That 'AI Growth System' Isn't an Invention.
It's a Repackage.
Someone forwarded me a sales deck for a three-day "AI business growth" course and asked if I could run one like it. I read the whole thing first. Here's how to tell packaging from invention — and how to value one of these before you pay.
What's in the box
The deck promised a lot. Three days to turn "feeling-based" management into a "computable growth system." Standard operating procedures for every department. Custom AI bots that hold your senior staff's judgement so juniors can execute. Growth math — traffic, conversion, value, retention. Dashboards built live. Three layers of automation.
Here's the thing: most of it is genuinely useful. And almost none of it is new.
Packaging is not invention
Strip the branding off and you find standard business knowledge that's been around for decades. "Target revenue ÷ average order ÷ close rate = the leads you need" is arithmetic every operator should already do. "Lifetime value should be at least three times acquisition cost" is unit economics 101. SOPs, sales funnels, dashboards — none of it was invented in an AI course. It was given a four-letter acronym and a confident name.
An acronym is not an invention. Renaming "write down your process" as a proprietary "5-step methodology" doesn't make it proprietary. The AI layer on top — "put your senior's judgement into a prompt so the rest of the team can run it" — is real and worth doing; it's close to what we build every day. But it's a technique you can learn in an afternoon, not a secret someone discovered.
I'm not saying the content is worthless. For an owner who has never written an SOP or done the lead math, three structured days could genuinely move them. I'm saying: know what you're buying. You're buying packaging and a push to act — not a discovery.
The "value stack" is theatre
That RM12,425 "total value" is the part I want you to see through. A prompt pack listed at RM4,508. An Excel template at RM1,708. Those numbers are invented to make RM1,997 feel like a steal. They're anchors, not prices.
Do this instead: ignore the stacked number completely. Ask, "what could I get for free, or for RM50?" The prompts — free, in an afternoon. The templates — free, or cheap. The frameworks — in any business book or a hundred YouTube videos. Then ask what's actually left that you can't get for free. That remainder is the real thing you're paying for. Usually, it isn't information.
The operator test
So what is worth paying for? Here's the test I keep coming back to: does the person teaching it actually run what they teach — or is teaching it their whole business?
Information is free now. What's rare is someone who has actually built the thing, made the mistakes, and can sit with you while you do it. That person is worth real money. A guru who has mostly sold courses about running businesses is selling you the map, not the territory — and often hasn't walked it himself.
What you're actually paying for
A good course — taught by a real operator — sells you three things the free internet can't: implementation (you leave with it built, not just understood), accountability (someone makes you finish), and judgement (the calls that aren't in any framework). If a RM2,000 course delivers those, it can be cheap. If it sells you slides, prompt packs, and a countdown timer, it isn't — at any price.
How to justify the price, before you pay
Five questions:
- Could I get this information free in a weekend? (If yes, you're paying for something else — make sure that something else actually exists.)
- Is the "value stack" real, or invented anchors?
- Does the teacher run a real business on this — with proof I can see?
- Am I paying for information, or for implementation and accountability?
- Is the scarcity real, or just a timer?
If the honest answers are "yes, invented, no, information, fake" — you're buying a package, not an invention.
The bottom line
I run an AI company, so take my view with that bias in mind. I'm not against courses — a good one, from a real operator, is one of the best investments an owner can make. But the AI gold rush has flooded the market with packaging dressed as invention, and anchors dressed as value.
If you've got one of these decks sitting in your inbox and you're not sure which kind it is, forward it to me. I'll tell you what I told my friend.
Published by IMA AI — June 2026.