Brainstorm Digital Product Ideas with AI
Contents
“What digital product should I create?”
The longer you sit with that question the more you’ll feel like you need to take another course, read another book, find another guru or do more research before getting started. I get it. But I want to offer you a different way through that stuck place, and it involves using AI to brainstorm digital product ideas in a way that most people haven’t tried.
The method I’m about to walk you through isn’t asking AI what digital product you should create (and taking its word for it). Instead, you’ll be handing AI the ingredients from your own life and background, then letting it help you see what’s already there.
This will give you a list of 50 digital product ideas you can choose from that are grounded in your knowledge, tailored to real people you know you can help, and designed to be accessible to the customers you want to serve.
Let’s get into it.
How to Use AI to Brainstorm Digital Product Ideas
Using AI to help you brainstorm digital product ideas means giving an AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude specific, personal context about your background, skills, and the people you want to help. And then asking it to generate product categories and digital product concepts based on that input.
This is very different from asking ChatGPT “what should I sell online?” or “give me digital product ideas.” Those prompts give AI nothing to work with, so you get the same generic output that everyone else gets. Those ideas won’t reflect what you know or who you want to serve.
The brainstorming approach I teach works because you are the source material (not the whole entire internet). AI is working as your brainstorming buddy, reflecting your experience back to you in an organized way, helping you get ideas on paper much faster.
Here’s the three steps to brainstorm digital product ideas with your favorite AI tool…
Step One: Give AI the Ingredients From Your Own Life
The first step is to tell AI who you are and what you do. I call this giving it the ingredients. You’re not asking it to invent something from nothing. You’re saying:
- here is what I know,
- here are the people I want to help, and
- here is the problem I want to address
Use a prompt like this as a starting place (copy and paste this prompt into your AI chat, edit the part in brackets):
I'm a [Teacher / Gardener / Organizing Expert / insert your background here]. I want to help people solve [specific problem]. Based on my skills and experience, give me 5 broad categories for digital products I could sell.What you’ll get back is a set of categories that match your background or expertise. So if you’re a retired teacher, you might see categories like classroom management resources, parent communication templates, or literacy guides for early readers. If you’re an organizing expert, you might see home systems, downsizing guides, or move-prep checklists.
I find this step can yield some surprises! A lot of people discover that their background and knowledge spans more categories than might have thought. Let AI do the grunt work in figuring out those categories and possibly sparking some ideas for you.
Step Two: Turn 5 Categories Into 50 Digital Product Ideas
Once you have your five categories, you ask AI to go deeper. Take those categories and turn each one into 10 specific products. Here’s your prompt:
Take each of those 5 categories and give me 10 specific digital product ideas within each one. Include a mix of formats like checklists, step-by-step guides, audio workshops, video lesson scripts, templates, and workbooks.Now you have 50 ideas. And these aren’t generic ideas! They’re drawn from the categories that came from your background. AI is helping you brainstorm digital product ideas from your own knowledge. This shows you that even if you happen to be in a crowded market (a lot of people selling products in your field or area of expertise), it’s your unique perspective coupled with the type of product that you make, will be what makes you stand out.
DO NOT STOP HERE!
50 ideas that are just okay isn’t the goal. The next step is what makes this brainstorming process different from anything else I’ve seen people use.
Step Three: Brainstorm Digital Product Ideas Through an Accessibility Lens
Accessible design isn’t a technical hurdle or a box that you check at the end, when your product is done and you’re ready to launch. It’s truly a creative decision that makes your digital product better for everyone, not just for people with disabilities.
And because I work with women who often have customers in midlife (where low vision, reading fatigue, and overwhelm are real factors), accessibility is something I make sure to think about from the very beginning, even while I brainstorm digital product ideas that may or may not see the light of day.
So after you have your 50 ideas, you’ll add one more prompt:
Now I'd like you to look at this list through the lens of accessible design. For each idea, how could I make this easy to read for someone with low vision? How could I make this simple to follow for someone who is overwhelmed or new to the topic? Are there formats or features I should consider to make these products more inclusive?AI will point you toward things like larger default font sizes, plain language introductions, audio or read-aloud versions of written guides, step-by-step layouts that break complex tasks into smaller pieces, and color contrast considerations for people with low vision.
These suggestions are design choices that make your digital product cleaner, clearer, and easier to use for a much wider audience.
A digital product that’s easy to use for someone with low vision is also easier to use for someone reading on their phone in bad lighting.
A digital product designed for someone who feels overwhelmed is also better for someone who is simply busy.
Accessible design raises the quality of your digital product overall.❤️
Why This Is the Right Way to Brainstorm Digital Product Ideas With AI
The reason this approach works so well is that it keeps you at the center of the process. You’re not outsourcing your creativity to ChatGPT or some algorithm. You’re using a tool to help you see what’s already in front of you, then organizing and refining it in a way that could possibly take you hours (or days) on your own.
When you ask AI something like “what should I create?” without context, it gives you what it knows about the general market. When you give it the ingredients from your life (the problem you solve, and the people you serve) it gives you back something that actually looks like your work. That distinction so valuable, especially if you’ve ever felt like AI makes everything sound the same. And I don’t want you mass-producing ChatGPT content!
The accessibility layer is what makes this approach professional (and it gives you a unique selling position too). You’re not creating a product and hoping it works for your customer. You’re being intentional, thoughtful and creating something designed to work without accidentally excluding some potential costumers. That’s the kind of creator I want to help you be.
How to Choose One Digital Product Idea to Work On First
Now you have 50 ideas (with accessibility built in – yay!), the new problem is choosing one digital product to start with. A few things have helped me a narrow the list down without overthinking it.
First, look for the ideas that feel almost too obvious. The ones where you thought “I could make that in a weekend” are usually worth paying attention to. Those are the ideas that are close enough to what you already do so the gap between idea and finished product is small. Give these guys 3 stars (⭐️⭐️⭐️).
Second, look for the ideas that solve a problem you’ve personally experienced or that you’ve helped someone else solve more than once. Those ideas have built-in credibility. You already know the pain point. You already know what a good answer looks like. Give these guys 2 stars (⭐️⭐️)
Third, look for the ideas that feels exciting mostly because it’s complicated. Complicated ideas sound impressive when you brainstorm digital product ideas, but they’re also the ones that stall out. Your first product doesn’t need to be your best product. It just needs to be finished and useful. Give these guys 1 star (⭐️) so you will remember to come back to the some time in the future.
Finally, remove (delete, scratch off) anything that doesn’t make sense, seems silly, seems impossible, or you just have no interest in doing at all.
Once you’ve narrowed down your big list to (hopefully) only a few 2- or 3-starred ideas, pick the one you could explain out loud to a friend without stopping to figure out what to say. That fluency you feel for it usually means it’s the right one to start with. You can always come back to the others later!
WANT TO TURN THAT IDEA INTO A REAL PRODUCT WITH PEOPLE CHEERING YOU ON?
The 2nd Act Community is a free community for women who are turning their knowledge and experience into digital products and courses. Inside, you’ll find support, real conversations, and people who are doing exactly what you’re doing.
You’ll get the product creation process, the support, and the examples you need to create your digital product at your own pace. You’ll get help with the tech parts that feel intimidating. You’ll celebrate action and progress, not perfection.
Come join us and bring your 50 ideas. We’d love to hear about them and help you decide.
Join us today in the FREE 2nd Act Community and get your digital product created!
FAQs About Using AI to Brainstorm Digital Product Ideas
Can I use AI to brainstorm digital product ideas if I don’t think of myself as an expert?
Yes, and this is one of the things I love most about this approach!
You don’t need a credential or a formal title to create your very own digital product that you can sell online. Years of doing a job, raising kids, managing a household, volunteering, caregiving, or navigating a health challenge all count.
The prompt above asks what you know and who you help, not what your resume looks like (see Step One). So you can start there.
What AI tool works best for brainstorming digital product ideas?
The popular AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) will work for this process.
The quality of the output they give you depends more on the quality of your prompt than which tool you use. Be sure to give the AI specific details about your background and the person you want to help, and you’ll get better results from any of them.
If you’re new to AI, start with whatever is easiest for you to access and don’t let the tool choice slow you down. They all have free versions.
How do I know if my AI-generated digital product ideas are good?
A good idea solves a specific problem for a specific person and is something you can actually make (considering your skills or willingness to learn to use new tools).
Use the criteria I mentioned at the end of this post: look for ideas that feel obvious, ideas that solve a problem you’ve seen firsthand, and ideas where you can already picture the finished product. If you’re not sure, run your shortlist by someone in your audience or someone who knows your field. Real feedback beats overthinking everything!
Do I need design skills to make my digital product ideas accessible?
Not at all. Accessible design doesn’t require special software or a design background. It comes down to practical choices: clear fonts, enough contrast, plain language, and formats that are easy to navigate.
When you use AI to review your ideas through an accessibility lens, it will give you specific, actionable suggestions. Canva, Google Docs, and other everyday tools have enough built-in capability to implement most of them. For example, if you use Microsoft Word, they have a built-in accessibility checker.
What if I use AI to brainstorm digital product ideas and get stuck again after making the list?
That’s what community is for. The 2nd Act Community is a great place to share your shortlist and get a second set of eyes. Sometimes all you need is someone who knows what they’re looking at to say “that one, start there.” Come join us and bring your list.