How to use AI to validate a business idea (a plan from your own answers)

The problem most people have

The idea is clear in your head and fuzzy to everyone else. You've told friends; they said "cool". Nobody has paid. You're about to spend months building because that feels like progress, when the only progress that matters is finding out whether ten strangers would hand over money.

What generic AI gets wrong

Ask for "a business plan" and you'll receive twelve pages of headings and a made-up market size. It will not tell you the cheapest test for your idea this month, or what number would make you stop.

What to tell the AI first

• The idea and who it is for, in two sentences
• How many people have said they'd pay — zero, a couple, more than ten
• Your runway: months you can fund this, or whether a day job covers it
• What you most lack: technical skill, sales, marketing, money, time, a co-founder
• What you'd need to know to commit or drop it
• Hours per week you can give it

What a plan built from your answers looks like

Fictional example. Persona: a chef who wants to sell meal-prep boxes to shift workers; zero paying customers; six hours a week.

Customer interview guide (5 questions, 10 minutes each): 1. "Walk me through what you ate on your last three night shifts." 2. "What did that cost, and what did it cost you in time?" 3. "What have you tried to fix it?" 4. "If a box of five shift-ready meals arrived every Sunday for A$X, what would stop you ordering?" 5. "Who else do you know with the same problem?" Cheapest test this month: 10 interviews → one pre-order link with a real price → 5 pre-orders by the 30th or stop. Go / no-go rule: Go if ≥5 strangers pre-pay. Rethink if friends only. Stop if fewer than 3 interviews turn into a second conversation.

Do this today

1. Write the two-sentence idea and read it to someone who isn't a friend. 2. Book three interviews for this week. 3. Decide the stop number before you do any of it.

Try it free

Axiomative writes the interview guide, the test and the go/no-go rule from your answers — free for everyone, always, no card. Add the Business area, pick "Validating an idea", answer a few questions.