We checked 15 'make money with AI' schemes against their sources
Every week there is a new "make money with AI" playbook. We took 15 of the most common ones, opened the sources behind them, and labelled each scheme by what we could check. Date of the check: 2026-10-08. VERIFIED : the figures come from a platform, a company report, a data service or a regulator we could open. It does not mean the scheme pays. CLAIM : someone states a figure or a rule we could…
Every week, a new "make money with AI" playbook appears, but a check of 15 common schemes found varying levels of credibility. Of the 15, seven had verifiable figures, three were considered claims, and the remaining five were marketing ploys. Notably, none of the sources provided a dated record of what a newcomer could potentially earn.
In the reviewed sources, one platform, TrustMRR, listed 4,152 AI startups, but it did not show how revenue was distributed among them, leaving the typical outcome unknown. Another source, Stripe, found that AI-native solo startups earned almost twice as much as other solo-founded startups by month 24. However, the median revenue for AI-native solo startups dropped 23% year-over-year in their first six months, while the top 10% of earners saw a 19% increase.
AI-native companies, such as freelance marketplaces, faced challenges as well. Fiverr's Q2 2026 reported a 10% decline in revenue, while Upwork's Q2 2026 saw a 3.6% decrease in total volume, but a 22% increase in AI-related volume, amounting to about $330 million. These figures are news summaries and do not provide insight into what a new account might earn.
When it comes to AI agent payments, sources like a16z and Apify provided estimates, but no third-party verification was available. The FTC also issued allegations and proposed settlements against AI income business opportunities, including an e-commerce coaching company and an AI sales-agent company, both of which were found to make false claims about earnings.
In terms of AI-generated content, Google's spam policy defines scaled content abuse, but it does not specify how the content is created. Additionally, AI-written books and digital products can be disclosed as AI-generated or AI-assisted, but there is no source for earnings. Automation agencies, AI voice agencies, and GEO audits also came with estimates or ranges, lacking any traceable figures or proof of earnings.
The only remaining claim in this study was from a guide promoting AI avatar videos and TikTok Shop, which cited a company selling an analytics platform but provided no creator earnings information.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
