259: What an AI Clone Actually Is
In this episode of the Creator’s MBA podcast, I’m demystifying what an AI clone actually is—and how it’s very different from a chatbot or a custom GPT. There’s a lot of hype out there right now, and while those tools have their place, an AI clone serves a completely different function in your business.
We’ll walk through how clones are built to apply your unique way of thinking—not just spit out generic answers. I share how they can support your clients when you’re not in the room, and why they only work when your frameworks are already clear and stable. If you’ve been wondering whether a clone could help reduce bottlenecks or improve implementation in your programs, this episode is a must-listen.
What You’ll Learn
The key difference between chatbots, custom GPTs, and AI clones
Why AI clones aren’t built for creativity or exploration
How your decision-making process becomes the “engine” of a clone
Where clones fit best in expert businesses
Why automation and cloning are not the same thing
What an AI clone needs from you to actually work
The kinds of work AI clones should never try to replace
If you’re thinking about using AI in your business—but want to do it responsibly, with clarity and intention—this episode will give you a strong foundation. I also share a real-life example of how AI clones can support implementation in online courses without replacing your presence.
🎧 Tune in and find out if your business is clone-ready.
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What Is an AI Clone? (And Why It’s Not Just a Fancy Chatbot)
Let’s clear something up: an AI clone is not a chatbot with lipstick.
There’s a lot of hype right now about AI tools in the expert business world—chatbots, custom GPTs, clones, and more. And while the terms can get tossed around interchangeably, they’re not the same thing. In fact, understanding the difference can help you avoid building the wrong tool for the wrong job.
In this post, I want to break down what an AI clone actually is, how it compares to chatbots and custom GPTs, and when you should consider building one in your own business.
Chatbots vs. Custom GPTs vs. AI Clones
Let’s start with chatbots. These are the flexible responders—the ones that sit on your website and try to answer almost any question someone throws at them. Even if you train them on your content, they’re still doing one thing: responding broadly to prompts with whatever sounds reasonable.
Custom GPTs take it a step further. They’re more guided, more focused. You can give them rules, tone, constraints—even your own data—but at the end of the day, they’re still built to answer a wide range of questions. They’re helpful, but they’re not necessarily consistent in applying your unique perspective.
Now, here’s where an AI clone is different. It’s not designed to answer anything. It’s designed to apply your way of thinking—specifically, consistently, and within clear boundaries.
The Value of an AI Clone Is in Its Filter
If you’ve been doing expert work for any length of time—consulting, coaching, advising, teaching—you already know this: your value isn’t just in what you know, it’s in how you apply it.
When a client brings you a situation, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re filtering that situation through your proven process. You’re ruling things out. You’re seeing patterns. You know what to address first. That intuitive, repeatable judgment is the asset.
An AI clone is designed to apply that same filtering logic—automatically, consistently, and without needing you to be present every single time. It’s not creative. It’s not emotional. It’s not original. It applies the rules you’ve given it, the same way you would, if you were sitting next to your client.
A Real-Life Example: Judgment in Action
Let’s say you’re a strategist helping business owners figure out what to focus on next. When a client tells you their situation, you don’t say, “Here are 10 options.” You ask a few sharp questions. You rule things out. You know the real issue isn’t the offer—it’s positioning. Or it’s not the marketing—it’s systems.
You’ve developed a way of diagnosing that over time. You may not even have it fully written down, but it’s in your head—and it’s incredibly consistent.
An AI clone would walk that same path. It wouldn’t list random strategies. It would filter the situation through your diagnostic lens and help the client focus on what matters first. It’s not a brainstorming tool—it’s a compass.
What an AI Clone Isn’t
To be clear, an AI clone is not:
A customer service chatbot
A brainstorming buddy
A content generator
A replacement for emotional presence
A substitute for teaching or leadership
It’s also not automation. Automation removes steps. A clone doesn’t remove your thinking—it extends it. It applies your judgment when you’re not personally available.
Most importantly, it’s not going to create your frameworks for you. If you haven’t codified your thinking, if your expertise is still mostly intuitive, a clone will frustrate you. It doesn’t guess. It needs clarity.
When an AI Clone Does Make Sense
The magic of an AI clone shows up in one specific place: application.
Think about a course creator whose students understand the content—but get stuck when they try to implement. That moment—when they ask “does this apply to me?” or “what do I do next?”—is where an AI clone can shine.
It doesn’t reteach the course. It helps the student apply the thinking, step-by-step, just like you would.
If you’ve found yourself saying the same things over and over again—“you’re skipping a step,” “this doesn’t apply here,” “you’re solving the wrong problem”—that’s a signal that your judgment could be codified into a clone.
Final Thoughts: AI Clones Aren’t Everything—But They Can Be Powerful
If you’ve been thinking that an AI clone is just a smarter chatbot, I hope this helped reframe things.
AI clones aren’t here to replace you—they’re here to support implementation, reduce bottlenecks, and give your clients access to your thinking in the moments they need it most.
But they only work when your frameworks are solid and your thinking is clear.
If you’re at that point, building an AI clone could be one of the most scalable and strategic things you do.
Let me know if you’d like to explore whether a clone is right for your business—or if you’re curious about the AI Clone Implementation Lab I’m running this March.
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Transcript: What Is an AI Clone?
[00:00:00]
Welcome to the Creator's MBA podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp, and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business—without the need to be glued to their desk, constantly live launching, or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today.
[00:00:35]
Hi there, Dr. Destini Copp here, and I am super excited you're joining me today on the Creator's MBA podcast. Today I want to talk about one specific thing: what an AI clone actually is. I’m also going to compare it to chatbots and custom GPTs.
[00:01:00]
Let’s start with chatbots. A chatbot is something you might place on your website. It’s designed to respond to almost anything—it waits for a prompt, scans broadly, and produces an answer that sounds reasonable. Even a good chatbot, one trained on your own content or transcripts, is still doing the same basic job. It's flexible and designed to cover a wide range of questions.
[00:02:00]
For example, on our Hobby School Summit website, we have a customer support chatbot. It does its job—it gets the question, scans our available information, and might even go outside our content to the internet to troubleshoot. That’s what chatbots are built for.
[00:02:30]
Now, custom GPTs sit a little closer to what people think an AI clone might be. They use tighter instructions. You can specify tone, priorities, constraints, and sometimes even sources. So they're more consistent and more useful than a generic chatbot.
[00:03:00]
But structurally, they're still doing the same thing—responding to prompts and trying to be broadly helpful. They’re guided systems, but not necessarily narrow like an AI clone is designed to be.
[00:03:30]
An AI clone is built for a different purpose. It's not trying to answer anything and everything. It’s not there to explore ideas, generate content, or brainstorm. It’s built to apply a very specific way of thinking.
[00:04:00]
If you’ve been doing expert work—consulting, coaching, teaching, advising—you already know your value doesn’t come from having more information than others. It comes from how you apply what you know.
[00:04:30]
When someone brings you a situation, you’re not starting from scratch. You apply your framework, your filter. You recognize patterns, and you know what questions matter depending on where someone is in their journey.
[00:05:00]
Often, you can tell when someone is trying to solve the wrong problem. That internal filtering process? That’s the asset. And an AI clone is designed to apply that filtering logic—consistently.
[00:05:30]
It’s not going to invent ideas or frameworks. It applies the rules you’ve already given it.
[00:06:00]
Let me give you a concrete example. Imagine someone who helps business owners decide what to focus on next. When a client explains their situation, the expert doesn’t list 10+ options. They ask a few targeted questions, rule things out, and focus on whether the issue is audience growth, positioning, delivery, or systems.
[00:06:30]
They know it’s not time to change the offer yet. They know when the marketing isn’t the problem. They know when fewer ideas—not more—is the answer. That decision-making process stays consistent, even as the details change.
[00:07:00]
An AI clone, in this case, wouldn’t give general business advice. It wouldn’t answer random questions about tactics. It would walk through that same filtering process—same questions, same exclusions, same priorities.
[00:07:30]
So if an expert says, “This is not your problem yet,” the clone says the same thing. If they’d say, “You’re skipping a step,” the system would too—not because it’s smart, but because the logic is made explicit.
[00:08:00]
Experts often feel intuitive. The rules exist, but they’re internal. An AI clone requires those rules to be written down—named and codified.
[00:08:30]
If you can’t articulate how you decide things, this system won’t work well. Also, a clone is not an automation shortcut. Automation removes steps. A clone doesn’t remove your thinking. It applies your thinking when you’re not personally present.
[00:09:00]
It’s not a content generator. You might have custom GPTs that write blog posts, social media captions, or website copy—I have over 100 of those myself. But clones aren’t for creative tasks.
[00:09:30]
They’re also not a replacement for teaching, coaching, or leadership. If your work relies on emotional presence, a clone is not the right tool.
[00:10:00]
AI clones are best used for application—specifically when someone understands the material but struggles to apply it to their own unique situation. And honestly, this is where most course implementation breaks down.
[00:10:30]
People get the content. The issue comes when they need to decide what to do next. They ask: “Does this apply to me?” “What matters first?” “What do I do now?”
[00:11:00]
That’s when they reach out to you. Maybe your next coaching call or office hours. They hope they can catch you live. A clone doesn't solve that by teaching more—it applies existing judgment when it's needed most.
[00:11:30]
Here’s another example: a course creator notices students making the same mistakes—jumping ahead, skipping steps, applying ideas in the wrong context. Over time, the creator develops a consistent response pattern.
[00:12:00]
They know when to say, “You’re doing this too early,” or “Don’t worry about that yet.” An AI clone would never replace the course—it would support implementation. It would apply that same expert reasoning when the student gets stuck.
[00:12:30]
So when I say AI clone, I’m not talking about something that just sounds like you. I’m talking about something that applies your decision logic—within a defined boundary.
[00:13:00]
It’s a constrained system that applies your thinking in situations where you can’t be there personally every time. And that’s the magic of it.
[00:13:20]
In the next episode, I’ll talk about why traditional courses often struggle with implementation—even when the content is solid—and how delivery models impact outcomes.
[00:13:40]
For now, I want you to take this with you: an AI clone is not a chatbot, not a fancy GPT, and not automation. It’s a way of applying judgment—your judgment—consistently.
[00:14:00]
Thanks for listening today. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I’ll see you in the next one. Bye for now.
[00:14:15]
Thanks for listening all the way to the end. If you love the show, I’d appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day, and bye for now.