Mark Cuban has a simple message for young people who want to make serious money: Forget trying to get hired at Google or Microsoft. Instead, learn how to bring artificial intelligence (AI) to regular businesses that have no clue what they’re doing.
The billionaire investor and former “Shark Tank” star explained his reasoning during a recent livestream interview. Cuban thinks the real opportunity isn’t at big tech companies, but at the millions of small and medium-sized businesses that desperately need AI help but don’t know where to start.
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Cuban wants college students to become “AI integrators.” These are people who can walk into any company and figure out exactly how artificial intelligence can improve their operations.
“Every single company needs professionals with AI implementation skills,” Cuban said during the TBPN interview. The problem is that most companies have no idea how to actually use AI in their day-to-day work.
Cuban pointed out that there are 33 million companies in America, but only a tiny fraction have dedicated AI budgets or keep AI experts on staff. Yet all of these businesses will need to adapt to survive in an AI-driven economy.
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The comparison Cuban made to his early career is telling. When he was 24 years old, he walked into companies that had never seen a personal computer and explained how the technology could transform their business.
“I was walking into companies who had never seen a PC before in their lives and explaining to them the value,” Cuban said. He would meet with business owners and create customized plans showing exactly how computers could solve their specific problems.
That experience taught Cuban something important: There’s massive money to be made by bringing new technology to businesses that don’t understand it yet. He thinks AI represents the same kind of opportunity that personal computers did in the 1980s.
Cuban got specific about what skills matter most. He wants students spending their senior year “learning the difference between Sora and Veo” (two popular AI video-generation tools) and figuring out how to customize AI models for different business needs.
The key is understanding how AI works in practice, not just in theory. Students who master these integration skills will be able to walk into any business and immediately spot clear opportunities where AI could make a meaningful difference.
