How to read this page
When an L&D team looks for more capacity, the options usually fall into three groups: buy an authoring tool, now with AI inside it; hire, either an in-house instructional designer or an agency; or bring in an AI instructional designer such as Katie. This page compares Katie with the first two groups.
The comparison is by category, not by vendor. Authoring tools, in the sense used here, include the familiar course builders and the newer AI-first ones, such as those from Articulate or Adobe, or AI course generators like Disco, Udemy Business or Guidde. Their features and prices differ and change, so the tool column describes what is common to the category, and says "varies by tool" where it is not. Check any specific tool against its own current documentation. Katie's column states only what this site states elsewhere, with links to the source pages, so you can hold us to it.
If the term "AI instructional designer" is new to you, start with the guide to what one is and does, then come back to the tables.
Katie versus authoring tools
The short version: with an authoring tool, your team does the work faster. With Katie, your team directs the work and approves it, and Katie does it. The homepage puts it as a coworker, not another AI authoring tool.
| What to compare | AI authoring tools | Katie |
|---|---|---|
| Who operates the software | Your team. Someone builds each screen, quiz and export, with AI helping on some steps. | Katie. You brief her in plain conversation and review what comes back. No one learns an authoring interface. |
| What you start with | A blank project and your team’s time. | A training request and approved source information, even a vague one. Katie helps clarify the need, audience and desired behaviour. |
| Who does the instructional design | Your designer, inside the tool. | Katie proposes objectives and a structure for your review, then designs the program once approved. |
| Who does the production | Your team, screen by screen. | Katie builds the text, video, practice, simulations and assessments end to end. |
| How you give feedback | By editing the project yourself, or sending notes to whoever owns the file. | In plain English on Teams, Slack or WhatsApp. Katie makes the changes right away. |
| When a policy changes | Open every affected course and edit it. | Tell Katie what changed. She updates all affected lessons, videos and practice activities; your team reviews and publishes. |
| Subject-matter experts | Interviewed and chased by your designer. | Provide the knowledge, answer Katie’s questions and review drafts. Katie runs the data gathering herself. |
| Languages | Varies by tool; translation is often a separate workflow. | 20+ languages with full right-to-left support. Local teams review each adaptation before rollout. |
| Learner support inside the training | Varies by tool. | An AI instructor in the training: asks questions, role-plays scenarios and gives feedback grounded only in approved material. |
| Improving the training over time | Your team reads the reports and edits. | Katie analyses learner errors, questions and drop-offs, and recommends fixes for you to review and publish. |
| Publishing | Varies by tool. | SCORM to your existing LMS, or a direct link. SCORM export and hosting cost no credits. |
| Approval | Whatever process you run around the tool. | Your team approves objectives and structure before production, the complete training before publishing, and every later change. |
| Pricing basis | Often per creator seat. | A monthly workload budget. Credits track the work Katie does; never per creator or learner seat. |
| Ownership | Usually your files, in the tool’s format. | You own your source materials and the final training programs, including if you stop working with Katie. |
The table scrolls sideways on a narrow screen. Katie's column is sourced from the homepage, the pricing page and Trust Katie.
When an authoring tool is the better choice
You have a trained course builder with spare capacity, you want hands-on control of every screen, and your volume is low enough that the backlog is not the problem. An authoring tool is also the right call when the output must stay in a particular proprietary format your organisation has standardised on.
When Katie is the better choice
The backlog is the problem. Requests wait because nobody has the hours to design and build them, experts are hard to pin down, and every policy change means reopening several courses. You would rather your team spent its time on strategy and approval than on operating software. You want learners to get an instructor inside the training, not only a course to click through.
Katie versus hiring
Hiring is the honest comparison, because Katie is sold as a team member you direct rather than software you operate. The pricing page says it plainly: we are not selling software, we are selling work.
| What to compare | In-house designer or agency | Katie |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | One person’s hours, or the agency’s scoped project. | A monthly workload budget you choose and can change. The listed plan is $1,000 a month for 100,000 credits. |
| Time to start | Recruiting, onboarding or agency scoping. | A 30-minute scoping call. The pilot is eight weeks with one team, on one real training. |
| Business context and strategy | Your designer or the agency’s lead holds it. | Still your team. Katie relies on your people for business context, strategy and final approval. |
| Design quality | Depends on who you hire. | Trained on expert instructional design principles and learning science. Hard to tell apart from a senior designer’s work, with your team approving every piece. |
| Learning your standards | Over months on the job; lost when the person or agency moves on. | Katie remembers your terminology, business context and quality standards from project to project, and adapts with every approval. |
| Briefing | Meetings, documents and follow-ups. | A plain conversation, the way you brief a colleague. |
| Expert time | Interviews run by the designer. | Katie gathers knowledge from your experts herself and brings them drafts to check. |
| Production | The designer’s own hours, plus tools, studios or vendors for video. | Text, video, practice, simulations and assessments, including AI presenter video and software simulations from screenshots. |
| Updates and revisions | A ticket in the queue, or a change order. | Tell Katie what changed. Revisions, translations and updates are prepared for your review. |
| Learner support inside the training | A facilitator, or none. | An AI instructor inside the training, grounded only in approved material. |
| Cost basis | Salary and overheads, a day rate, or a per-project fee. | Credits at one cent each, with the exact cost shown before every action. Unused credits roll over while the plan is active; there are no overage bills. |
| Security review | Your usual vendor or employee checks. | A security review from Trust Katie covering content, learner data, AI providers and your requirements, before rollout. |
| Ownership | Yours, subject to the contract. | Yours. Source materials and finished programs stay with you. |
The table scrolls sideways on a narrow screen. For the cost side, the pricing page has an estimator that compares a month of your workload today with the same month with Katie. Its assumptions, including designer hours per training and a fully loaded hourly rate, are shown with their sources and are editable.
When hiring is the better choice
You need someone in the room: facilitating, running workshops, owning stakeholder relationships, or building the L&D function itself. You need deep knowledge of your organisation that only comes from being part of it. Or the work is mostly judgement rather than production, and there is not much backlog to clear.
When Katie is the better choice
Your designers already hold the context and the quality bar, and what they lack is hours. You want capacity that scales up and down by the month rather than by the headcount plan. You need the first real training in weeks, not after a hiring cycle. And you want the design and production standards to accumulate in one place rather than leave with the person.
These are not exclusive. Katie works alongside the instructional designers you already have, as a capacity multiplier rather than a replacement, and the guide answers the replacement question directly.
Using Katie alongside what you have
Katie does not ask you to replace your stack. She publishes through SCORM to the LMS you already have, or shares a direct link when you do not need one. Feedback happens in the chat tools your team already uses. Your experts keep working the way they do now, by answering questions and checking drafts.
If you keep an authoring tool, nothing stops you. Use it for the pieces your team wants to build by hand, and give Katie the backlog. If you keep hiring, Katie gives each designer more throughput and takes the production hours off their week.
The one thing that does not change is approval. Your team approves the objectives and structure before production, the complete training before publishing, and every later change. That holds whatever else is in the stack.
Where to look next
- What is an AI instructional designer?: the guide behind these tables, including how to evaluate one.
- Pricing: the plan, the rate card and the workload estimator.
- Portfolio: the formats Katie builds, with a guided walkthrough on request.
- Trust Katie: approval, ownership and the security review.
- For training companies: delivering more client projects with the team you have.
Or bring your shortlist to a 30-minute scoping call.