## Entrepreneurship and the AI-Powered Tinkering Revolution This article from **Entrepreneur**, authored by **Aytekin Tank**, explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming entrepreneurship by making **experimentation and "tinkering" more accessible and efficient**. Published on **July 13, 2025**, the piece argues that the core of entrepreneurship lies in innovation, which is fueled by a willingness to experiment. ### Key Findings and Conclusions: * **The "Tinkerer Mindset" is Crucial for Entrepreneurship:** The author, a self-proclaimed tinkerer, emphasizes that building something for the sake of it, even if it doesn't immediately yield financial success, is fundamental to entrepreneurial success. This mindset involves a continuous cycle of **"build, test, improve."** * **AI as a Catalyst for Tinkering:** Recent advancements in AI have significantly lowered the barrier to entry for experimentation. AI can automate time-consuming and often frustrating tasks, such as **debugging code, designing user interfaces (UI), and writing copy from scratch.** * **Reduced Friction from Idea to Execution:** AI's ability to streamline these tasks means entrepreneurs can move more quickly from an initial idea ("what if?") to testing and validation ("let's find out"). The article highlights an example where building a landing page, translating it, and generating five headline variations can now be accomplished in **30 minutes**, a task that previously might have taken a **full weekend.** * **Amplifying Human Creativity, Not Replacing It:** The article clarifies that AI is not intended to replace human creativity or decision-making. Instead, it serves to **eliminate bottlenecks**, freeing up entrepreneurs to focus on higher-level strategic thinking and creative endeavors. * **Reclaiming Valuable Time:** By offloading busywork to AI, entrepreneurs can reclaim their most valuable resource: **time**. This allows for more focused work on areas they are passionate about, such as product development or strategic design, as exemplified by the author's experience with designing a new office space. * **The 50/50 Rule:** The author's personal "50/50 rule" – dedicating **half of one's time to product development and half to growth** – is presented as a framework that inherently relies on constant experimentation and iteration. ### Recommendations: * **Embrace Experimentation:** Founders should cultivate a willingness to experiment and iterate on their products and growth strategies. * **Leverage AI for Efficiency:** Entrepreneurs should identify time-consuming tasks that can be delegated to AI assistants to free up their own time for more impactful work. * **Focus on Core Strengths:** AI can handle the "busywork," allowing entrepreneurs to concentrate on their unique skills, creativity, and strategic vision. ### Trends and Changes: * **Increased Accessibility of Experimentation:** AI is making it easier and more cost-effective for entrepreneurs to test new ideas and refine their offerings. * **Shift in Entrepreneurial Workflow:** The integration of AI is enabling a more focused and less fragmented approach to entrepreneurship, allowing for deeper dives into specific projects. ### Notable Risks or Concerns: * The article does not explicitly mention significant risks or concerns related to AI in this context, focusing primarily on its benefits for entrepreneurs. ### Material Financial Data: * No specific financial data or metrics are presented in this article. The focus is on the qualitative impact of AI on the entrepreneurial process. ### News Identifiers: * **Title:** Entrepreneurship Is All About Innovation — and AI Can Help * **Publisher:** Entrepreneur * **Author:** Aytekin Tank * **Publication Date:** July 13, 2025 * **Topic:** Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurship, Innovation
Entrepreneurship Is All About Innovation — and AI Can Help | Entrepreneur
Read original at Entrepreneur →Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. I've always been a tinkerer. If I weren't, there's almost no chance I'd be an entrepreneur.When I released my first product in college, my goal wasn't to make money — it was to build something for the sake of it. I saw a problem and decided to see if I could create a solution.
Turns out, I could. Not everything I've built has worked out the way I wanted it to, but that's okay. The tinkerer mindset doesn't require a 100 percent success rate. You might think that my love of experimenting would have been tempered once my business grew. But actually, I've only become more firm in my conviction that great things come from those who tinker.
Even better? Recent leaps in AI capabilities have only made tinkering easier. Here's why.Related: How to Prepare Your Small Business for the Next Wave of AI InnovationWhy experimentation is essentialIf there's one trait every founder needs, it's a willingness to experiment. Great products aren't born fully formed — they're shaped by trial, error, feedback and iteration.
When I launched Jotform, I wasn't trying to build a company. I was trying to solve a problem. That curiosity led to our first tagline, "The Easiest Form Builder." I obsessed over usability and kept tweaking the product until it felt effortless to use. That mindset — build, test, improve — has guided every version since.
I often tell the founders I mentor: You don't need to get it perfect, you just need to get it in front of people. The feedback you get will tell you what to fix, what to double down on and what to scrap.My 50/50 rule — spending half your time on product and half on growth — is built on the same principle.
You're constantly experimenting on two fronts: what you're building and how you're getting it into users' hands. It's a push-pull dynamic that inherently requires trial and error.Why AI is a tinkerer's dreamHere's the thing about tinkering: It doesn't work under duress.Today, experimentation is easier and more accessible than ever thanks to AI.
In the past, it was extremely difficult to carve out the time and space to be creative, because who has several uninterrupted hours just to play around with a project that may ultimately yield nothing? For me, early mornings and late nights were the golden times for working on my startup, when I didn't have to focus on my day job or any other obligations nagging for my attention.
For many people, those precious off-hours are still the ticket to unlocking creative thinking. But instead of wasting them on exasperating tasks like debugging code, designing a UI or writing copy from scratch, you can offload those responsibilities to an AI assistant. Want to build a landing page, translate it and generate five headline variations?
That's now a 30-minute exercise, not a full weekend.That kind of efficiency is a game-changer. It lowers the cost of experimentation, and more importantly, it removes the friction between idea and execution. You can move straight from "what if?" to "let's find out," which is exactly what tinkering is all about.
Related: Why Smart Entrepreneurs Let AI Do the Heavy Business LiftingAmplifying creativityThere's a misconception that AI will do all the work for you. It won't. AI, at least not yet, cannot replicate human creativity and ingenuity. What it will do is eliminate the bottlenecks that keep you from doing your best work.
Recently, I returned from an eight-month break from my business. I'd had my third child, and I wanted to take the opportunity to spend time with my family. Once back in the office, I realized I didn't want to return to the way I'd been working before, getting pulled in several directions at once and being too stretched thin to focus on what I cared about.
Instead, I decided to dramatically limit the areas of my business I would focus on. Recently, that's meant working with our architect to design a new office space. It's something I enjoy, but couldn't fully commit to previously thanks to a pileup of other distractions.In the past, I might have had to let it go — just because I wanted to be involved didn't mean I'd have the bandwidth to do it.
It was a project that interested me, but didn't require my participation. That's the thing about tinkering — most of it isn't strictly necessary.Since I've returned, I've been able to focus on blueprints and layout concepts for uninterrupted stretches of time. How?One reason is that I have an executive team that has been able to take over many of the day-to-day functions that previously absorbed my attention.
The second is because I've deputized AI to take on some of my most annoying, time-consuming busywork. For example, I've refined my already-effective email filtering technique even further with the help of an AI agent, which autonomously sorts and in some cases, even responds to routine queries so I don't have to.
That means less time fighting the onslaught of emails, more time investing my energy where it counts.My goal isn't to have AI figure out window placements for me, make hiring decisions or determine the strategic direction of my company. Instead, it's to clear my plate of the time-consuming tasks that have distracted me from what I want to do.
For entrepreneurs, AI has afforded us more of the most valuable resource we have: the space to tinker. And in my experience, that's where everything worthwhile happens.
