How AI Changed the Game for Digital Nomads

When I first became a digital nomad, the edge was simple.

If you could write well, design decently, or code better than average, you had leverage. Most people could not execute online. They needed and felt comfort in guardrails or corporate structure to succeed. If you could do without all that mess and just kick ass and chew bubble gum, you were rare.

That is no longer true.

Production vs Direction

AI dramatically lowered the barrier to production. Writing, designing, researching, even basic coding — all of it became faster and cheaper. The advantage is no longer in typing faster or publishing more.

Production is now a commodity.

That does not mean opportunity disappeared. It means the game shifted.

Before AI, you could win by grinding output. Today, you win by directing output. You need a director’s mindset.

The people who struggle are those who compete with AI or cannot figure out how to direct it. The people who thrive are those who use it as leverage.

I am not an AI fanboy. I lost my dollar-per-word copywriting career to it. I am reluctant as fuck, and frankly I do not like what I know AI is going to do to the fat of the land.

I’ve seen this movie before.

But there are moments where the lightbulbs light up, and I see a way forward. I am still learning. But I see potential now.

AI is going to create new classes; it will make the general public dumber, while making those who are mindful richer.

If you were a freelance writer charging per word like I was, AI probably hurt you. It hurt many copywriters. It made clients question rates. It made mediocre writing almost free.

The Great Amplifier

But if you are a content creator, strategist, operator, or business builder, AI is an amplifier. It allows you to research faster, outline faster, test ideas faster, and ship more consistently. It allows one person to operate like a small team.

The skill is no longer execution alone. The skill is judgment. You can wear more hats.

AI can draft. It cannot decide what is worth saying.
AI can outline. It cannot build trust.
AI can mimic tone. It cannot replace lived experience.

For digital nomads, this means the entry-level arbitrage era is over. You cannot simply start a niche site, pump out 200 articles, and expect passive income as I did for years as a six-figure blogger with this very blog you read now. You cannot be a generic freelance writer competing on word count.

You must build leverage.

Leverage means owning an audience. It means developing perspective. It means building systems. It means using AI to compress execution, not replace thinking.

The opportunity is still there. But it rewards builders, not grinders.

In the future I will discuss AI, how to prompt AI effectively for faster results and less trial and error, and all of that. But I could not not mention it in this article, either.

Making Money Online in the AI Era

The fundamentals have not changed. You still need to create value. You still need to solve problems. You still need to earn more than you spend.

What changed is the cost of execution.

Most online income models used to reward effort. Now they reward leverage.

There are four types of leverage available to digital nomads today, and understanding them is the difference between struggling and scaling.

1. Skill Leverage

High-level skills still pay. Strategy, positioning, storytelling, deal-making, brand building, negotiation, and product design cannot be automated easily.

If you want to freelance today, you must move up the value chain. Do not sell “writing.” Sell messaging. Do not sell “design.” Sell conversion. Do not sell “social media management.” Sell growth systems.

AI can help you execute. It cannot replace strategic clarity. Clients do not pay for keystrokes. They pay for outcomes. If you attach your skill to revenue, growth, or risk reduction, you are much harder to replace.

2. Media Leverage

Owning attention is more valuable than ever.

Search traffic is volatile. Algorithms change. Platforms compress reach. But if you build an email list, a YouTube channel, a podcast, or a recognizable brand, you reduce dependence on any one system.

Blogging still works, but not as anonymous churn. It works when tied to personality, authority, and distribution. It works when people follow you, not just your keywords.

In a world where AI can generate endless content, authenticity becomes scarce. Perspective becomes scarce. Trust becomes scarce. Those are assets.

3. Capital Leverage

The classic “laptop and WiFi” story ignores something important: capital multiplies opportunity.

With even modest savings, you can build small SaaS tools, fund experiments, hire contractors, buy assets, and test faster. You can run paid traffic to validate ideas instead of waiting six months for SEO. You can acquire newsletters instead of building from scratch.

AI reduces the cost of experimentation, which makes capital even more powerful. If testing ideas becomes cheaper and faster, the person who can fund more tests wins more often.

4. AI Leverage

This is new.

AI allows a solo operator to draft content at scale, analyze data quickly, prototype ideas rapidly, automate repetitive workflows, and create systems that previously required a team.

The mistake is trying to compete against it. The smarter move is to treat it as a junior assistant that works 24/7.

You do not ask it to think for you. You ask it to extend you.

The Way Out Is Through

I built part of my career on copywriting. Initially, AI made that harder. It compressed rates. It made clients question value. It flooded the market with passable writing.

But it also gave me something unexpected.

It allowed me to research faster, draft faster, test headlines faster, and wear more hats without burning out. It allowed me to focus less on typing and more on thinking.

The tool that threatened one level of my career expanded another.

That is the paradox of AI.

That, and people are beginning to understand AI still needs a human director with vision, so the tide is receding somewhat.

It destroys the middle. It amplifies the top. It exposes the bottom.

And if you are paying attention, if you are willing to adapt, it gives you leverage that simply did not exist when I first opened my laptop in Southeast Asia back in 2010.

AI was nowhere on my radar back then.

I’ll be honest –2026 is the year I learn how to work more effectively with, and adopt, artificial intelligence. Sure, I’m a little slow on the uptake, but let’s be real –AI even 6 months ago was relatively ass for my needs.

After having a minor stroke in 2019 and developing Memento-brain, AI has the potential to not only bring me back to six figures –but also replace my former virtual assistant (also known as my ex wife, that’s how we met).

The edge is no longer effort alone.

The edge is direction.

Stay tuned, if I learn anything cool I’ll pass it on. Be sure to hit up the mailing list so you don’t miss it.

If you got any cool resources you’d like to share with me or my audience, drop a comment.