Billionaire Mark Cuban says if he were 16 he would do this side hustle - it doesn't require a degree

Mark Cuban says if he were 16 he would dive into a side hustle that taps into the growing demand for AI skills.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has a fresh take on how young people can capitalise on the artificial intelligence boom. If he were 16 today, Cuban suggests he would dive into a tech-savvy side hustle that taps into the growing demand for AI skills, specifically through prompt engineering.

Cuban believes that mastering the art of crafting prompts for AI language models, like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, would be his first step.

"I would learn how to write prompts for artificial intelligence language models," he stated in an interview with CNBC Make It. He envisions a two-pronged approach: not only would he teach his friends to utilise these prompts for their school assignments, but he would also target local businesses that may not yet grasp the potential of AI technology.

"I’d be teaching them as well," Cuban said.

The rise of AI prompt engineering represents a significant shift in the job landscape, particularly for Generation Z. A recent report by LendingTree revealed that over half of Gen Zers in the United States are already engaged in side hustles, with AI prompt engineering emerging as a lucrative option.

According to job board ZipRecruiter, entry-level AI tutors can earn around Rs 24 lakh ($30,000) per year, while full-time prompt engineers can command salaries as high as Rs 1 crore ($129,500), CNBC reports.

Entering this field does not necessarily require a college degree. Aspiring prompt engineers can learn the necessary skills through various online courses, with institutions like Vanderbilt University and IBM offering certifications that claim to cover the fundamentals in as little as a month.

Cuban’s entrepreneurial spirit can be traced back to his childhood, where he sold garbage bags door-to-door to save for basketball shoes. “I was a hustler... I have always been selling,” he recounted during a 2016 episode of ABC’s "Shark Tank." His ventures included selling collectibles and bartending, all of which laid the groundwork for his later success.

After a brief stint in banking, he transitioned to entrepreneurship, ultimately selling his first company for $6 million in 1990 and achieving billionaire status with the sale of Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999.