I’ve been seeing more and more creators experimenting with AI agents inside their memberships and communities, and I finally have enough thoughts to share my perspective. In this episode, I break down where I think AI can actually improve the member experience… and where I think it completely misses the point of community. I talk about why I’m skeptical of “AI clones” of creators, what actually makes memberships sticky in 2026, and the operational use cases for AI that I’m genuinely excited about. If you’re thinking about adding AI into your community experience, this episode will help you think more critically about the tradeoffs.

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I think it's time we talk about AI agents in communities.

Should we have them?

Shouldn't we have them?

What are all of the issues with this, how are people using them, is it working, etc.

So I've seen enough of this in the market now to form an opinion.

And here's my take on this.

And a lot of this is my opinion, you guys, so keep that in mind.

Like you are entitled to your own belief about this.

There's a lot.

There's so much unknown about AI.

Even the quote, unquote, AI experts don't really know everything, right?

Like, it's just evolving so, so rapidly that we only know what we know today.

So I'm recording this on Tuesday, releasing it on Thursday.

I don't know, it might be expired two weeks from now.

And that's.

That's okay.

So one thing I've been thinking about, and this actually came up in a client conversation just yesterday, which is what in inspired me to publish this episode quickly and kind of push back my.

My next episodes.

Somebody said, hey, why don't.

This is like in a networking community, like the community.

And I do think it matters.

It matters if it's like transformational, if it's, if it's networking.

And this community is all about human connection, bringing people together, connecting with one another, networking, supporting each other, et cetera.

So if the community itself is focused on connection, then that's something to consider around whether or not AI agents belong in that community, especially in a capacity that they're having conversations with humans.

So this came up in a call yesterday where one of the members suggested, hey, what if we make an AI agent that represents this creator, that.

That is part of the community and like a founder of the community.

And this is like the most common place where I'm seeing it that I.

That I'm struggling with, which is like, you are a creator with unique IP or a thought leader, or an author or somebody that leads, like an educator.

And you're like, let me replace my ip, Let me create a bot of myself, like an AI agent version of myself to put inside my community so my community members can talk to me.

But it's not me, it's a bot.

That's what I'm talking about.

I don't know about this.

I don't think it makes sense in a community where the entire purpose is to drive connection.

Like, yes, it's based on that author, educator, creator's frameworks and processes and their recommendations, but the goal is not to bring them in, to have Them, have conversations with them.

The goal is to like, curate a group of people that have shared interests, values.

They, they follow this person, they're interested in that, that knowledge or those frameworks, and then they want to connect with other people that are using these things.

Right?

And so if we're encouraging, even if there's like an educational component, I don't believe it makes sense to bring in these AI agents as a replacement for this like creator brain.

Because what actually makes a membership sticky and why memberships are working right now to work and grow is the human connection piece.

Because we have education and content at our fingertips.

It's available via our own personal Claude, it's available via free YouTube.

Like content overwhelm to the max, right?

Like, log into any platform and you'll have endless content, especially if your feed is curated with the topics you care about.

So what makes memberships different and what makes these community experiences different is, is the community is the human connection is like the shared interest and sharing of notes and like doing things together.

So if we start to create these like, AI replacements of ourselves in communities, then what incentive do they have to actually connect with one another?

Where I think AI agents have a place in memberships is for customer support and for operational tasks.

And I can talk about that in more depth in a second.

But I don't believe it's a replacement for human conversation because that kind of defeats the purpose.

The purpose is for them to work through their goals, work toward their goals, work through their challenges with others in a space that others are tackling the same issues.

I, I'm a fan of like a giving people AI prompts or custom GPTs or in your curriculum, you're giving these like tools, like I'm a fan of tools to help members reach goal faster.

I've talked about how like time to value is the most important thing right now.

And a part of that is like using modern tools and giving them templates and AI prompts and this kind of stuff to help them get there.

But we don't want to replace critical thinking skills and I don't know, it's like a really delicate balance.

I'm most excited about AI with communities when it comes to like the operational tasks.

Of course I am because we do a lot of like, management in my business.

But if instead of a human going through and analyzing every single post and trying to understand what are the themes and like really like affinity mapping all of the themes that they're seeing in the community, if AI is able to do that, if we're able to get themes coming out of this.

Like, that's really interesting to me because then your community manager has to do less time of like, reading posts and more time actually connecting with people and connecting people to each other.

So I think there's a lot of operational opportunity and I'll probably do a separate voice note about that.

But again, not AI should not be a replacement for the human conversation aspect.

Okay, so here's my take overall.

Overall, we need to be really thoughtful about how we're using AI in communities, because if it doesn't contribute to the member experience in a very positive way, it's probably a no.

Especially for the authors, educators, creators.

When you create an AI dupe of yourself, you're just exasperating this, like, fan club experience that will get stale over time.

And honestly not that hard to say, like in your prompt to your regular clog to like, hey, talk to me, you know, pretend you're Joe with Dispenza and talk to me about like, what I should do for my meditation plan.

Right?

Like, that already kind of exists.

And so I'm really skeptical of that use of AI in communities.

If it's AI for just the sake of AI, then it's definitely a no as well.

So, like, we don't need to add AI agents that aren't useful just because it's like, oh, now we can say we have an AI agent.

So I just want you to be really thoughtful as always about the member experience you're creating and that, that the power of community driven products is the connection you're creating between members.

Um, you know, we, we need to consider these things.

Like, it's not good for anyone's brain for us to like, be talking to AI constantly all day.

And it's also not good for the environment.

And so all of these things we're creating, the, the member experience we're designing needs to be a positive one.

So always come back to that when you're thinking like, oh, should I use AI for this?

Does it impact the members in a really positive way?

Does it drive them to get results faster and does it encourage them to share and connect with others?

Like, always come back to that.

And I think that if you have that discernment in deciding how AI is used in your membership in your community, then you can absolutely say yes.

But you just need to really think critically and go through these steps to decide is this the right move for you and your members and, and in which ways should you actually be using it?

Okay, I would love to have conversation with people about this.

Um, you know, a lot of times recording this podcast feels a little bit like shouting into the void.

I know people listen to it.

I see the analytics.

I do get some of your notes, but I would love to have a discussion about this.

So I'm gonna be posting on social media with this topic as I shared it.

I would love for you to come comment on my LinkedIn or my Instagram, come find my posts, comments and tell me what you think about this.

Like, do you agree?

I know that it's kind of a spicy take.

I. I'm not sure it makes sense to make AI clones for ourselves, but, you know, maybe there's a great use case for doing it.

And, hey, I'll record another podcast and share, but I would love to hear from more of you about your opinion on this topic.

All right, I'll talk to you next time.

Share this with a friend, especially if you feel like they need to hear it.

And I'll see you in the next episode.