My Favorite AI Tools for Course Creators (And Exactly How I Use Them)

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My Favorite AI Tools for Course Creators (And Exactly How I Use Them)

If you've ever gone down the AI tool rabbit hole and walked away more overwhelmed than when you started, this post is for you. I'm breaking down the three AI tools that are actually making a difference in my business right now... not a roundup of everything that exists, just what's working and exactly how I'm using each one.

Why Most Course Creators Get Stuck with AI Tools

Here's something I hear all the time from course creators and coaches: there are so many AI tools out there right now, and every single one has a list of features that sound incredible. But knowing a tool exists and actually knowing how to apply it to your specific business? Those are two very different things.

That gap between awareness and application is where most people get stuck. They try a tool once, can't figure out how it fits into their workflow, and give up. So instead of giving you a list of 10 tools you'll never actually use, I'm sharing three that I come back to every single day and how they show up in my real workflow as a course creator and online business mentor.

How I Use AI as a Course Creator and Coach

Before we dive in, a little context. I'm Lydia Martin, and I help course creators and coaches build cohort experiences that sell and transform. AI is a huge part of how I run my business and what I teach inside my programs.

The good news? You don't have to be tech-savvy to use these tools. I love figuring out how they work for my business and helping others do the same. Because when you get it right, AI genuinely saves you time and makes your content better and more organized. You just need context for how to apply it.

If you want the full picture of how I use AI to build and run cohort-style programs, be sure to join my free workshop, Beyond Courses. But right now, let's jump into the tools.

Tool 1: Claude for Writing Content That Actually Sounds Like You

There's a backstory here. Like many of you, I started off using ChatGPT. I used it for years, had it trained, and was using it every single day for my emails, launch copy, YouTube scripts, podcast content... everything.

But over time, I kept hitting the same wall. The outputs, which seemed really good at first, started to feel generic. No matter how much I tweaked my prompts or how detailed my instructions got, the writing fell flat. A little corporate. Kind of like it could have come from any online business coach, but not specifically from me.

And that matters because the whole point of using AI in your business is to work faster, but not to water down your brand or your message.

What Makes Claude Different for Course Creators

When I switched to Claude, the difference was noticeable immediately. Here's what stood out:

It asks clarifying questions before it starts writing. If I go to write an email to my list, Claude might ask: What's the goal of this email? Are you trying to nurture your audience, point them to a sales page, or invite them to a free workshop? You click on the option that fits your goal, and the output is so much more aligned with what you actually need. That one feature alone changed the quality of my outputs significantly.

Projects keep your brand voice consistent. Like ChatGPT, Claude also has projects where you train it on your business, audience, voice, offers, and frameworks. But unlike other tools I've used, Claude actually maintains that memory consistently. It references earlier conversations inside the project and stays oriented to who I am without me having to retrain it. I've only been using Claude for a couple of months, and it already feels like it knows me better than the tools I used for years.

The Google Docs button is a game-changer. This is a super practical thing, but it has genuinely changed my workflow. When Claude finishes a piece of content, because I've connected my Google Drive, I can click one button and it opens directly in Google Docs, already formatted with colors, structure, and headers. No more copying and pasting. No more reformatting. For someone who's consistently creating guides, lesson docs, emails, and launch copy, that button saves me real time every single week.

Claude for Chrome: The Extension Every Course Creator Needs

I want to mention something that goes hand in hand with Claude, and that is the Claude for Chrome extension. If you didn't know about it, be sure to install it on your Chrome browser. This extension lets you use Claude directly on any webpage without switching tabs or copying anything.

Here's a real example of how powerful this is. We recently rebranded from Banish Business Clutter to Launch with Lydia, and one of the tasks on our list was finding every single old link on my website that still referenced the old brand name. This is the kind of thing that would've taken my team weeks to do manually... going through every page, every post, every resource one by one.

But thanks to the Claude for Chrome extension, Claude went through my entire site, analyzing every piece of content right there in my browser. It flagged every instance of an old link, and it even found typos and errors I didn't know were there. What would've taken me weeks happened in a fraction of the time.

You can also use it to get copy suggestions for your own pages, analyze content you're reading, or get instant feedback without ever leaving the page you're on. It removes all that friction of switching back and forth between tools. This alone makes it worth adding to your browser.

Why I Haven't Fully Left ChatGPT

I haven't fully left ChatGPT. I still use it for one specific thing: custom GPTs. The ability to build custom GPTs and share them with my students and clients is still something I love. It helps my students build faster, and it's not something I've learned how to do inside Claude yet.

So for right now, I'm keeping both tools. But overall, Claude wins every time for content creation... emails, podcasts, YouTube, course lesson copy, and more.

If you're wondering how to get all your info from ChatGPT into Claude, I have a full tutorial that shows you how to get up and running in no time.

Tool 2: NotebookLM for Turning Your Content into Stunning Visuals

This tool literally stopped me in my tracks the first moment I used it. And I think it's going to do the same for you.

NotebookLM is not a writing assistant the way Claude or ChatGPT are. You don't use it to brainstorm or write emails from scratch. It does something very different and very specific.

I still use Claude to help me with content and to organize all of my ideas and thoughts. But I use NotebookLM to take that content I've already created and turn it into something stunning. We're talking slide decks, infographics, audio overviews, visual summaries, and assessments. And the quality is something you have to see to believe.

My Biggest Wow Moment with NotebookLM

My biggest wow moment was when I used it to design the slides for my last live workshop. This is something that would've taken me hours, maybe even days, to do in Canva. But I uploaded my content, gave it some direction on my colors and what to focus on, and NotebookLM generated a full professional slide deck that was ready to go with very little prompting.

How NotebookLM Works for Course Creators

The way it works is simple:

Go to notebooklm.google.com, create a notebook, and upload your sources. These sources can be transcripts, course lesson documents, PDFs, frameworks, offer descriptions... anything you've already created. Then you tell it what you want to make.

In the studio, you can select slide deck, infographic, audio overview, even a mind map. You give it your brand colors and some context, hit generate, and in about five to ten minutes, you have a beautifully designed resource.

In one of my notebooks, I uploaded nine recent podcast episode transcripts and asked it to create a slide deck. It pulled out my exact frameworks, my stories, and my concepts... things I reference all the time that I didn't even specifically point to. It created something that genuinely looked like it was made by a professional designer.

Once you have the output, you can download it as a PDF, drop it into Canva, and use some of their amazing tools to make everything editable. Then you adjust colors, fonts, or any details to match your brand, and just like that, what used to take days now takes a couple of hours.

Why This Tool is Perfect for Course Creators

Here's why NotebookLM is so powerful, especially for course creators and coaches: everything it creates is based on the sources you give it. Not something AI is suggesting. That means you can have it create something that's specific to your content.

It takes what you've already built, what you've already taught, and what you already know, and it makes it look incredible. Think about every time you've taught something in a training session or recorded a lesson and thought, "I wish I had a beautiful visual to go with this." That's exactly what NotebookLM is for.

One of my favorite uses are the worksheets I've been able to create at the end of each level of my cohort program. They serve as a visual review and reminder to my students of the concepts I taught. I also love the audio overviews. If you've been struggling with how to promote your own offer, wait until you hear two people discussing your content in what I describe as a mock podcast interview. You'll be so amazed at what they share, you'll want to buy your own offer.

It's a Google tool, so you can get started for free. If you have a Google Workspace or Google One account, you'll get some additional features and higher limits on the number of outputs it can create for you.

Check out my Intro to NotebookLM video to see it in action.

Tool 3: Descript for Editing Video and Audio Without the Overwhelm

This one's especially important if you're creating any kind of video or audio content. Which, if you're running courses or a podcast, that's definitely you.

I think editing is one of the biggest barriers that stops course creators and coaches from creating more content, or from even starting. But Descript is a video and audio editor that works completely differently than probably anything you've already tried.

How Descript's Transcript-Based Editing Works

Instead of editing a timeline like you would in a traditional editing software, you edit a transcript. You literally read through the transcript of your recording and delete the parts you don't want, word by word. Delete the word, and it removes it from the video or audio. It's that straightforward.

The AI Features That Save Me Hours

The AI features are what make Descript a must-have for me:

1. Filler word removal. With one click, Descript can remove all of the filler words from my recording... the "ahs" and "ums" and "you knows" are all gone.

2. Word gap removal. It removes those awkward little pauses between sentences that make recordings sound choppy.

3. Retake detection. Those moments when you stumbled over a word and had to start again by repeating the sentence? Descript finds all the retakes and in one click keeps the best version.

All of that cleanup used to be manual, but now it happens in seconds. I use Descript for all my podcast episodes and course video recordings because it handles the cleanup, and then all I do is a quick review, make any final edits, and it's done.

Why This Matters for Your Course Business

For course creators, the ability to quickly clean up your training recordings means you can publish content faster, and it sounds more polished without a lot of extra effort on your part.

If you've ever avoided starting a podcast or recording course content because the editing felt too overwhelming or time-consuming, Descript genuinely removes that barrier. It has made creating audio and video content feel so much more accessible. For all that it does, this tool is an amazing price. You can get started with Descript here.

The Real Reason Most Course Creators Struggle with AI

I just walked you through three tools, and even in the time it took to read about them, I'm guessing at least one of you thought: "Okay, but where do I even start?" or "I've tried something like that before and couldn't figure it out."

That feeling is not a you problem. It's an information-without-context problem.

AI tools are moving so fast right now, and it's genuinely hard to keep up. The gap isn't usually knowing that a tool exists. The gap is knowing how to actually use it in your specific business... how to prompt it, how to train it, how to make it work for your content, your programs, your audience.

That context is what makes the difference between someone who tries the tool once and gives up, and someone who integrates it into their workflow and wonders how they ever worked without it.

This is exactly why being inside a community or working with a coach who can walk you through these tools in real time is such a game changer. When you can watch someone actually use the tool on their real business content and then ask questions in the moment, that's where the learning actually sticks.

This is something I'm incredibly passionate about inside my Ignite membership and my Cohort Impact Accelerator program. We don't just talk about AI in theory. We show up, use the tools together, and share what's working. I love how we're able to help each other figure out how to apply all of this to our actual businesses.

If you're feeling like you're on the outside of the AI conversation and you want to be on the inside of it, those are the places to be.

Quick Recap: The 3 AI Tools Every Course Creator Should Try

Here's a quick summary of the three tools making a huge difference in my business right now:

1. Claude for writing content that actually sounds like me, plus the Claude for Chrome extension for working right inside my browser.

2. NotebookLM for turning my existing content into stunning visual resources like slide decks, infographics, worksheets, and audio overviews.

3. Descript for editing my video and audio content without the time or overwhelm.

None of these tools require you to be a tech person. None of them require a massive learning curve. But what they do require is having someone show you how to use them in your actual business. Now you have a starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions About AI Tools for Course Creators

Do I need to be tech-savvy to use Claude, NotebookLM, or Descript? Not at all. These tools are designed to be intuitive. Claude works like a conversation, NotebookLM lets you upload content and choose what you want to create, and Descript lets you edit video and audio by editing text. If you can type and upload a file, you can use these tools.

Should I switch from ChatGPT to Claude? If your biggest frustration is that AI outputs sound generic and not like your brand voice, Claude is worth trying. The clarifying questions feature and strong project memory make a noticeable difference. That said, ChatGPT still has strengths, especially custom GPTs that you can share with students and clients. I have a full tutorial on making the switch if you're ready to try it.

Is NotebookLM free to use? Yes, you can get started for free at notebooklm.google.com. If you have a Google Workspace, Google One, or upgraded account, you'll get expanded features and higher output limits.

What kind of content can I create with NotebookLM? Slide decks, infographics, mind maps, audio overviews, visual summaries, and assessments. Everything it creates is based on the sources you upload, so it's specific to your content and frameworks rather than generic AI suggestions.

How much does Descript cost? Descript has various pricing tiers, and the value is incredible for what it does. You can get started here.

What's the best way to learn how to use these AI tools in my course business? Having someone walk you through the tools in real time, using real business content, is the fastest way to learn. That's exactly what happens inside my Ignite membership and Cohort Impact Accelerator program. You can also start with my free Beyond Courses workshop for the bigger picture of how AI fits into building cohort-style programs.

Resources Mentioned in This Post

• Free Workshop: Beyond Courses

• Claude Tutorial: How to Move Your Business from ChatGPT to Claude

• NotebookLM Intro Video: Getting Started with NotebookLM

• Claude for Chrome Extension: Install here

• Descript: lydiamartin.info/descript

• Ignite Membership: launchwithlydia.com/ignite

• Cohort Impact Accelerator: launchwithlydia.com/accelerator

If this post was helpful, share it with another course creator or coach in your world who is trying to figure out the AI piece of their business. And if you haven't subscribed to the Your Online Business Mentor podcast yet, now is a great time... I've got so much more coming that I know you're going to love.