The Three Kinds of Course Creators Your Students will Follow Next Year

If you teach, coach, or mentor other people for a living, your students and clients are already using AI to figure out the things you teach them.

And in the next twelve months, they are going to start following the people who can help them use AI well.

This is not meant to scare you. It is meant to give you a clear-eyed look at the moment we are living in. Because the question facing every course creator, coach, and membership owner right now is not whether AI matters. It is what kind of creator, educator, and expert you are going to be.

I am Lydia Martin, an online business mentor, launch strategist, and Kajabi expert for the AI era. Over the last six years, I have helped thousands of coaches, course creators, and membership owners launch and scale profitable offers with a sustainable business model. I have also been deeply integrating AI tools, specifically Claude, into how I serve my students and run my business.

The conversation I want to have with you today is one I do not see enough people in our industry having. So today, we are having it.

The three kinds of teachers in the AI era

In this AI moment we are all in, you really have three kinds of people you can choose to follow and learn from. Each of them brings something to the table. But only one of them gives you what you actually need to grow a sustainable, profitable online business right now.

Type 1: The AI-only teacher

The first kind is someone who is genuinely brilliant at AI. They understand the tools. They build agents. They stack workflows. They make impressive things happen on the screen.

But they do not necessarily understand online marketing. They do not understand launch strategy. They do not understand conversion. They do not understand the business of teaching other people, or how to run a coaching practice, or how to build a membership.

If you follow them, here is what happens. You learn how to make AI do impressive things, but those things have no context, no perspective, and no real connection to your audience. You end up with outputs that look slick on social media but never quite land for the actual humans you serve. You build things that may not convert because the person teaching you has never had to convert anyone in a real business.

Type 2: The marketing-only teacher

The second kind is someone who is genuinely brilliant at marketing, launches, and offers. They have built real businesses. They know how to write copy that converts. They understand audience, transformation, and messaging at a deep level.

But they do not really use AI. Not deeply. Not as a part of how they actually work.

If you follow them, you learn proven strategies. Real ones. The kind that have built actual businesses. But you implement those strategies the slow way. You spend one, two, even six weeks writing a sales page that AI could have helped you draft in an hour. You hire more people to handle tasks AI could handle alongside them. You pay more in contractor fees. You burn out trying to execute on advice that was created in a pre-AI world.

Both of these types of teachers are good at what they do. They have built audiences for a reason. But for the coach, course creator, or membership owner trying to build a real business right now, they each give you only half of what you need.

Type 3: The rare third kind of creator

The third kind of creator is rare right now, but they exist. And you can find them if you know what to look for.

These are people who are genuinely skilled at both. Who have built real businesses through proven launch strategies and conversion principles. They understand audience, messaging, and the actual work of running a coaching or course business. AND who have integrated AI deeply into how they work, so they can teach you not just the strategy, but how to execute the strategy with the efficiency AI offers.

These are the teachers who can show you how to write a sales page in a few hours instead of a few weeks, because they know both what the sales page needs to say AND how to use AI to help you write it in your voice.

These are the teachers who can show you how to support your members without burning out, because they know both what your members need AND how to use AI to help you serve at scale.

This is who you want to be following right now. Someone who teaches both. Someone whose strategy you trust, whose AI fluency is real, and whose business looks the way you want yours to look.

Here why this matters

This third kind of creator I am describing is also who your students need YOU to become.

Not just a coach in your niche. Not just a course creator who knows your subject matter. A creator who knows the work AND knows how to help your students implement faster, more efficiently, using AI as a tool that serves the work, not replaces it.

Because here is the truth. Your students are already using AI. They are using it to write their bios, plan their meals, draft their emails, build their offers. And they are using it to figure out the things you teach, whether they tell you that or not.

The coaches, creators, and educators who become this third kind of teacher, the ones who can guide students in both their niche AND how to use AI well, are the ones their students will keep following.

The ones who do not will quietly watch their students drift toward someone who can.

This is not a guess. This is what is happening in our industry right now, in real time. I see it in my own community every week. The creators who have integrated AI into how they teach are pulling ahead. The ones who have not are slowly losing ground.

And you get to choose which one you are going to be.

What this looks like in practice

Let me make this practical, because abstract conversations about AI do not help anyone. Here are real examples from my own week as a course creator and membership owner.

Live Q&A guides for my members

When I host a live Q&A inside my membership, my members used to leave the call with pages of scribbled notes that they would never go back to.

Now, I have a Claude Skill I built that takes the transcript of that Q&A and generates a complete guide for my members. Step-by-step summaries of what was taught. The questions that were asked, with the answers laid out clearly. Action steps so they know exactly what to do next.

By the time my members log back in the next day, they not only have access to the replay, they have a guide waiting for them that helps them implement right away. Not someday. The next day.

That is what this kind of creator does. AI is not replacing the teaching. It is helping your students actually use what you taught.

Content that maps to real strategy

When I sit down to create content that attracts my ideal audience, I use a set of prompts and Claude Skills I have refined over months. I am not just writing posts. I am writing posts that map to a real strategy, in my voice, and they go out faster than they used to.

Here is the part that matters most for my members. Because I teach content strategy and launch strategy as part of what I do, I share those exact prompts and Skills with my students. So they are not just learning what to post (which is what they did pre-AI). Now they are learning how to use AI to actually produce what they need to post, in their voice, on their schedule.

I use AI to serve my students. Then I teach my students how to use AI to serve themselves and their students. Both sides of the relationship get faster, more efficient, more grounded in real strategy that can be implemented.

Personalized student support at scale

When a student asks me a question about positioning their offer, I have context already loaded in Claude about how I teach offer strategy. The response I give them is thoughtful, voice-aligned, and goes deeper than I could have written in real time.

I have also created Claude Skills that give complete reviews of homework students submit. These are reviews I can run, or that I can give the Skill to my students to run for themselves. Because of these tools, my students feel supported, and I move on to the next thing without losing an entire afternoon.

When my students ask how to use AI in their own businesses, I do not fumble through a half-answer. I walk them through the frameworks I built for myself. The same frameworks I am teaching them to build for themselves. And they tell me it is one of the most valuable resources for them as members.

How to become the third kind of creator

This is what the third kind of creator and educator does. Not magic. Not robot armies. Just a calm, intentional integration of one tool, used well, in service of the people who trust you.

I know some of you are thinking: "But I am not tech-savvy. I do not know a lot about AI, and I already feel behind."

Becoming this kind of creator is actually not as hard as people make it sound. You do not need to learn how to build agents. You do not need to stack seventeen tools. You need a foundation. Just one tool, used well, in your voice, in service of the people who trust you.

For me, that one tool is Claude. And it is exactly why I built the workshop I am about to tell you about.

The AI-Confident Creator Workshop

In the last several months, I have attended dozens of AI workshops, challenges, and courses. And there is one thing I figured out. So many of the things being sold are beyond what people need to start. So overwhelm sets in, and implementation does not happen.

That is not what I want for you.

I am teaching a live workshop called The AI-Confident Creator on Monday, May 18, 2026, from 2 to 4 PM ET. It is two hours. It is $97. There is lifetime replay access.

This workshop is designed for the exact person I have been describing in this post: the coach, course creator, or membership owner who is ready to become the third kind of teacher. Someone who knows the strategy of their niche AND the AI integration that helps their students implement faster. Someone whose students will keep following them because they can lead in both.

Inside the workshop, I teach you how I use Claude every single day in my own business. The voice training framework that makes every output sound like something I wrote. The content workflow that gives me back hours every week. The Skills feature that lets me create sales page copy, student reviews, lesson guides, live session summaries, and so much more.

The longest section of the workshop is on how to empower your students with AI. Because that is the heart of it all. It is not just how AI helps you. It is how you become the creator who helps your students use it well.

You do not have to be an AI expert to guide your students in how to use AI tools to implement what you teach. And inside this workshop, I am going to show you exactly how to do it.

Find all the details and save your seat at launchwithlydia.com/aiconfident

One final thought before you go

Your students are choosing right now who they are going to follow next year. They are evaluating, in big ways and small ways, whether you are someone who can lead them through the next chapter of online business. A chapter that includes AI whether any of us is ready for it or not.

You get to decide what kind of creator and educator you are going to be.

The kind who keeps doing things the way you have always done them, while your students quietly drift toward someone who can guide them in both.

Or the kind they keep following. The kind who knows the strategy AND the AI. The kind I am working to help you become.

That is the question worth answering for yourself this week. What kind of creator are you going to be?

If this post resonated with you, the most meaningful thing you can do is share it with one other coach, course creator, or membership owner who has been quietly wondering whether they are behind on this. They are not behind. They are in the exact right moment to start.

So are you.

Ready to become the third kind of creator?

Join me live on Monday, May 18, 2026, from 2 to 4 PM ET for The AI-Confident Creator Workshop. Two hours of foundational training in Claude for coaches, course creators, and membership owners. $97 with lifetime replay access. The starter prompt library, the Skills implementation guide, and the voice training framework are all included.

Save your seat at launchwithlydia.com/aiconfident

Frequently asked questions about using AI as a course creator:

Do course creators need to use AI in their business?

Not all course creators are required to use AI, but the ones who do are seeing real time savings, better content output, and stronger student experiences. The bigger question is not whether AI matters, but whether your students will follow creators who use AI well. Most coaching, course, and membership students are already using AI tools, and they increasingly look to creators who can guide them in using AI thoughtfully alongside the core subject matter being taught.

What is the best AI tool for course creators and coaches?

For most coaches, course creators, and membership owners, Claude is the best all-around AI tool. It handles long-form writing well, holds nuanced context across conversations, supports voice training so outputs sound like you wrote them, and includes a Skills feature that lets you build reusable workflows for things like sales page copy, lesson guides, and student support. ChatGPT is also widely used, especially for shorter content tasks. Both tools have free plans, with paid tiers unlocking deeper features.

How can I use AI without losing my unique voice?

The key is teaching the AI tool who you are before you use it for any output. This means feeding it context about your audience, your phrasing patterns, the words you avoid, and examples of writing in your voice. With Claude, you can save this context in a Project so every conversation starts with your voice already loaded. The difference between AI output without voice training and AI output with voice training is dramatic.

Should I teach my students how to use AI inside my programs?

Yes, if AI is relevant to what you teach. Your students are already using AI. Guiding them in how to use it well, ethically, and in service of their goals positions you as a trusted advisor in this AI moment. The most effective approach is to model your own AI use transparently, share specific prompts or workflows you have refined, and frame AI as a tool that serves your existing teaching, not a replacement for it.

How much does it cost to learn AI as a course creator?

AI training costs range from free (YouTube tutorials, blog posts) to $10,000 or more (multi-month certifications and high-ticket programs). Most coaches, course creators, and membership owners do not need the high-end programs, which are typically built for larger agencies with operational complexity. A focused workshop or foundational training is usually all that is needed to build a real AI workflow. The AI-Confident Creator Workshop is $97 and covers foundational AI integration for online business owners.

What is the difference between using AI and being an AI expert?

Using AI well does not require being a technical expert. It requires a foundation: choosing one tool, teaching it your voice, learning the prompts and frameworks that fit your business, and integrating it into the work you already do. AI experts build agents, automate complex workflows, and stack tools. Most course creators do not need any of that. They need a calm, intentional workflow with one tool, used well, that gives them hours back every week and helps their students implement faster.