Why Using AI to Create Digital Products Isn’t Cheating (And Why That Belief Is Holding You Back)
Let’s Get This Out of the Way…
People are building digital products faster than ever.
Solo.
One weekend.
Making money by Monday morning fast.
And every time someone sees it, the same reflex kicks in:
“Yeah but… I bet they used AI.”
As if that settles the argument or disqualifies the result.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Nobody who’s winning actually cares.
And deep down, you know that already.
Do You Know The Dumbest Question in the Creator Economy Right Now?
Here it is:
“Was this created by AI?”
That question used to mean something.
Back when quality was rare, and effort signalled value.
It doesn’t anymore.
Because we’ve quietly crossed a line.
The real question people are starting to ask is:
“Did a human write this crap?”
AI is already a better writer than most people posting online.
It’s clearer, tighter, less self-indulgent than the usual “here’s my journey” nonsense.
And audiences aren’t stupid.
They don’t care who wrote something.
They care whether it solves the problem directly in front of them.
That’s why people don’t say “Google it” anymore.
They say, “ChatGPT it.”
Even Google’s first result is now an AI answer with a prompt to explore deeper.
The debate about AI “authenticity” isn’t moral. It’s outdated.
What’s Actually Creating the Gap (And Why It Feels Unfair)
Here’s what people get wrong:
They think creators moving fast are cheating. They’re not.
They’re just refusing to play a dying game.
AI didn’t suddenly make people smarter.
It removed the slow, painful part between knowing something and turning it into an asset.
That gap used to eat months:
Drafts
Rewrites
Second-guessing
Perfection paralysis
Now it eats minutes.
Which means the bottleneck moved.
The constraint is no longer writing.
It’s having something worth writing about.
AI can generate words forever.
Even though it can explain anything, it can’t decide what matters.
It can’t know which problems are actually painful unless you tell it.
And that’s why the people winning with AI aren’t the prompt bros.
They already have answers:
From experience
From pattern recognition
From shit they’ve personally lived through
AI just gets those answers out of their head and into the world faster.
And here’s the part no one wants to say out loud:
Typing was never the value.
Thinking was.
Where This Is Going (And Why Fighting It Is Pointless)
Let’s be painfully blunt.
Even if people want a human answer…
Big tech may not give them a choice.
Platforms are being rebuilt around:
Speed
Clarity
Resolution
Not authorship.
The future expectation isn’t:
“Tell me how you made this.”
It’s:
“Just fix the problem.”
That doesn’t hurt good creators.
But it kills bad creators who confuse effort with value.
The ones who survive will understand this simple line:
AI can write but it can’t decide.
If you let AI think for you, your content turns into generic garbage.
If you give AI the solutions you’ve already earned, your output scales without losing any authenticity.
That’s the difference.
It’s not human vs machine.
It’s judgment vs formatting.
Permission Granted (You Don’t Need It, But Here It Is)
If you finish this article feeling a little relieved, good.
Because here’s the truth most creators need to hear:
It’s okay to use AI.
It’s okay to create content with it.
It’s okay to build digital offers with it.
It’s okay to sell things you didn’t manually type line by line, like it’s 2009.
What’s not okay is outsourcing your thinking.
AI isn’t a threat. Indecision is.
The people moving fast didn’t abandon integrity. They abandoned unnecessary struggle.
And the longer you wait for permission to use leverage, the more normal it becomes for everyone else.
At some point, the question won’t be:
“Is it okay to use AI?”
It’ll be:
“Why the hell are you still doing this the hard way?”
That’s the shift that’s already happening around you…
And you’re allowed to step into it, so you don’t get left behind.
Love the emphasis on not outsourcing your thinking. This is key. This is the human experience that machines can't replace. Great article. 🙌
Yes agree with you! However relying solely on AI may create trouble if it's not trained properly. I want to share a story here. Used Grok to validate my idea without properly training it and without giving it a context. Result? It didn't go well. Hardly got 8-10 sales. Later on, resolved the issue and sold the product even before launching it.
Having said that, unless you solve the burning problem people are dying to solve, it doesn't matter whether AI was used or not. Same goes for all kind of digital products. In fact, those who predict this is AI or NOT AI are wrong 80% of times!