How do I know whether my idea is meaningfully different?
Write down the customer's task first, then compare the existing option with yours on that task. Does yours remove a step, reach someone the existing option misses, or give the customer a result they value? Write that difference down.
In her conversation with Shelley Zalis, Tyra Banks emphasized differentiation over copying what's already around you. For a business, the practical question is what that difference means to the person you want to serve.
An AI research assistant can gather comparable offers for you. Give it a clear boundary: report what the sources say, and don't invent a market gap to make your idea look better.
Suppose your idea is a workshop for people who have never built an AI agent. "More innovative training" doesn't explain the difference. "Participants leave with a tested AI agent for one task they already do" is a proposed outcome a customer can understand and you can check.
Boil the comparison down to one sentence about the difference, then ask a prospective customer whether it matters to them. An unusual idea still needs a reason for someone to choose it.