223: The Future of Courses: What AI Means for Digital Product Creators

Foreign welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desks, constantly live launching or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today. Hey there friends. Destiny Kopp here and welcome back to another episode of the Creators MBA Podcast, the show where we talk about all things digital products, marketing and building a sustainable business in the creator economy. And today's episode is inspired by heartful, thoughtful question that I saw online that I think a lot of you can probably relate to. And the question is, how do you think AI will change the industry of courses and digital products? What are you doing to shift, pivot and embrace so that your business thrives in a world of AI? I've been feeling a bit frozen in fear about AI and I'd love to hear your perspectives. So first of all, I loved this question and I have been hearing it from several others and feeling it from so many of you. So I wanted to take today's episode to share what I'm seeing, how I have personally adopted and what's working in my business right, right now. All right, so let's start here. I would say about a year and a half ago I noticed a massive shift happening in our industry, especially in the way people consume and pay for content. And I would say that yes, AI played a big part in that. There has been a move away from static information only courses in low cost digital products and more of a desire for connection, customization, but most importantly, access to the expert. So in a world where AI can answer like basic questions, people are craving that real support. So they want ongoing access to an expert like you. They want personalized answers to their specific situation. They want guidance, not just templates. And they want someone to say, here's what I would do and why, and this is why. Done with you. Models in memberships are thriving right now and it's exactly how I personally pivoted in my own business model. So a little over a year ago I completely restructured my offers. So I moved away from focusing on static courses that don't change and focused on building membership models across my brands. And here's the reason why. I saw that the industry was changing fast and a lot of my course content simply couldn't just keep up with that, especially in the AI space. So what work six months ago might be outdated today? And I wanted a way to help My clients stay on top of everything and more importantly have access to me when they needed support beyond what AI can give them. My students and clients, they're already using AI. I will get messages like here's what Chat GPT said, what do you think? And sometimes I'll say, you know what? I think that's spot on. But other times I'll say I would approach this and look at this differently and here's why and here are some things that you need to think about for your own business. And that is not something a pre recorded course can do. Let me give you a little sneak peek behind the curtain and the structure that has been working for me and my clients in 2025. The first is live monthly workshops. These are hands on, tailored, workshop based based on what members actually want. I pull them in advance and then I create workshops that walk them through implementation live. A lot of times we're using AI tools like custom prompts or AI assistants to help them speed up that process. But the key here is it's a live workshop. It is tailored to what the questions that they are actually asking right now. And before the workshops I always poll them and ask them what questions do you have? So I can make sure that I answer them live. The next one is one of my favorites and this is my members only private podcast feed. So members can submit real questions from their business and I answer all of them in a private podcast feed. It's really like an on demand mentoring that fits their schedule, but it also keeps them moving forward. The Next is built in AI assistance. So inside all of my memberships I've also built AI tools that do everything really from mindset coaching to weekly accountability check ins. So we even have specialized bots for newsletter writing, digital product planning and implementation workflows. So that is helping them get faster results without overwhelming their time or my time. And here's why all of this works. So this approach keeps things fresh because the content is evolving with the market. It's flexible because members can get help with their specific situation, which is key here. And it's very focused because we are prioritizing implementation over just watching videos and watching context. And it's not just me. It's working for our members too. They feel supported, they stay on track, they implement faster and they aren't left wondering what do I do next? Now I do want to be clear on this. Courses are not dead. In fact, people are still buying self paced trainings. When they number one, solve a specific problem, they offer a quick win. The solution is easy to implement. For example, I recently bought a self paced course to help me set up a better tracking system for my memberships using airtables. So it solved a very specific need and I didn't need access to the instructor, I just really needed the steps to set all of this up. So yes, courses still have a place, but they need to be highly focused and results driven. So to anyone out there who's feeling stuck or scared about AI, I don't want you to freeze, I want you to lean in. The truth is, AI is not here to replace creators, is here to support us, speed up the stuff that drains us and help us scale without burning out. But that human element which is your brain, your judgment, your experience, that is irreplaceable. So if you are adopting your business to the AI world, I want you to ask yourself, how can I give people more access to me? How can I incorporate AI tools to help them get results faster? And how can I shift from just delivering information to delivering transformation? I'd love to hear what you are doing to adopt, so come connect with me on LinkedIn or respond to any of my emails. If you're not on the Creators MBA newsletter, definitely jump on that. And thank you so much for being here with me today. Until next time, keep creating, keep leading and keep growing your digital product business. Bye for now. Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.