Every course platform now says it has AI, but the word covers very different things. Some of it helps you build and run your course: drafting a curriculum, writing emails, translating videos. Some of it helps your students while they learn: answering questions about the lessons.
Here's what Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Skool and Circle actually offer, checked on each platform's own pages in October 2026.
At a glance
- Kajabi: for you, the Cofounder assistant and an MCP connection to Claude and ChatGPT. For students, the Expert Agents Teaching Assistant, $79 a month per agent.
- Teachable: for you, Course Starter, the Quiz Generator, and video transcription and translation. For students, none described on Teachable's AI page.
- Thinkific: for students, Thinker, on Thinkific Plus (enterprise, custom pricing).
- Skool: no AI features listed on its pricing page.
- Circle: for you, Circle AI credits on paid plans and APIs and MCP from the Business plan. For students, AI Agents from the Scale plan ($419 a month, billed annually).
Kajabi
Kajabi has the broadest AI line-up of the five.
For you:
- Cofounder: an AI assistant that helps you plan and build your Kajabi business through chat.
- Kajabi MCP: connects your Kajabi account to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools, so you can ask them to list your courses, draft email broadcasts, search contacts or create offers. Kajabi says it won't take actions on behalf of customers, process payments or send email blasts.
For your students:
- Expert Agents Teaching Assistant: lives inside a Kajabi product and answers from the lessons, transcripts and community posts each member can access. It cites its sources, only answers from your published content, and costs $79 a month per agent from October 1, 2026, with 1,000 messages a month included.
Teachable
Teachable's AI is aimed at you, the creator.
For you:
- Course Starter: drafts a full curriculum, course content and sales page in minutes, on any plan.
- Quiz Generator: creates quizzes in seconds. Teachable says courses with a quiz have an 80% higher completion rate.
- Video transcription and translation: built-in transcription with automatic translation into more than 70 languages.
For your students: Teachable's AI page doesn't describe an AI assistant for students, as of October 2026.
Thinkific
For your students:
- Thinker: an AI teaching assistant in the course player, the floating widget and Thinkific's mobile app. It answers from your lessons and uploaded PDFs, and offers a post-quiz review that explains missed questions. It has been generally available since February 2026, but only on Thinkific Plus, the enterprise tier with custom, flat-rate pricing.
Thinkific reports that in its own study of 43 Plus customers, learners who used Thinker completed courses at 32.7% versus 16.1% without, and is careful to call that an association, not proof that Thinker caused it.
Skool
Skool keeps things simple: its pricing page lists two plans, Hobby at $9 a month and Pro at $99 a month, with unlimited courses, members, videos and live calls, but no built-in AI features.
Search "Skool AI" and you'll mostly find AI communities that run on Skool rather than Skool features. Creators on Skool use outside AI tools for both building and supporting students.
Circle
For you:
- Circle AI credits: paid plans include credits that cover Circle AI, workflow tasks, API calls and agent tokens (2,500 a month on Business, 5,000 on Scale).
- Circle APIs and MCP: included from the Business plan ($199 a month, billed annually).
- Circle also lists an AI content writer, automated transcriptions and AI moderation, depending on plan.
For your students:
- AI Agents: up to 10 per community, each with its own role and limits, trained on your spaces, courses, posts or files. They start on the Scale plan at $419 a month, billed annually.
What none of them does
The AI for students on these platforms lives on the course platform's own site: a chat window in the course player or the community.
And where a platform connects to ChatGPT or Claude, it's for you. Kajabi's MCP connection lets you manage your Kajabi business from an AI app and, in Kajabi's words, won't take actions on behalf of customers. Circle's APIs and MCP are part of its automation tools. From what each platform describes, none of the five lets students use your course's methods from their own ChatGPT or Claude, applied to their own work.
That's the gap expertrelay fills, alongside whichever platform you use. It turns the methods in your course into tools (an offer audit, a landing-page review, a launch plan) that students run from their own ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor. You keep your course where it is.
For a wider comparison, including standalone tools like Coursebox, CustomGPT.ai and Chatbase, see The best AI coach tools for course creators.
FAQ
Does Kajabi have AI?
Yes: Cofounder, an AI assistant for building your business; Kajabi MCP, which connects your account to Claude and ChatGPT; and Expert Agents, including a Teaching Assistant for students at $79 a month per agent.
Does Teachable have an AI tutor for students?
Not as of October 2026. Teachable's AI tools are for creators: Course Starter, the Quiz Generator, and video transcription and translation.
Does Skool have AI features?
Skool's pricing page doesn't list any built-in AI features. Most "Skool AI" results are AI communities hosted on Skool.
Which course platform has the best AI for students?
Kajabi, Thinkific and Circle all offer an AI assistant for students. Kajabi's is sold as a monthly add-on at $79 per agent; Thinkific's needs the enterprise tier; Circle's needs the Scale plan.
Can my students use my course in ChatGPT or Claude?
Not that these platforms describe. Kajabi's ChatGPT and Claude connection, for example, is for you to manage your business, not for students. A tool like expertrelay is built for that.
