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Community-Led Growth and AI

Community-Led Growth and AI

Future of SaaS growth will be authentic human connection. AI will acts as a community co-pilot (not a replacement), and why community-led growth (supercharged by AI) will be your true competitive edge.

Gary Chan
June 12, 2025

AI is going to level the playing field for product and marketing, and whats left is community.

Gary Yau Chan

What’s the future with product-led growth, community, and AI?

The human connection is still everything.

I know this firsthand with product led onboarding; putting a face to software was extremely important to gain trust, get people activated, and test different pricing models and languages.

The human connection will always be present within product-led growth and AI. I know we're trying to scale it, so there will be less and less human involvement. However, the human factor in buying software (the emotions, conversations, and connections) is what truly carries over.

If we fast forward and everyone has great products powered by AI onboarding, then what sets you apart?

It's going to be Community.

It’s going to be supercharged by AI.

Community-led growth with AI that will help create authentic human connections and brand loyalty.

Learn more about how Tana.inc built their community of 30,000+ beta testers and 24,000+ active Slack community to power their product-led growth strategy:

PLG company: Tana.inc

Discover how Tana, an AI workspace, use product-led growth (PLG) strategy with personalize onboarding, and community-led growth user-generated content (UGC) to drive growth loop.

growthwithgary.com/p/plg-company-tana-inc-c603

AI as the Community Co-Pilot

AI is going to be a community co-pilot.

I have worked in health support community forums and photography social networks. AI is not going to replace community managers. From firsthand experience, it is very cringe to see AI answering questions in a forum where the expectation is that humans are supposed to answer.

Supporting, Not Replacing, Community Managers

AI is going to help the community manager and nurture those relationships. In the SaaS world, it reads members’ LinkedIn profiles and posts on the community manager’s behalf and alerts.

Smarter, More Respectful Engagement

AI will help engage with community members and ask them questions they are willing to actually answer and share information. It will also help them shape their ask appropriately based on the community’s rules and conduct, and without revealing too much.

AI-Generated Pedagogical Content

AI is going to create pedagogical content that helps the community and its members learn complex topics more easily, such as SOC 2 security and compliance.

AI will create adaptive learning paths and microlearning content for various types of members. It will be hyper-personalized, not just rearranging the content but creating material that actually resonates with the user based on their background.

Creating Serendipity and Celebrating Milestones

AI will map relationship networks within your communities and identify potential connectors. By finding the largest nodes and engaging with them, it will surface conversation starters tailored to each member's background and interests.

AI will create serendipitous meetings by matching people for coffee chats better than ever before, not just based on shared interests, but also on their diverse backgrounds. It will celebrate people's milestones and anniversaries more effectively than old-school automations.

Co-Creator and Co-Faciliator

AI is also mining the community based on discussions and beta feedback, trying to surface valuable product ideas and feature requests. It will identify potential champions or people who might churn, creating more proactive actions for community leaders.

By moving directly into co-creating and co-facilitating design sessions, it becomes easier for SaaS companies to tap into the knowledge of the community.

Smart Moderation Alerts

This community AI Copilot is going to be a powerful ally inside communities. It will not be a moderator, but rather a supporter to the moderator.

AI will start identifying sentiments and sensitive conversations that are escalating, and will notify the human moderators. It will provide 24/7 support, handling some of the basic routine questions.

Community-Led Growth and AI

AI is going to level the playing field for product and marketing, and Community-Led Growth becomes your true differentiator. The next wave of SaaS PLG will combine AI-support to scale, empowering and loyal communities. They will pull ahead, driving retention, brand advocacy, champions, and sustainable growth that competitors can't easily replicate.

AI handles scale and efficiency, but trust and loyalty come from authentic relationships, shared purpose, and peer recognition. Your AI community co-pilot will amplify all the human moments that matter most.