84: The AI takeover. Why coaches can no longer compete (and what to do about it)
The Business of Fitness PodcastShow Notes
If you are an online coach, or you program for your clients, this is for you. In this episode, Dan Williams talks about the very real threat that AI is bringing to people who provide programs for their clients. Dan explores how AI is transforming exercise programming, why online coaches face potentially career ending risks, and how fitness professionals can pivot to protect their careers in the AI-driven future. 5 things you'll learn in this episode: Why AI-powered exercise programming is advancing faster than most fitness professionals realise. How real-time data from wearables, sleep, mood, and recovery can reshape training sessions instantly. The limitations of empathy and human connection as a defence against automation. Why online programming is becoming a commodity and what that means for pricing. How to pivot your business towards unscalable, in-person experiences that AI cannot replicate. If you are in the business of exercise programming, everything is about to change. You may think that empathy and human connection is going to save you, but in this episode Dan shares a story that shows how difficult it will be to compete with AI. Your action steps: Reassess whether online programming is your long-term career plan, given AI's rapid advances. Explore ways to integrate AI tools into your business as a facilitator, not a competitor. Build in-person, non-scalable experiences that prioritise connection and value beyond what AI can deliver. Educate clients on the unique benefits of human-led training and the experiential side of fitness. Begin shifting your offers towards services that are harder to commoditise, such as bespoke coaching or community-driven experiences.
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In this episode, Ben Luckens interviews Dan about why remarkable client experiences will become a major competitive advantage for fitness businesses in the age of AI. This episode covers some of the topics from the 2026 Perth Fitness Business Client Experience Workshop. Learn more about that here. Dan explains why businesses need to move beyond simply delivering a service and start creating experiences that make people feel something and give them stories to share. They discuss experience marketing, the value of doing things that do not scale, and how better member experiences can improve retention, referrals and revenue. Dan also breaks down his one-size-fits-all, one-size-fits-some and one-size-fits-one approach, and explains why the employee experience will become just as important as the client experience.
In this episode, Dan Williams explains how personal trainers can design a PT session that clients remember, value and talk about. (it's also a summarised 'sneak peak' of the upcoming 2026 Perth Fitness Business Client Experience Workshop) He walks through how to map every client touchpoint, identify the pits that damage trust, improve the forgettable parts of the session and create a small number of memorable peaks. Listeners will learn how to use intended feelings, intended stories, benchmarking and the Ten Star Thought Experiment to improve client retention, referrals and the overall personal training experience. Learn more: 2026 Perth Fitness Business Client Experience Workshop
I'm proud to use this episode to announce the 2026 Perth Fitness Business Client Experience Workshop: https://gobsmack.com.au/fitness/ The Perth Fitness Business Client Experience Workshop is a practical, 12 hour event to help fitness business owners design a more remarkable client experience. You'll work with myself (Dan Williams) and my team to design a jaw-dropping client experience strategy that helps your fitness business become the one clients remember, return to and recommend. We are capping this event at 15 attendees, tickets $1497 each. Afterpay is available. Learn more at: https://gobsmack.com.au/fitness/
Retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges in the fitness industry, yet Ben Luckens's four key team members have each stayed with him for more than seven years. In this episode, Dan asks Ben the leadership principles behind that loyalty, including self-leadership, vulnerability, difficult conversations, empathy and leading by example. He also shares how Stoic philosophy shaped his approach, why leaders are often their business's biggest bottleneck, and the practical actions business owners can take to build a stronger culture and become the kind of leader great people want to follow.