Want to Actually Make Money in AI? Stop Ignoring the 2.7 Billion Deskless Workers

A thesis piece by Fee Barry (Tidal Ventures), continuing her mission of telling founders what to build so she doesn't have to.

The Tech Stack They Don't Talk About at Web Summit

While tech Twitter works itself into a frenzy over which $100M-funded AI startup can generate the most realistic images of astronauts riding dinosaurs, a shocking number of essential workers are still using technology that would make a 2010 Nokia user wince in sympathy. Here's what passes for "cutting-edge tech" in frontline industries:

Messaging

What they use: WhatsApp, personal SMS, or literally shouting down hallways

Why it's terrible: No audit trail, no structure, messages lost in the void

What they deserve: Role-specific agents that can triage messages, capture critical info, and integrate with workflows

Data Entry

What they use: JotForm, paper forms photographed on phones, scribbled notes transcribed hours later

Why it's terrible: Double-handling of data, errors, hours of unpaid admin work

What they deserve: Voice-to-structured-data tools that capture information in real-time

Workflow Management

What they use: A chaotic mix of emails, texts, paper schedules, and institutional memory

Why it's terrible: Tasks fall through cracks, no one knows what's happening, everything is reactive

What they deserve: Agentic systems that chain tasks, auto-dispatch, and adapt to changing circumstances

Compliance/Reporting

What they use: Binders of printouts, screenshots, after-hours documentation marathons

Why it's terrible: Compliance becomes a full-time job on top of an already full-time job

What they deserve: Intelligent systems that document automatically and flag non-compliance before it happens

"The average nurse spends 36% of their time on documentation instead of patient care," explains an industry expert who's been begging tech companies to address this for years. "Meanwhile, AI companies are competing to see who can make the best fake Drake song."

The Founder Profile (Spoiler: It's Not Another Stanford CS Grad)

The founders who will dominate this space won't be the typical tech darlings. They'll be:

• The ex-nurse who's witnessed colleagues quit because they spend more time on paperwork than patient care

• The former field technician who's done 3am repairs with nothing but a torch and inadequate documentation

• The delivery driver who's juggled seven different apps while trying not to crash

These founders bring operational knowledge that can't be faked with a quick user interview or design sprint. They understand that a solution needs to work when:

• You're wearing gloves

• The internet connection drops every 30 seconds

• You have 45 seconds to complete a task before moving to the next emergency

• Your device is shared between three workers across different shifts

The Unfair Advantages Hiding in Plain Sight

The startups that will win in this space have defensibility that Silicon Valley can only dream about:

Data Moats No One's Tapping

Every day, frontline workers generate unique, high-value data that can't be scraped or synthesised:

• Spoken notes from patient interactions

• Contextual photos of maintenance issues

• Location-specific service records

• Real-world process variations

Integration Lock-In

Once you've successfully integrated with healthcare systems, compliance frameworks, or industrial workflows, competitors face a mountain to displace you.

Network Effects That Actually Matter

When field technicians rely on your platform to access historical service records, or when healthcare providers use your system for handovers, you create networks with genuine utility—not just another place to share cat videos.

Timing: Why Now Is Actually, Finally, The Moment

The stars have aligned to make this opportunity urgent:

• Labour shortages: Industries can't hire enough workers, making efficiency crucial

• Regulatory pressure: Documentation requirements are increasing in aged care, healthcare, and industrial settings

• AI capability: On-device inference, multimodal models, and voice recognition have reached frontline-ready accuracy

• Mobile ubiquity: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has reached critical mass, providing deployment infrastructure

• Workflow leapfrogging: Many industries are jumping straight from paper to AI, skipping the SaaS middle stage

The Uncomfortable Risks No One Talks About

Building for frontline workers isn't all sunshine and roses. The challenges are real:

• Works or Doesn't: There's no "good enough" in mission-critical environments

• Fragmented Buyers: Decision-makers are often disconnected from end users

• Infrastructure Gaps: Poor connectivity, outdated devices, and hostile environments

• Privacy Landmines: Healthcare, aged care, and child services have strict data protection requirements

• Attention Economy: Users have seconds, not minutes, to learn your tool

The Bottom Line: Billions Waiting to Be Made (While Actually Helping Society)

The opportunity in frontline AI isn't just enormous—it's meaningful. These tools won't just generate investor returns; they'll:

• Reduce administrative burden on already stretched essential workers

• Improve service quality in healthcare, aged care, and community services

• Capture knowledge that currently walks out the door when experienced workers leave

• Enable smaller organisations to meet compliance requirements without dedicated admin staff

In a market where most AI startups are fighting over the same pool of knowledge workers, the smart money is looking at the 2.7 billion people who keep the world running. As one industry veteran put it: "The first company to build a voice-first, offline-capable documentation system that actually works for nurses will be worth more than all the AI image generators combined."

The Rocket Advocate: Making Queensland VCs sound smarter than they actually are since 2025.

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CALLING ALL QUEENSLAND FOUNDERS: If you're building technology for the deskless workforce, we want to back you.

Queensland isn't just another market for frontline tech—we're the ideal launchpad. Here's why:

1. Geographic advantage: Our state's vast distances and decentralised workforce have forced us to solve remote work problems long before it became trendy in a pandemic.

2. Industry expertise: From the mines of the Bowen Basin to the healthcare facilities of Brisbane and the farms of the Darling Downs, Queensland has concentrations of frontline industries with real problems to solve.

3. Testing at scale: Queensland Health alone employs over 100,000 people across dozens of facilities—that's a built-in test bed for healthcare solutions larger than most startups will ever access.

4. Technical talent + domain knowledge: Our universities are producing technical talent while our industries supply the domain expertise—the perfect founding team combination.

5. Less startup noise: While Sydney and Melbourne founders chase the latest AI fads, Queensland offers the space to build something truly useful without the distraction of what's trending on tech Twitter.

This is Queensland's moment to shine in an overlooked but massive market. We've always had to be practical problem-solvers rather than hype merchants. That's exactly the mindset needed to build for frontline workers.

Are you a founder with frontline industry experience building solutions that actually work in the field? Contact Fee at fee@tidalvc.com. Bonus points if your product works without Wi-Fi, can be used while wearing gloves, and doesn't require a PhD to set up.