---
title: "AI Impact: Course Sales Plummet Over 50% — An Industry Warning"
source: "Simon Willison 博客（Atom）"
source_tier: "t2"
url: "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/3/josh-w-comeau/#atom-everything"
permalink: "https://feed.astralor.com/items/itm_35ed231cc09c49d33d31780a"
published: "2026-07-03T21:25:52.000Z"
score: 61
channel: "ai"
tags: ["AI","LLM","Online Education","Course Sales"]
---

# AI Impact: Course Sales Plummet Over 50% — An Industry Warning

## At a glance

Prominent front-end developer Josh W. Comeau reveals his new course is selling only a third of typical launches, attributing the decline to AI. Learners fear developer jobs vanishing and hesitate to invest, while LLMs offer personalized tutoring, reducing the need for paid courses. Multiple course creators report a 50%+ revenue drop, with their content being scraped without consent.

## Key points

- New course Whimsical Animations sells only 1/3 of typical launches; existing courses also decline significantly.
- AI creates double whammy: career fears deter investment, and LLMs replace paid courses.
- Multiple creators confirm 50%+ revenue drop; content scraped without consent.

## Full text

I just launched my third course, Whimsical Animations, and so far, it’s on track to sell roughly ⅓ as many copies as a typical course launch. It’s a similar story with my two existing courses. Sales are down significantly from last year. There are likely a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest is AI. There’s sort of a double whammy with AI: Many people are wondering whether developer jobs will even exist in a few months, so they’re reluctant to spend time/money learning new dev skills. Even if they do want to learn new dev skills, LLMs can provide personalized tutoring, so there’s less incentive to buy a paid course. [...] I’ve spoken to a few course creators now, and we’re all seeing the same trend. Revenue down 50%+. Fewer people engaging with our content. People switching to LLMs, which slurp up all of our work and regurgitate it, without consent or compensation. — Josh W. Comeau, via Salma Alam-Naylor Tags: ai-ethics, llms, ai, generative-ai, careers, josh-comeau

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