The Laziest Way to Make Money with AI in 2025.As someone who’s made millions with AI products in my company, Martell Ventures, I’m going to share with you the five ways I would make money with AI if I was starting from zero. I’ll even teach you how to find and sell it to customers, and show you the cost, effort, and potential for each one.
Now, I’m not talking about a get-rich-quick scheme. These are real money-making ideas where AI does most of the work for you. So let’s get into it.
5: AI Thumbnail Design
You can get paid to design those thumbnails you see on YouTube — the ones you have to click to watch the video. It’s about designing high-converting YouTube thumbnails using AI products like Midjourney, Photoshop, and Canva AI.
Here’s the problem: most people think it’s just about being good at prompts and generating images. That’s not it.
The cool part?
- Cost: Low
- Effort: Medium
- Potential: Pretty high
Right now, with the rise of personal brands, you can start small, doing 5 thumbnails at $10 each. But on the high end, you could earn $200 to $400/day designing 4 to 8 thumbnails at $50 each.
How to Learn Thumbnail Design:
- Analyze dozens of viral thumbnails in your niche using tools like One of 10 and ViewStats.
- Create a portfolio by collecting your favorite thumbnails to use as reference.
- Model the best performers using ChatGPT and your thumbnail portfolio to improve your own designs.
How to Find Customers – The Audit to Deal Process:
- Pick a niche you love (automotive, personal development, etc.)
- Scrape the leads – build a list of potential buyers via LinkedIn or research.
- Run an audit – analyze a potential client’s YouTube channel and record a 60-second Loom video with your suggestions.
- Offer your service with a small bonus or guarantee to reduce risk
4: AI Blog Generation
This means creating highly specific content that gives your customer awareness in their market — top of funnel, mid-funnel, and bottom.
Why It Works:
Search is becoming the new AI prompt. Companies want to be recommended when people ask AI models for help. That’s where you come in.
- Cost: Very low
- Effort: Low
- Potential: Medium (but changing fast with AI improvements)
You can create five blogs per day at about $10 each for SEO farms. On the high end, you could make $200–$500/day, especially if you’re helping people rank in AI models or earning through affiliate content.
One client, Timmer, uses AI to create blog posts from podcasts and makes over $100K/month doing this.
How to Start:
- Model, then modify – find the top 10 blogs in a niche using SEMrush or Ubersuggest.
- Use ChatGPT to create a portfolio based on those blogs.
- Rank in search – use tools like Rank.ai to help your content show up in Google and AI models.
How to Find Clients:
Use the same audit to deal process mentioned earlier. Do a bit of upfront work to prove your value and make it easy for them to say yes.
3: Faceless YouTube Channel
I used to think AI couldn’t replace someone like me… until I realized I’d been watching AI-generated content for years without knowing.
These are the YouTube channels with voiceovers and B-roll, but no person on-screen — and they rack up hundreds of thousands of views.
- Cost: Medium (you’ll need editing tools)
- Effort: Medium (storytelling skills required)
- Potential: High
Small channels might earn $10–$50/day, but large ones? $500/day or more, through ads and affiliate links.
How to Start:
- Pick a niche with good affiliate or ad potential.
- Create your scripts using ChatGPT to shape your narrative and style.
- Build your avatar using tools like Synthesia or ElevenLabs (optional).
- Post and iterate – improve 1% with every video. It’s not about 10,000 hours — it’s about 10,000 iterations.
2: AI Website Building
There are 22 million small businesses in North America, and all of them need websites. In the past, they paid $5K to $25K+. Now? You can build websites using AI and no-code tools.
- Cost: Low
- Effort: Medium (learn hosting, some tech skills)
- Potential: Massively high
On the low end, make $100/day building basic sites. On the high end, $500–$1,000/day with upsells (SEO, automations, hosting, etc.).
How to Start:
- Pick a no-code builder (Frame AI, Bolt, Reloom).
- Generate custom copy with ChatGPT.
- Visualize with Midjourney and build 2–3 demo sites as your portfolio.
How to Sell:
Again — run the audit to deal process
1: AI Automation Agency
This is the hottest opportunity right now.
- Cost: Medium (may need to pay for some tools)
- Effort: Medium (there’s a learning curve)
- Potential: Very High
I taught my 12-year-old son how to do this. You can too. On the low end, just 1–2 small clients can bring $200/day. On the high end? $1,000–$2,500/day, helping businesses integrate and automate.
This is about solving problems like lead generation, onboarding, training, and making operations scalable.
How to Start:
- Create a course of action – ask ChatGPT what steps to follow.
- Master one automation use case – pick one (cold outreach, onboarding bots, etc.) and go deep.
- Join a community – learn faster from others. Follow people like Dave Eelar (technical systems) or Stephen Pope (content & automation).
How to Find Clients:
This one’s harder to audit publicly. Instead, say:
“Hey, I’m new. I’m building case studies. I’ll solve this problem for you for free. If I overdeliver, can I use it as a case study?”
This builds proof, trust — and soon, referrals.
Final Thought
If you’re building real AI products or software, and want to see if a partnership might make sense, reach out.
But if you’re just trying to go from zero to a million this year… the path is clear. Start lazy, start smart — and let AI do the heavy lifting