The Skills School · New course in development

Building a Business
in the AI Age

When AI makes production easier, what will people still choose you for? Learn to turn that question into a business you can test.

Build around a customer.
Use AI to deliver.

AI can accelerate coding, research, design and operations. It does not by itself establish demand, earn trust or take responsibility for a customer’s result.

This applied course helps founders and professionals decide what to build, who it serves and how to deliver it reliably. Participants develop a real business thesis and test it through customer evidence and a focused prototype.

For: aspiring founders, independent professionals, software and service-business owners, and innovation teams.

The proposed curriculum

From possibility
to a tested business thesis.

Module 01

Where does value move?

Examine what becomes easier to produce when AI is available. Distinguish the output from the customer’s problem, the buying decision and the outcome they need.

Practical workMap what AI commoditizes and where judgment, access, integration or accountability may still matter.

Module 02

Choose a business worth testing

Compare software products, specialist services, managed operations, education and hybrid models. Choose by customer need, route to buyers, delivery risk and economic viability.

Practical workWrite a business thesis and compare three models using explicit assumptions.

Module 03

Find customers before building more

Define a narrow customer and buying situation. Conduct discovery interviews, observe workarounds and test willingness to commit. Treat AI-generated market opinions as hypotheses.

Practical workBuild an interview guide and evidence log; seek a concrete pilot commitment.

Module 04

Create an offer people understand

Connect a defined problem to a useful promise, scope and buying experience. Explain why a customer should choose you when they can also access AI tools.

Practical workCreate an offer page and a clear scope with acceptance criteria.

Module 05

Prototype the service and its safeguards

Use AI to build a small service or software prototype. Define data permissions, human review, quality checks, failure handling and support. Test with synthetic or authorized data.

Practical workDemonstrate one end-to-end workflow and document its failure and recovery paths.

Module 06

Make the economics work

Estimate acquisition effort, delivery time, model usage, rework, support and ongoing operations. Explore pricing against the value of the problem and the cost of dependable delivery.

Practical workBuild a simple unit-economics model and test its assumptions.

Module 07

Earn trust and reach buyers

Test messages, demonstrations and proof with real prospective users. Design onboarding, feedback and service recovery. Examine how channels, relationships and expertise can strengthen an offer.

Practical workRun a buyer-facing experiment and record objections, behavior and next steps.

Module 08

Launch, learn or change direction

Review the evidence against the original thesis. Decide what to continue, change or stop. Plan a bounded pilot with a measurable customer result.

Practical workPresent a business case, working prototype, evidence log and 90-day test plan.

The central question

Do we still need software firms?

Explore where customers need custom code, an existing tool, an integrated workflow or an accountable operating partner. Test the business model against the problem instead of assuming software production alone creates a viable company.

Capstone: your business, tested.

A clear offer, a working prototype, customer evidence, delivery safeguards and a 90-day validation plan.

Register course interest

New curriculum in development. Proposed pilot format: eight facilitated sessions with work between sessions. Dates, fees, instructors and final assessment arrangements will be confirmed before enrollment.

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