A good time to start a business is when you know a lot of people with some pain who could become your customers. Obviously, you should know how to solve their pain better (i.e. making a better design) and more effective than others.
There are lots of existing businesses that are not stupid. Of course a lot will try to integrate AI into their workflows. They have clients, you don't.
> How do you find that first customer? Talk to the people you would have recruited as your first users if you were starting a product company.
How to find customers? Go find them.
> Instead of convincing them to use your product to solve their problem, just solve their problem yourself. Charge more than you would’ve if you’d sold them a product!
They have some pain, and you are trying to convince them to pay more because you are spending your time to solve their problem yourself, but you will use AI.
There are existing businesses that already have pipelines and experience solving their problem, with or without AI.