The AI tool discovery problem

3•meenabhagvat•1h ago

I've spent the last few months researching and categorizing hundreds of AI tools.

One thing that surprised me is that building AI products seems to be getting easier, while getting discovered is getting harder.

Every week, new tools launch for writing, coding, design, research, video, and automation. Yet most users end up using the same handful of products because discovering alternatives is difficult.

I've noticed that users often search for solutions to problems rather than specific products. They want to "transcribe meetings" or "generate presentations" rather than find a particular tool.

For founders building AI products:

How are you solving the discovery problem?

What's driving the most meaningful users for you today—SEO, communities, social media, partnerships, directories, or something else?

Comments

mazinz•1h ago

Yea is getting harder. I guess that’s why a lot of people here and places like product hunt, organic traffic is the only way it scales.

But also way too much AI slop out there. Can still early users in person.

hholen•1h ago

I'm curious what you mean by "AI product"? Do you mean a product that using AI, or a product used by AI? For the former, it's the same problem as it's been forever: distribution. That can be through SEO, AEO, outbound sales, advertising, etc, etc. I do think that AEO is something you should be optimising for. At the company I work for, we've seen inbound go from virtually nothing to top three in the last 6 months.

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