The Best AI Tools for Creating Digital Products That Sell (My 2028 Stack)

I get asked about my tool stack a lot, so I figured it was time to just write it out. This is what I actually use — no sponsored placements, no tools I've tried once and decided to include anyway.

The honest caveat: the "best" tool depends on what you're building. I'll tell you which tool I reach for at each stage and for each product type.

Research and Ideation: ChatGPT + Reddit

Before I build anything, I research whether it's worth building. My process:

ChatGPT is great for quick market analysis, competitive landscape questions, and helping me think through whether a product idea has real demand or just sounds good. I'll feed it search intent context — "people are searching for X, here's what's available, is there a gap" — and it helps me pressure-test the idea.

Reddit is my ground truth. I go to subreddits in the niche and look for recurring questions, complaints, and "I wish there was a thing that…" comments. If the same problem shows up in multiple threads from multiple different people, there's probably a product in it.

Writing and Long-Form Content: Claude

When I'm producing the actual written content for an ebook, guide, workbook, or course, I use Claude. The long-form writing quality is genuinely better than ChatGPT for sustained, coherent documents. It holds the voice, follows complex style instructions, and produces more natural-sounding text over long stretches.

I'm clear that I use these tools to accelerate my work, not replace my judgment. The expertise and structure come from me. The drafting is collaborative.

Design: Canva (still)

Canva has added enough AI features at this point that it's my single tool for design work. Cover images for ebooks, template previews, product mockups, social media graphics — all Canva. The AI background removal, the design suggestions, the brand kit — it's genuinely a one-stop shop for non-designers.

If you're selling Notion templates, Canva is how you make the preview images that actually get people to click. If you're selling an ebook, Canva is how you make the cover that earns the product credibility.

Template Creation: Notion

For any template-type products — productivity systems, business trackers, content calendars, project management — I build in Notion. The sharing and duplication workflow makes it trivially easy to sell: buyer pays, gets a link, duplicates to their workspace. Done.

I've found that Notion templates paired with a short Loom walkthrough video convert better than templates alone. The video shows people what the template looks like in use and reduces buyer hesitation.

Course and Video Content: Loom + ScreenStudio

For course products, I use Loom for recording (great for quick walkthroughs and tutorials) and ScreenStudio when I want something more polished for a proper lesson. Neither requires a camera — screen + voiceover is enough for most course content.

AI transcription tools turn recordings into written lesson content almost instantly, which means you can build a course and a companion workbook from the same recording session.

Selling Everything: MadeThis

I put everything on MadeThis. Ebooks, templates, prompt packs, courses — all on one platform. The reason I haven't felt the need to diversify platforms is that MadeThis handles everything I need: digital delivery, checkout, affiliate program management, and basic analytics.

The alternative I considered most seriously was building my own site, but the maintenance overhead wasn't worth it for the stage I'm at. You can see how MadeThis compares to that approach at /compare/madethis-vs-shopify.

The Product Type → Tool Matrix

Quick reference:

What I've Dropped

Tools I tried and stopped using: Jasper (redundant once Claude/ChatGPT got good), Midjourney (great for certain product images but overkill for most of what I do), multiple project management tools (one Notion workspace is enough).

The goal is always the simplest stack that produces good products. More tools means more switching costs and more monthly fees. Keep it lean until a new tool genuinely solves a real problem.

If you're starting out, you don't need all of this at once. Start with ChatGPT, Canva, and MadeThis. Build your first product. Learn what you actually need before you add more.