I am not an AI expert and I’m figuring out this rapidly changing landscape as a business owner just like you. What I do have is a 15+ year career of watching people put in the real thinking or skip it. First as a teacher, then as an instructional designer. AI doesn’t change that, it makes it a lot more obvious.
How do we use AI in our businesses so that they don’t look like everyone else’s business? How can we add value, keep the judgement that separates us and makes our services worth paying for?
What is AI-Resistant Value?
This week’s episode of Katy Calls BS talked about the ways AI has changed the landscape especially when it comes to how we use information. It’s not a web search anymore. Websites aren’t the thing that sets up apart. Information itself stopped being the differentiator.
AI can generate a checklist, a framework, an outline for your course, blog, anything, in seconds, for free, for anyone. You don’t have to be the expert anymore. If your offer included just the information, that offer isn’t worth much anymore which is not awesome.
The AI-resistant value part of your business is what’s left. The parts of your business that don’t change when tools get better or more advanced because they are more than information. It’s about what you bring to the table. This is the part of your business where your expertise, judgement, point of view, and years of experience make your business unique. It’s the trust you’ve built with people. None of this can be taken away with an AI prompt.
It sounds good, right? But what does it look like when we apply it to your business? And most importantly, digital products.
AI-Resistant Value and Digital Products
Let’s say you use your favorite AI tool to create a digital product because we love efficiency around here, how do you make sure it is distinctly yours?
1. A generic template gives basic instructions. An AI-resitant template gives judgement calls.
A blank framework can be created by anyone. Yours is unique because it has exceptions built in like “here’s what to do if this doesn’t apply to you.” You are applying your real world, client knowledge to the framework because you’ve likely seen people hit the same roadblocks. A template with decision points in it is something a basic generic one cannot. This is like your chain coffee shop vs. the local one. It works, it’s fine, but the local one is so much better.
2. A generic course delivers information. An AI-resistant course delivers a person.
I am not saying your course needs to be live. Goodness. We’ve all taken a bad course. Imagine if every course was just some basic thing and not backed up by real knowledge and experience. The part that is worth paying for is the expertise! The real client examples instead of the hypotheticals. I know how to cook but it doesn’t mean I call myself a chef. The experience of learning something needs to come from the expert.
3. A generic framework uses borrowed language. An AI-resistant framework has a name.
If what you teach can be described in the same terms as everyone else in your industry, within reason, it’s probably pretty basic. I’m not saying we can come up with different names for Reels. Sometimes there are names for things we can’t change. You know when someone is trying to make up a new name for the same thing or when they have come up with a unique framework. You recognize that person’s work, their style, the way they teach something because they aren’t using borrowed language.
4. A generic freebie hands over the answer. An AI-resistant freebie shows the thinking.
We covered this in last week’s episode. Your freebie shouldn’t be a throw away product. You did spend time creating it. Any freebie you create needs to show a new person in your world how you think. You are guiding them through your process. AI can’t do that.
None of this means we aren’t using the tools. It means we are still using our brains. We are editing the output and trusting our years of experience.
Where AI is Super Helpful in Your Service Business
On the podcast this week, I talked about a few ways AI is helpful in the backend of your business.
- Mining your client calls and DMs for the language your audience uses
- Turning recorded explanations into a first draft process doc
- Running the numbers on a pricing change before your commit
- Getting a first pass read on a proposal before it goes out
- Synthesizing competitor research/Market research
Building digital products opens up even more options. Here are some ways you can use AI tools to help you when you build digital products. This is a step in the process, not a replacement for your judgement!
1. Stress-testing your outline before you build it.
Before you build a module, ask your favorite AI tool to generate likely questions or places a beginner might get stuck. You are not asking it to write your content. You are asking it to find the gaps you may have missed.
2. Draft multiple explanations of the same concept.
People get stuck on the same idea for different reason. AI is really good at generating 3-4 different ways to explain one thing: an analogy version, a step-by-step version, a visual description version. You have to decide which one fits your audience because you know them best. You will also have to tailor it to your voice. But you have a starting point!
3. Draft a first pass at practice questions or assessments.
This is one of my favorite ways and right from the instructional designer playbook. AI tools can generate a pretty good first batch of quiz questions or practice scenarios quickly. What it cannot do is know which of those questions are good. You have to decide what you want to ask your audience and what you are trying to assess. I personally don’t love writing assessments so this is a great way for me to use AI.
Do not just copy and paste anything from your AI tool. Use your judgement!
What an AI-Resistant Business Looks Like
AI isn’t going anywhere and you may not have a ton of digital products. If we zoom out, what does this look for our businesses overall? How you use AI is a structural choice in your business.
Pricing starts reflecting judgement instead of effort. Pricing is a HOT topic, always. A product that took you two hours to put together but ten years of experience to back it up is not priced like it took two hours. Marketing starts leading with your point of view instead of generic tips. Your product suite stops being a stack of random products and starts being a system where the free layer, the low cost layer, and the higher ticket layer all are distinctly yours.
The compounding effect is the part I think gets missed the most. Purely informational products get cheaper every second AI improves. Judgement built products do the opposite. They get more valuable.
What Now?
If you want the full context on why “I use AI” stopped being the strategy, listen to this week’s episode of Katy Calls BS, episode 155, Is Your AI Strategy Living in 2023?
If you are looking at your own digital products and you’re not sure how much of what you’re selling is genuinely AI-resistant versus what is just information, that’s what the Digital Product Infrastructure Audit is built to find. We look at what you have and where you can go.
Quick answer: AI-resistant value is part of your business that doesn’t lose value as AI tools continue to improve. Things like your judgement, your point of view, and the trust you’ve built over time. In a digital product, that means templates with built-in decision points instead of blank frameworks, courses with access to you instead of basic information, and a product suite priced for value instead of effort.
