Everyone’s Using ChatGPT. But Only 1% Are Doing This.
Last week, an entrepreneur, Ishan Sharma, speaking in front of a packed room in Bangalore, asked a simple question:
“How many of you used ChatGPT in the past week?”
Nearly every hand shot up.
Then came the second question:
“How many of you have built your own AI agent?”
Three hands. Maybe four.
That’s it.
This moment captures one of the biggest opportunities of 2025. While half a billion people are using ChatGPT every week, almost none are building with it. And the few who are? They’re quietly automating businesses, creating new revenue streams, and building tools faster than most teams can draft a pitch deck.
The gap between AI users and AI builders is widening. And right now, that gap is your unfair advantage — if you know how to use it.
From Marketer to Maker
Take the speaker himself — a marketer, not a developer. He runs a small agency with his co-founder. No one on the team writes code full-time. In fact, they hadn’t touched code in months.
Yet in just a couple of hours, they built a working AI voice agent. One that calls potential clients before a scheduled meeting, checks if they’re ready, and updates their CRM automatically. No fancy dev team. No deep technical setup. Just a clear idea, a few smart tools, and a builder mindset.
They also built a lead gen workflow using Make.com. Drop in a pin code, and it automatically finds local businesses with bad copy on their websites — perfect prospects for their services.
These aren’t flashy case studies or unicorn headlines. These are real-world examples of what’s now possible when AI meets clarity and creativity.
Code Is Optional. Clarity Is Essential.
Six months earlier, in San Francisco, the same speaker met the team behind Notion — the productivity platform with cult-level design cred.
When he asked how they hire, their answer was blunt:
“We only hire builders.”
Designers who understand revenue. Developers who think in user flows. Marketers who speak product. The message? The walls between roles are crumbling.
He also met the founder of Replit — the platform that lets you build software by simply describing it. He asked Replit to build a project management tool that looked like Tinder. Ten minutes later, it was live. Fully functional.
Replit’s founder made headlines for tweeting, “People no longer need to learn to code.” Predictably, the internet dragged him. But his reply was a masterclass in first-principles thinking:
“The real skill is learning how to clearly communicate what you want.”
In other words, if you can describe a product in rich detail — what it does, how it feels, who it’s for — AI will build the rest.
That’s the new literacy of the AI era. Not code. Not design. Clarity.
Everyone’s a Builder Now
We’re entering the “vibe startup” era. A designer who can’t code. A marketer who can’t market. They still build — not by doing, but by directing AI.
It sounds ridiculous until you try it. And it works.
Let’s break down how you can do the same — with five tools that can automate nearly every major function of a modern business.
1. Research Anything with Manus
Remember the painful process of validating a new business idea?
You’d Google obsessively. Dig through PDFs. Copy-paste stats into Notion. Maybe throw together a slide deck. It would take hours. Sometimes days.
Manus, a general-purpose AI agent from China, ends all that. Give it your idea. It returns:
Market trends
Competitive analysis
Ideal customer profiles
Financial projections
In 10 minutes.
It’s like hiring a super-researcher who never sleeps. Manus doesn’t just save time — it removes friction. And friction is the #1 killer of new ideas.
2. Build Full Apps with Replit
Once you’ve validated the idea, Replit helps you build it.
Just describe what you want — “a Netflix-style learning platform for teenagers” — and Replit will:
Build the UI
Set up the database
Write the backend logic
Deploy the working app
This isn’t theoretical. A 50-year-old school principal used it to build MagicSchool, an app for teachers that now serves thousands of classrooms and is on track to become a unicorn.
Replit isn’t for building polished products at scale. But for early-stage founders? It’s your cheat code to test, iterate, and grow.
3. Find Leads with Apollo
Building is just one part. Selling is the real game.
Apollo makes prospecting dead simple. Plug in your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) — say, fintech startups in the U.S. with 10–50 employees — and it returns:
Verified contacts
Email addresses
Org charts
You can filter by funding, headcount, location, title, and more.
No scraping. No LinkedIn rabbit holes. Just focused, qualified leads in minutes.
4. Send Cold Emails at Scale with Instantly
Once you have your leads, you still need to reach them. That’s where Instantly comes in.
It connects with your Apollo list, personalizes your emails, manages delivery, and sequences follow-ups — all on autopilot.
The agency in Bangalore uses this combo (Apollo + Instantly) to close deals across the U.S. and U.K., entirely remotely. While their team sleeps, their pipeline fills.
5. Generate Video Content with HeyGen + ElevenLabs
Maybe your bottleneck isn’t sales — it’s content. You know you should be building a personal brand. Posting weekly. Recording videos. Showing up.
But you’re busy. Or camera-shy. Or both.
HeyGen lets you create an AI avatar that looks and moves like you. ElevenLabs clones your voice from just a few minutes of audio. Combine them, and you’ve got automated, high-quality video content — without ever hitting record.
Some creators are already using this stack to publish daily content at scale. One of them recently crossed 1 million Instagram followers — with videos entirely generated by AI.
This Isn’t a Trend. It’s a Transformation.
This isn’t just about tools. It’s about a mindset shift.
The most important skill of 2025 isn’t coding. It’s clarity — your ability to describe exactly what you want to build, who it’s for, and what it should do. AI can take it from there.
We’re moving into a world where everyone can be a builder. Designers. Marketers. Teachers. Founders. You.
All you need is a clear idea, the right workflow, and a little courage to hit "generate."
🧠 The Playbook (Recap):
Validate your idea with Manus
Prototype in Replit
Find leads with Apollo
Automate outreach via Instantly
Create content using HeyGen + ElevenLabs
You don’t need a degree. You don’t need a dev team.
You just need to start building.
Stay curious. Stay clear. Stay AI-Ready.
— Team AI-Ready