News & Trending Jobs & Career News

The Side Hustle Mark Cuban Says He'd Start Today That Most People Are Walking Right Past

This opportunity doesn't require an investment upfront.

By Chris Lewis, CEPF , Edited by Calista Headrick

Updated Oct. 18, 2026

Add Us On Google

Is the economy getting you down and making you wonder how to get ahead? If you think a side job could lower your financial stress, Mark Cuban's suggestion could point you in the right direction. In a 2024 CNBC Make It interview, the billionaire investor shared that if he were 16 again and needed extra cash, this no-inventory, no-startup-capital side hustle would be his dream money-maker.

While Cuban's advice was aimed primarily at teenagers, it applies to everyone looking to make ends meet. It only requires time, curiosity, and a willingness to explain things to people.

The side hustle

In 2024, Mark Cuban told CNBC Make It that if he were a teenager looking for ways to make extra money again, he'd start an AI side hustle by learning how to write prompts for language models like ChatGPT and Gemini, then teach others how to use them.

Here's how his playbook works.

Resolve $10,000 or more of your debt

National Debt Relief could help you resolve your credit card debt with an affordable plan that works for you. Just tell them your situation, then find out your debt relief options.¹ <p>Please note that all calls with the company may be recorded or monitored for quality assurance and training purposes. Clients who are able to stay with the program and get all their debt settled realize approximate savings of 45% before fees, or 20% including our fees, over 24 to 48 months. All claims are based on enrolled debts. Not all debts are eligible for enrollment. Not all clients complete our program for various reasons, including their ability to save sufficient funds. Estimates based on prior results, which will vary based on specific circumstances. We do not guarantee that your debts will be lowered by a specific amount or percentage or that you will be debt-free within a specific period of time. We do not assume consumer debt, make monthly payments to creditors or provide tax, bankruptcy, accounting or legal advice or credit repair services. Not available in all states. Please contact a tax professional to discuss tax consequences of settlement. Please consult with a bankruptcy attorney for more information on bankruptcy. Depending on your state, we may be available to recommend a local tax professional and/or bankruptcy attorney. Read and understand all program materials prior to enrollment, including potential adverse impact on credit rating. "Debt-Free" applies only to enrolled credit cards, personal loans, and medical bills. Not mortgages, car loans, or other debts. Results vary.</p>

Step one: Get familiar with the tools

Cuban suggests going all in. He said he would immerse himself in large language models and learn how to prompt them.

Also called prompt engineering, this skill lets you phrase questions to a chatbot the right way to get a useful and relevant answer. It may sound simple, but it's not. Anyone who has ever gotten a vague, generic answer from ChatGPT or Gemini knows there's a real gap between typing a question and asking it well. Learning this skill could prove incredibly useful.

Practice makes perfect. Run the same task through multiple chatbots and compare the results. Notice how adding context, examples, or a specific format changes the answer, and track which approaches give you the best answers.

You don't need a computer science degree for any of this. While online certification programs from schools like Vanderbilt or IBM cover the basics in about a month, having a certification isn't the only way to become fluent.

Shopping for cheaper auto insurance? Enter your zip code here to get started.

Step two: Turn what you know into income

The second step is where the money comes in. Cuban suggests starting small. If he were a teen, he would teach friends how to write prompts for their school projects. As a low-stakes audience, friends would tell you honestly when an explanation is confusing or less useful than expected. That feedback could sharpen your skills before you charge anyone.

If you're well past your teens, this step could include family members, neighbors, colleagues, or a local community group. The point is to practice explaining AI to real people before you sell it to a business.

Then, you're ready to scale up. Approach small-to-medium-sized businesses that struggle to implement AI and start charging for your expertise.

Why the opportunity exists

Every business needs to draft emails, generate marketing ideas, summarize documents, and analyze data. These skills are also the bread and butter of language models, but few small businesses have the staff or time to explore new technology or automate repetitive tasks.

Many companies also don't know where to begin. For example, a shop owner may need someone to teach them how to write a better customer email in two minutes or how to summarize a stack of vendor contracts. They may not even know a solution exists before you approach them.

Cuban has seen this pattern before. He described walking into companies that had never seen a PC decades ago and explaining its value, while some owners brushed it off, saying they'd never need one. As the latest technology, AI has a similar adoption gap.

What could you earn?

Be careful with the numbers because they come from job listings rather than research. According to ZipRecruiter, AI tutor pay averages $42,000 a year. Full-time prompt engineers usually make almost $98,000 a year, but could earn up to $182,000.

A word of caution: These figures are what people working in the field make, not what a first-time side hustler should expect in month one. If you're teaching a few local businesses part-time, you'll earn far less than a full-time salary.

However, consider this side job your testing ground. If you enjoy teaching AI and land paying clients, you could become a freelance consultant or enter full-time employment as a prompt engineer.

The big picture: Early beats expert

Cuban's broad lesson here is about timing. Instead of aiming high and falling flat, he suggests you become the person who knows how to use AI well now, while many people and businesses are still learning the basics.

That advantage is time-limited. Today, knowing how to get useful results from a chatbot gets you noticed. Tomorrow, as more and more companies adopt these tools as part of everyday work, the skill may become assumed, much like knowing how to send an email or use a spreadsheet. To make money now, learn the skill before it becomes commonplace.

Bottom line

If you want to put extra cash in your pocket by trying Cuban's playbook, the first step costs nothing. Pick a free chatbot and use it for real tasks every day for a few weeks. Push it, play with it, compare it with other tools, and learn what makes a good prompt.

Then offer to show a friend how it works, and see whether your explanation is clear enough that they'd be willing to try asking questions of their own. As your confidence grows, approach Cuban's suggested audience: the small businesses that want to use AI and are still waiting for someone to show them how.

Make Money: 8 dumb ways to make money (almost anyone can do this)

More from FinanceBuzz: