have to keep running your agency/services:

• That’s where you learn
• That’s how you stay sharp
• That’s how your teaching stays relevant

I still run Morningside AI, and it’s bigger than ever:

• We’re working with publicly traded companies
• We’ve done multi six-figure AI deals
• We’re working with an NBA team
• We’re working with a major rugby league team in Australia

I practice what I preach.

---

The 3 Phases and 10 AI Tools

Everything I’ve just explained runs on a simple structure:

Phase 1 – Learn the Thing (5 AI tools)
Phase 2 – Sell the Thing (3 AI tools)
Phase 3 – Teach the Thing (2 AI tools)

You only need to pick one path in Phase 1 to start.
I’ll just outline the logic here (since you said “use my content”, I’ll keep it aligned with your wording):

Phase 1: Learn the Thing (Knowledge)

Goal:
Get just far enough ahead of your clients to be valuable.

The Tools:

1. ChatGPT – Deep mastery of prompts, workflows, and business use cases
2. Claude – For projects, web search, Claude Skills, and more complex workflows
3. Lovable (or similar app builder) – To build simple tools, sites, and apps
4. Retell / Vapi – To build AI voice agents (receptionists, follow-up callers, etc.)
5. Make.com – To learn AI automation and build business workflows

You don’t need all five.
Pick one lane and get dangerous in it.

---

Phase 2: Sell the Thing (Clients & Revenue)

Goal:
Get as many people as possible to know:

• Who you are
• What you do
• How you can help them

With as little effort as possible.

The Tools:

6. Blot AI (or Poppy AI if you can afford it)
• Your content engine for:
• Turning research & examples into posts, scripts, and emails
• Creating content faster to attract clients
7. Instantly AI
• For cold email outreach
• AI agents that:
• Reply to leads
• Go back and forth with them
• Book meetings into your calendar
8. Gamma
• For AI-powered presentations & proposals
• Turn call transcripts into client-ready decks quickly
• More proposals = more clients

---

Phase 3: Teach the Thing (Scale)

Goal:
Turn your real-world experience into something scalable:

• Courses
• Programs
• Mentorship
• Community

The Tools:

9. Skool + Fiducia
• A community platform + AI layer for:
• Moderation
• Inbox management
• Upselling programs and services
• Great for:
• Free community → paid offers
• Organizing your audience and value
10. HeyGen

• For AI avatar course creation
• Helps you:
• Keep your content looking consistent
• Update lessons quickly
• Scale content without always recording fresh video

---

The Hard Truth (And the Good News)

You will have to:

• Learn new things
• Be uncomfortable
• Get rejected
• Take risks
• Be patient

That’s the cost of entry to entrepreneurship.

But:

• You’re not early anymore—but you’re definitely not late
• There has never been this much opportunity
• You can literally use AI to:
• Learn faster
• Build faster
• Sell faster
• Teach faster

You’re reading this because some part of you is asking:

“How can I make $1 million with AI?”

That’s the right question.

This article is one honest, experience-based answer.