Why Future-Focused Creators are Making the Shift from Systematisation Towards AI Productisation

Securing in-person engagements has long been considered a high-value strategy for creators in a variety of niches. There’s no better way to promote your services and build rapport than the good old-fashioned face-to-face meeting. However it became apparent many years ago as the digital era gained momentum, that in-person engagements were not conducive to effective scaling and a different model was needed, especially for low-ticket offerings. Online courses became widely used and their popularity soon exploded. Courses enabled a creator’s knowledge to be systematised, while prospects and clients alike benefited from having ongoing access to self-paced learning, delivered in a structured format.

As we enter 2025, the appeal of the online course remains. However its use brings with it several shortcomings which are becoming glaringly apparent in a world where clients demand hyperpersonalised experiences. While courses remain the go-to for self-paced learning there’s a need for creators to branch out and explore other approaches either alongside or in addition to their course packages and here’s 3 compelling reasons why: 

1. Courses are often impersonal. The standard focus on linear progression through a structured curriculum often makes for an impersonal experience for learners with unique questions, prior knowledge or specific interests. Learning is rarely one-size-fits-all.

2. Minimal active engagement takes place. While some courses incorporate a few interactive features such as assessments, worksheets, or discussion forums, these elements do not actively engage learners in problem-solving, real-time feedback, or adaptive learning experiences.

3. There’s a lack of ongoing monetisation potential. Once a course has been completed how can you continue to promote retention and increase overall customer lifetime value? There’s often little incentive for your clients to return to or continue engaging with the content unless they’re presented with additional value. This lack of continuity makes it difficult to build a sustainable recurring income stream from the use of courses in their own right.

The bottom line is: prospects and clients alike have come to expect considerably more tailoring than your stock standard PDF lead magnets and online courses are capable of delivering in isolation, and now is the time to respond decisively to this need by unlocking the kind of scalable personalisation that AI makes possible.

If you continue to rely on courses and static resources to deliver value independently of your in-person engagements in today’s market, my bet is you’ll rapidly find yourself struggling to attract and retain clients at scale; in an online marketplace where the delivery of hyperpersonalised value from the first customer touchpoint is fast becoming a client expectation. 

Why Transitioning to AI Productisation Gives Creators the Competitive Edge

Even the most thoughtfully designed of courses can only ever deliver an experience that is relatively speaking, one-for-all. However by leveraging digital products that produce dynamic output, true personalisation at scale becomes a distinct possibility.

When AI productisation becomes an integral aspect of your client acquisition and retention strategies you can create a range of digital products that produce high quality contextual output - which reflects your unique frameworks, processes, methodologies and the preferences of the individual lead or client. This makes for an interactive and hyperpersonalised exchange of value across multiple touchpoints which can be delivered in a range of formats; including blueprints, assessments and interactive guides. There’s no meaningful way to incorporate this level of personalization within a traditional digital course, without being confronted with scalability issues, stagnation and eventual burnout.

The Potential Use Cases at a Glance

AI productisation is ideal for increasing the effectiveness of your retention marketing by providing your database with personalised offerings, attracting and qualifying high-quality prospects at the top of your sales funnel or even providing additional value alongside your course or in-person sessions. To illustrate the potential, imagine you offer a fitness course. Through the use of productisation, you could deliver additional value to your clients by providing them with a personalised meal and workout planner following course completion and a  progress tracker that provides dynamic suggestions for achieving core fitness goals based on the user input. 

The Productised Customer Journey: A Business Coaching Perspective

With productisation, value can be delivered across multiple touchpoints in the buyer’s journey To illustrate, let’s use business coaching as an example. A business coach that offers their services to startups and side hustlers could provide leads with a business concept validation assessment that evaluates a prospect’s individual business idea based on market demand, competition and monetization potential as it applies to their proposal, before delivering a personalised report. They’re now ready to be marked to at the next phase.

With the lead having validated their business proposal and now well-qualified, they can proceed to the business accelerator course which is followed on completion by a personalized coaching call or in-person consulting session. 

With a view to promoting retention and advocacy, the business coach creates an additional digital product that generates a personalised 90 day business roadmap. The roadmap provides dynamic advice that illustrates how the client’s business is progressing based on their feedback which is collected from an interactive form. The roadmap tool also features benchmarking against anonymised competitor data and some engaging gamification features which enable customers who leverage the tool consistently over a period of 3 months to unlock a bonus coaching session at a discounted rate. By taking a productised approach to retention, the business coach is happy to achieve these desirable outcomes:

(i) Clients forming productive habits: Startup founders and side-hustlers are encouraged to stay engaged through active tracking of their progress throughout

(ii) Keeping the database in the loop: through the ongoing provision of personalised value to them,  with minimal effort relative to onerous courses and dreary ebooks

(iii) Further opportunities for upselling: Clients struggling with progress based on analysis of key metrics are encouraged to book additional coaching sessions.

The best approach: courses alongside productisation

The traditional course will always have its rightful place and to this day there remains no better approach for the delivery of a structured learning curriculum that provides high quality instruction on topics of value to target audiences. However diversification has become the order of the day, as practically every niche is now saturated. Scalable personalisation through the use of AI-powered products is an excellent way to branch out and divert some valuable attention towards your offerings and away from those of competitors. 

The Importance of Delivering Value After the Course

As a creator it’s an opportune time for you to look to the future and think critically about how you can retain the attention of high value clients throughout the customer journey, especially after they’ve completed your course in full. Acquiring new clients is an expensive exercise and the more loyal clients you succeed in retaining, the more opportunities that will arise later for strategic upselling and cross-selling that leads to sustainable expansion revenue. 

The creation of high quality digital products capable of rendering dynamic output that is closely aligned with your chosen brand voice can help you deliver value from the initial exchange through to the conversion and beyond - providing your email list with plenty of high quality guidance that’s sure to keep them actively subscribed.