AI side hustles are going viral on Xianyu.
If you cannot achieve financial freedom, can you achieve pocket money freedom?
A recent report on Xianyu's new digital workplace mentions that nearly 20 million people are engaged in some form of "work" on life-service digital platforms represented by Xianyu.
A questionnaire survey of 1225 part-time practitioners on the Xianyu platform shows that more than 41% of the practitioners derive over 30% of their monthly income from their side hustles; about 30% of the practitioners spend 30 hours per week on the platform, which is no different from a part-time job or a second full-time career.
In Xianyu's new digital workplace, there are various forms of jobs including emotional companionship, digital organizer, creative copywriting... Now a new occupation has been added, which is AI service. It is reported that in the first half of 2026, the number of AI service orders on Xianyu reached 9.816 million, a year-on-year surge of 157%; nearly 5 million people purchased AI services on Xianyu within half a year, a year-on-year increase of 98%.
Previously, people's imagination of AI entrepreneurship was still stuck in the grand narrative of "raising tens of millions in financing, forming a technical team, and sprinting for IPO". The data from Xianyu shows that the dividends of the AI industry can also sink into the transaction scenarios closest to ordinary people. More and more young people are starting to find their own AI income growth paths through the Xianyu platform.
Image source: China New Employment Forms Research Center
01
What do the AI orders on Xianyu involve?
If you turn AI into a small business after work, what are people selling on Xianyu?
It is reported that AI services cover multiple categories such as skills, tutorials, tools, and templates.
Among them, the largest category of AI orders is AI skills, accounting for 45.1% of all orders, becoming the core pillar of AI side hustles.
AI skills include AI painting design, AI manhua drama production, AI short video generation, AI dubbing, AI programming, etc., which mainly use AI tools to meet customer needs. For example, a photo retoucher in a photo studio can use AI drawing tools after work to take orders on Xianyu to customize portrait photos for customers.
Data shows that the fastest growing tracks are concentrated in three directions: AI programming and website building, AI manhua drama, AI PPT and office services. In the first half of 2026, with the accelerated popularization of AI code writing tools, orders for AI programming and website building increased by 1732% year-on-year; in addition, orders for AI manhua drama increased by 1425% year-on-year, and AI PPT and office services increased by 264%.
Two other important service sectors have also emerged on the platform. One is AI tutorials and courses, accounting for 8.1%, which mainly build a complete path from zero-based entry to monetization, such as "basic operation guide for AI tools", "practical experience in side hustle operation", etc.
The report mentions a case where a Xianyu seller sold AI manhua drama production tutorials at a price of 9.9 yuan, selling 17,000 copies in half a year, with a turnover of over 160,000 yuan, which is far more profitable than the main job. The other is AI templates, workflows and prompt words, accounting for 6.6%, many AI agents fall into this category, which meets the personalized demands of many users with advanced needs, and the amount of a single service can reach 10,000 yuan sometimes.
Image source: Internet
02
Who are making money from AI side hustles on Xianyu?
According to the "2025-2026 Annual Core Trend Report" released by third-party data agency Quest Mobile, Xianyu's overall monthly active users reached 217 million, a year-on-year increase of 19.64%, among which the monthly active users of "post-2000s" reached 43.61 million.
Among these users, who are making money from AI side hustles?
Let's first look at two cases. An administrative staff with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, who was originally in the anxiety of unemployment, used AI to write e-commerce copy, mainly sorted out e-commerce copy prompt word templates, hung links to take orders at a price of 50 yuan; as well as official account agency operation, AI experience short video traffic sharing, etc. After three months, she earned 80,000 yuan from the side hustle.
There is also a graphic designer with a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan, who targets small e-commerce business owners who need to make posters but cannot design, and produces courses of "AI-assisted commercial design", with 99 yuan for a single course, 399 yuan for the full set, 1999 yuan for the private coaching class, etc. More than 800 copies were sold in three months, with an income of 320,000 yuan, averaging more than 100,000 yuan per month.
……
Image source: Xianyu APP
These people are the most common ordinary office workers in life. Without exception, they have seized the dividend of AI, acting as a bridge between AI and customer needs. One person, one computer or even a mobile phone can complete the work, and achieve pocket money freedom.
According to the analysis in the report, the sellers of AI orders on Xianyu are mainly young people, people aged 18 to 35 account for more than 60%, and the proportion of female sellers is 62.4%, far exceeding that of male sellers. They invest their fragmented time, with the per capita monthly transaction volume reaching 897 yuan. These people do not have dazzling backgrounds and strong financial support, but with the flexible application of AI tools and their own professional AI transformation, they have achieved their own rhythm in the side hustle track.
What is more noteworthy is the regional distribution characteristics of both supply and demand sides, which completely breaks the inherent prejudice that "AI dividends only belong to first-tier cities". From the perspective of the seller group, sellers in fourth-tier cities account for 32.2%, ranking first among all city tiers, sellers in second-tier cities account for 28.6%, and the total proportion of sellers in fourth-tier and second-tier cities exceeds 60%; among the buyer group, users in second-tier cities account for 30.6%, surpassing first-tier cities and becoming the largest consumer group, followed by fourth-tier cities accounting for 26.1%.
This means that AI side hustles are no longer the exclusive benefit of highly educated people in first-tier cities. Students, freelancers and ordinary office workers in small and medium-sized cities can all learn AI on Xianyu, find suitable AI tools and services for themselves, and share the dividends of the development of the AI industry.
Image source: Internet
03
AI side hustles on Xianyu are constantly upgrading
When more and more ordinary people pour into the AI side hustle track, the past model of taking a few scattered orders to earn some pocket money is gradually upgrading to the "AIOPC" (AI One Person Company) model. Under this model, relying on AI tools, ordinary individuals can independently complete the full process closed loop from product design and R&D to market launch, realizing the lightweight entrepreneurship of "forming an army alone".
Previously, the side hustle section of Xianyu has always been widely talked about by the public. It is not only a way to make money, but also regarded as an experimental field and springboard for future career paths. Data shows that about 30% of practitioners work 30 hours per week on the platform, and practitioners who work less than 10 hours account for 47.75%. Whether it is heavy participants or light participants, Xianyu is continuously providing soil for young people's digital flexible employment. In Xianyu's new digital workplace, the professional threshold no longer takes academic qualifications and qualifications as the only standard, but pays more attention to market demand and service quality, and practitioners realize their value with personal skills and characteristic services.
Furthermore, the policy system has been continuously supporting. On June 18, 2026, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Coordinated Development of Large, Medium and Small Enterprises in the Platform Economy (2026-2028)", which clearly proposes to "accelerate the cultivation of AI One Person Company (AIOPC)", pointing out the direction for this new entrepreneurship model at the national level.
For example, Hangzhou High-tech Zone (Binjiang) has launched ten "AI+OPC" entrepreneurship support measures, including workstation rent subsidies and a computing power subsidy pool, which provide a large number of real business opportunities for entrepreneurs; Yangpu District of Shanghai has also specially launched the "OPC Super Individual Government Service Zone", providing one-stop government service handling services for the whole life cycle of individual AI entrepreneurship entities.
Nourished by such policy soil and platform ecology, AI side hustle practitioners on Xianyu have gradually developed from only taking scattered AI painting and AI PPT orders at the beginning, to gradually polishing their own standardized products, and then building their own business closed loop, gradually changing from an ordinary AI tool user to the principal of a "one person company" who can independently operate products and undertake stable businesses.
Image source: Screenshot from the Internet
04
Long-term value and risk warning of AI side hustles
The Xianyu platform is becoming a community for young people to learn AI skills and carry out lightweight entrepreneurship. If you only regard the AI side hustle on Xianyu as a temporary channel to earn extra money, you are wrong. There is a more long-term value hidden behind it, that is, the ability to "collaborate with AI to solve problems".
We can see that those practitioners who make money from AI side hustles undoubtedly enter from a small entry point, and then add a lot of manual optimization on the basis of AI generation. According to the current development trend, coexisting with AI will be the workplace status in the next ten years. Then this ability will become the core competitiveness.
In addition, the long-term value of AI side hustles is also reflected in the anti-risk ability to life. When we are worried about being replaced by AI, some office workers have already saved their first small fortune through AI side hustles, and finally have the confidence to say "no" to unreasonable requirements in the workplace.
Although the tuyere of AI side hustles is clearly visible, it does not mean that everyone can get a share of the pie. If you enter the track with the mentality of making money effortlessly and following the trend blindly, you will probably not make money while wasting a lot of time and energy. To make money from AI side hustles, you also need to avoid some cognitive traps.
First of all, avoid blindly chasing popular tracks. Don't see that orders for AI programming and website building have increased by 1732% year-on-year, and immediately follow the trend to learn code generation. In the cases reported by the media, most practitioners rely on their own professional advantages to make the superposition of "AI + original skills". For example, people who are familiar with office scenarios can start with office services such as AI PPT and AI document sorting; mothers at home can try AI parent-child content production.
Secondly, avoid indulging in learning tools. Many people like to buy a lot of AI tutorials and try all AI tools, but never dare to launch their first service. On Xianyu, the competition is never about who has more top technology, but about who can solve the real small needs of users faster. We can gradually polish our skills in the process of taking orders, which is much more efficient than learning behind closed doors.
Finally, avoid aiming too high at the beginning. Many people start their AI side hustles and want to accumulate wealth through high unit price. But from a large number of Xianyu cases, they all start with increasing volume first and then raising prices, starting from standardized services with low unit price, and then gradually increasing. For example, start with prompt word templates of a few yuan and AI painting orders of dozens of yuan, quickly complete the first transaction, and then gradually upgrade to AI video production and AI workflow customization services of hundreds of yuan.
AI side hustles are opportunities for ordinary people, but not opportunities for everyone.
05
Conclusion
In the first half of 2026, the data of 9.816 million AI service orders on Xianyu made the public realize that AI is not only a dividend for large platforms, but also a livelihood tool for ordinary people.
Become an AIOPC with the help of AI tools, small people can start by solving small needs around them, and gradually find their own pocket money freedom in this ten-million-level AI side hustle market.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Niaoge Notes" (ID: niaoge8), the author is Niaoge Notes, and it is released with authorization from 36Kr.