I’m hearing a lot of discussion around the future of info products lately. Obviously, selling your knowledge to educate other people through the power of the Internet is still very much in demand. But on the flip side, AI almost makes information and content commoditized.
So here’s my internal reflection about the kind of changes we can anticipate. Also, if you want to continue to share what you know and make a living, I’ll discuss what you can do to ride the next wave.
My quick confession
I wasn’t following AI closely after ChatGPT came out. I asked myself why — the root reason I’ve discovered was ego.
As a teacher, author, and entrepreneur who prides myself on the ideas I share, I was facing a huge ego problem. If I used AI to help with my work, then who would I become? Would I be cheating?
I didn’t quite understand the concept of having AI as a collaborator. And I wasn’t very impressed by the quality of the AI’s work because I didn’t know how to feed it.
In November 2024, I started building an AI course for a big-name creator. That’s when I finally had to understand what AI was all about. Now, I’ve been using ChatGPT and Cursor (for building software) actively.
And I can’t help but think about this — what does the future of learning look like in an AI-driven world?
This question has been on my mind a lot. It got me super excited because a lot of the problems and gaps in online education and learning could be solved with AI’s ability to help us code. My first job was as a software engineer and my cup of tea is in education, so I feel this new enthusiasm in me these days.
The problems with information products
I’ve sold and taught so many kinds of learning experiences in the last few years. Here’s what I’ve spotted:
1. Lectures are beyond boring
Too many online courses still rely on static, one-way video lessons.
Well, they are the easiest to make. You just prepare the materials, turn on the camera, and talk. The problem with lectures is that they are purely delivering information, meaning that if that’s the only value you add, AI will destroy that in a beat.
The better learning programs (now we’re talking beyond the basic info products) offer live calls, small breakout groups, and discussion prompts. This is better, but still not good enough.
What’s better? I’ll cover some ideas below.
2. We learn from getting feedback, but there’s none
For someone who wants to spread good ideas and teach others, there’s an ongoing conflict between education and marketing.
Basically, if you want to influence more people and make more money, you have to deprioritize the learning experiences. You end up just making simple video lessons because it is the easiest.
But if you truly care about students making transformations, you design better interactions and activities to drive that to happen. The problem is that this is hard to scale.
People seem to think that an AI coach will solve this problem by answering students’ questions for the teacher. I don’t think that’s going to cut it. There has to be more to it.
I recall attending a 3-month coding bootcamp in New York back in 2013 when I was determined to learn coding. I’d never forget that in-person experience. It was so fun. The group, the friendship, and the feedback from teachers and peers — they made all the difference.
3. Why do we not celebrate?
I’ve run a number of sprints and challenges in the last few years. A big part of them was about encouraging participants to take action and celebrating together.
The sad thing is that most basic info products don’t celebrate at all.
The other learning programs like cohort-based courses or a course with a community add the human-human element but still, they don’t celebrate much other than asking you to post your “wins.”
My friend, Max Haining, who runs 100 School, told me that their students always look forward to the Demo Day where they showcase and celebrate one another’s achievements. We need more of that.
How AI Is changing the game
I recently bought a course from Nat Eliason on how to use Cursor and AI to build simple software. Let’s just say I’ve been mind-blown.
10 years ago, I was a software engineer writing code line by line. Now you can work with AI to quickly build. My view is that the average person will still have a hard time building software because you need to understand the blocks of an app, but for the crowd who has a bit of technical know-how out there, this creates limitless possibilities.
Here’s what excites me most about where we’re headed:
1. Let’s really put gameplay into learning
Well, we’ve been saying this for so many years already. The thing is not many people have cracked it. Especially for creator educators who are either a one-person team or a small team, they just don’t have the resources to do this.
But AI will solve this.
Learning is about creating discomfort for the students and making it a fun journey to overcome it. Lectures or even discussions don’t make this happen.
Games do. Think about those video games. They are so good at making the player suffer so that they have to figure out how to solve the puzzle. The discomfort and journey create learning.
I think most people get it wrong about this though.
They see the word “game” and instantly think about gamification like rewarding points or badges for completing something. Nope, that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the actual experiences students get.
Think about those escape rooms where four people enter to solve a puzzle. It is more like that.
I’m very excited about this.
2. Will learning be personalized?
A lot of people seem to be talking about this. Like how each student will be given a different learning path based on their levels.
I’m sure big learning platforms will offer that because they have a large set of data and a team of learning designers working on it. But for creator educators, I just don’t really see personalization happening.
I’m curious to follow how this can evolve though.
3. One program > many info products
Well, I say this as someone who has built quite a number of info products so far — courses and books.
Think about it, info and content are commoditized. This means the value of purely informational products will go down. It is all about things like accountability, implementation, and community experiences.
If you want to build a profitable education business around your knowledge, then you’ll be better off crafting a killer, mind-blowing experience around one program. How to be mind-blowing? Gameplay, feedback, action, and celebration.
You might still create info products but you do it strategically. For example, lots of creator educators are writing books based on their core concepts. They use it as a marketing tool to get more exposure. They don’t write the book because they want to make lots of money selling $10 books.
Double down on what AI can’t do
Obviously, you want to use AI to help you level up the learning experiences you sell and provide. This is going to be the area I’ll focus on. I’m just super curious and excited about it.
On the other hand, you should hone in on the things AI can’t do:
- Creating that emotional experience between real people
- Sharing real experiences they’ve just gone through
- Celebrating, encouraging, cheering
- Actually, what else can you think of?
Purely informational products will not die for sure. Sometimes people just want that specific information from you, e.g., how you gained 10X traffic from this experiment. They just won’t be as lucrative as they were in the years 2020-2022.
Content and info won’t die as well. They will just become part of a bigger learning experience. After all, you still need some content to fill in the learning gaps after all the gameplay, activities, and discussion.
This is obviously a topic that will be evolving quickly so if you want to bounce ideas on the future of learning from a creator educator standpoint (not a large education company), you know I’m just one email away!
