We spend a lot of time testing AI tools, building automations, and advising clients on how to use this stuff. These are the creators who help us stay ahead, broken down by what they're best at and why they matter.
I have a rule: if I'm going to recommend something to a client, I need to have used it myself first. That applies to CRMs, integrations, and marketing strategies. And it applies to how I learn about AI.
Over the past two years, YouTube has quietly become the best place to learn what's actually happening in AI. Not the LinkedIn thought-leader version. Not the "10 prompts that will change your life" version. The real version, where people are building things, testing tools, and showing you what works.
The problem is that there are thousands of AI channels now. Most of them are recycling the same news with the same clickbait. So I started keeping a list of the ones that actually move the needle for me, for our team, and for the way we advise clients at ATAK. These are the 17 creators we're watching right now, organized by what they do best.
Whether you're a business owner trying to figure out where AI fits, a marketer who needs to stay current, or an operator looking to automate real workflows, there's someone on this list for you.
These are the channels I check every week. They cover the tools, the news, and the hands-on tutorials that keep you current without wasting your time.
800K+ subscribers | Creator of FutureTools.io | Edelman's AI Creators You Need to Know
Matt runs FutureTools.io, one of the most trusted AI tool directories on the internet, and his YouTube channel is where he breaks it all down. He covers new tools, major releases, and industry shifts with a style that's genuinely fun to watch. He's interviewed leaders like Google DeepMind's CEO Demis Hassabis, and his newsletter reaches 225K+ readers. He's been making YouTube content for over 14 years, but his pivot to AI put him on the map in a big way.
This is the channel I'd recommend if you could only follow one. Matt is the best in the business at filtering signal from noise. When 50 new AI tools launch in a week, he tells you which three actually matter.
540K+ subscribers | CEO of Forward Future | Engineer & angel investor
Matthew is a former startup founder whose company was acquired in 2019. He now runs Forward Future, an AI education and consulting company, and publishes five to six videos a week covering open-source models, LLMs, coding tutorials, and model comparisons. He's landed sit-down interviews with the CEOs of Google and other major AI companies. When a new model drops, Matthew is usually one of the first to actually test it and explain what changed.
This is where I go when I want to understand the "why" behind a release. Matthew reads the papers so you don't have to, and he makes the technical side accessible without dumbing it down.
293K+ subscribers | Daily AI news | Focus on AGI, OpenAI, and emerging tech
Wes covers AI news the way a financial analyst covers earnings. He's fast, opinionated, and goes deep on what matters. His channel spans OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, robotics, self-driving cars, and brain-computer interfaces. What sets him apart is editorial perspective. He doesn't just report what happened. He tells you what it means and why you should pay attention.
If you only have 20 minutes a day for AI news, Wes is a strong pick. He's your daily briefing on what just happened and what's coming next.
700K+ subscribers | Fast-paced, beginner-friendly tutorials | Covers ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, Canva AI
Saj runs one of the fastest-growing AI tutorial channels on YouTube. His format is quick, actionable, and built for people who need to learn a tool now. He walks through specific AI tools step by step, showing exactly how to use them for real tasks like writing, design, video creation, and productivity. If Matt Wolfe tells you what tools exist, Saj shows you how to use them in 15 minutes.
This is the channel I use to send our team to when we need someone up to speed on a specific tool quickly. No theory. Just "here's the tool, here's the button, here's the output."
These creators aren't just talking about AI. They're building with it. Automations, agents, workflows, systems. If you want to move from "watching" to "doing," this is where you start.
500K+ subscribers | Founder of Uppit AI | n8n Certified Expert | Ex-Goldman Sachs
Nate might be the fastest-growing AI creator on YouTube right now. He went from zero to 230K subscribers in nine months after posting his first video in September 2024. Before that, he was a Business Intelligence Analyst at Goldman Sachs with no coding background. That's exactly what makes his tutorials so good: he teaches automation the way he learned it. Step by step, no assumptions, no skipped steps. He specializes in n8n, and his free community has over 250K members.
This is the "build it with me" channel. If you want to create AI agents that handle emails, manage leads, or automate entire business processes without writing code, Nate will walk you through every click.
100K+ subscribers | Founder of Integration Hive | Automation agency owner
Jono comes at AI from a real business operator's perspective. He built Canada's largest DJ, photography, and videography company, then set out to automate the entire thing. His videos are blueprint-style walkthroughs: here's the problem, here's the workflow, here's how to build it. He focuses on Make.com and n8n and runs both a community and an agency helping businesses implement automation.
Jono is the most relatable creator on this list for business owners. He's not a developer. He's a guy who ran a real company, got tired of manual processes, and figured out how to automate them. His content is plug-and-play.
713K+ subscribers | Founder of Morningside AI | Creator of the AI Automation Agency model
Liam is the person who coined and popularized the "AI Automation Agency" business model. He's based in New Zealand, built Morningside AI (his own AI agency), and then created a massive ecosystem around teaching others how to do the same. His channel covers chatbots, voice agents, and selling AI solutions to businesses. His community has nearly 300K members, and he's reported $7M+ in revenue. He also publishes full-length free courses on YouTube, some running over two hours.
If you want to understand how people are actually making money selling AI services to businesses, including the pricing, the delivery, and the client acquisition, Liam has the most comprehensive playbook out there.
200K+ subscribers | Make.com & n8n specialist | Complex system architecture
Nick is one of the most technically skilled creators in the AI automation space. He builds complex automation systems and walks you through the architecture step by step. His focus is on Make.com and n8n workflows, AI agents, and connecting multiple tools into complete business systems. He goes deeper technically than most automation creators, which makes him a great next step once you've got the basics down.
When you're past beginner automations and want to build more sophisticated systems, Nick shows how to connect the dots between tools and create workflows that actually hold up at scale. For anyone looking at how AI and automation are transforming marketing operations, this is required viewing.
Tools are only as good as the strategy behind them. These creators think about AI at the business, investment, and industry level. They help you see where things are going so you can position accordingly.
500K+ subscribers | CEO of Late Checkout | Former advisor to Reddit & TikTok
Greg doesn't just talk about AI. He talks about how to build businesses with it. He runs Late Checkout (a holding company building internet businesses) and hosts The Startup Ideas Podcast, where he and guests riff on real, actionable business ideas. His content sits at the intersection of AI, community building, and entrepreneurship. He's worked with Fortune 500 companies, and his newsletter reaches 158K+ readers.
If you're thinking about how AI creates new business opportunities or how to use it to give your existing business an edge, Greg's the one to watch. He thinks like a builder, not just a commentator.
187K+ subscribers | Chairman of Single Grain | Co-host of Marketing School with Neil Patel
youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial
Eric is the chairman of Single Grain (clients include Amazon, Uber, Salesforce) and co-hosts Marketing School, one of the most popular marketing podcasts in the world, with Neil Patel. His YouTube channel features interviews with top entrepreneurs and deep dives into what's working in growth, SEO, content, and AI-powered marketing. Great origin story, too: former competitive gamer who translated that focus into building a marketing empire.
Eric bridges the gap between AI hype and real marketing ROI. He's one of the few people who can talk about AI, SEO, and customer acquisition in the same sentence and actually make sense. If you're interested in how SEO and AI are converging in 2026, Eric's perspective is a great starting point.
3.2M+ subscribers | Founder of Acquisition.com | Author of $100M Offers
Alex isn't an AI channel. But he's increasingly weaving AI into his content about scaling businesses, and every serious entrepreneur I know watches him. He talks about AI for lead generation, content repurposing, sales systems, and operational efficiency. His framework for business growth is one of the most respected in the entrepreneurial world, and his recent content on AI-powered systems is incredibly relevant for anyone running a company right now.
Alex puts AI in the context of revenue, profit, and scale. That's the conversation most AI channels skip entirely. If you want to think about AI as a business lever, not just a tech toy, start here.
1.3M+ subscribers | World's top startup accelerator | Backed Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox
YC's YouTube channel has become one of the best free resources for understanding how AI is reshaping startups and venture capital. Their talks cover AI agent businesses, vertical AI opportunities, and how AI is changing the economics of starting a company. This is the same thinking they share with their portfolio companies, and they're giving it away for free.
This is the investor's lens on AI. What's getting funded, what business models are working, and where VCs see the biggest opportunities. It's the kind of context that matters when you're making strategic bets.
These are the creators who help you zoom out. Where is AI actually heading? What should we believe and what's hype? If you want to have smarter conversations about the future, these are your people.
~1M subscribers | TIME's 100 Most Influential in AI | Author of The Scaling Era
Dwarkesh is a 25-year-old podcaster that The Economist called "Silicon Valley's favorite podcaster." He does deeply researched, long-form interviews with the people actually building AI: Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, and Ilya Sutskever. Jeff Bezos has publicly praised his work. His book, The Scaling Era, is an oral history of AI told through his interviews with the people making it happen.
This is not a how-to channel. This is where you go to understand where AI is heading over the next decade, straight from the people building it. If you watch one long-form interview a month, make it one of Dwarkesh's.
400K+ subscribers | Research-driven content | Newsletter read by OpenAI, Microsoft, and DeepMind staff
youtube.com/@aiexplained-official
AI Explained is the channel for when you want to go deeper than surface-level news. Philip does meticulous, research-backed analysis of new AI models, benchmarks, and what they actually mean for performance. When a new model launches and everyone is arguing about whether it's better or worse, he reads the papers and tests the claims. His Signal to Noise newsletter is read by professionals at the biggest AI labs in the world.
This is the hype filter. When everyone says a new release is "groundbreaking," AI Explained will tell you if it actually is and what it means in practice. This channel has saved me from chasing shiny objects more than once.
These creators bring the practitioner's perspective. They're using AI in real workflows, real businesses, and real marketing. Less theory, more "here's what I did today."
260K+ subscribers | Collaborated with Microsoft & Google | 30M+ views | Published author
Igor is one of the most respected AI educators on YouTube. He created the world's second most-viewed ChatGPT tutorial and the most-viewed Midjourney tutorial. His channel focuses entirely on practical workflows: prompt engineering, automation, productivity, and integrating AI into your actual work. He's been invited to speak at Google, collaborated with Microsoft on an AI education series, and recently signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster.
Igor is for when you already know the tools exist but want to get 10x more out of them. Very workflow-oriented, no fluff. He's the "make me a better AI user" channel.
Growing channel | 3x Chief Product & Technology Officer | Founder of ChatPRD
youtube.com/@howiaipodcast
Claire Vo's channel is unlike anything else on this list. She interviews professionals across industries about how they're actually using AI in their daily work. Not theory. Not tool overviews. Real people showing their real workflows. She's a seasoned product leader (3x CPTO) and founder of ChatPRD, so she approaches AI from the perspective of someone who builds and ships products for a living.
This is less about tools and more about operational thinking. If you're wondering "how are other companies actually using this stuff day to day," Claire's channel answers that question better than anyone.
244K+ subscribers | President of BrandWell | Sold $5M writing agency in 2021 | 10 books published
Julia saw AI coming for the content industry before most people, sold her human writing agency in 2021, and pivoted hard into AI-powered content marketing. She's now the President of BrandWell, an AI growth platform, and her channel focuses on using AI for SEO, content creation, and brand building at scale. Her perspective is unique because she's lived through the disruption firsthand and made the transition successfully.
For anyone in marketing or running a content operation, Julia is required viewing. She's one of the few creators who didn't just talk about the AI content shift. She bet her entire business on it and won.
Weekly AI news: Matt Wolfe, Wes Roth, Matthew Berman
Hands-on automation: Nate Herk, Jono Catliff, Nick Saraev
Business strategy: Greg Isenberg, Alex Hormozi, Y Combinator
Marketing & SEO: Eric Siu, Julia McCoy
Tool tutorials: Skill Leap AI, Igor Pogany
Big picture / Where AI is headed: Dwarkesh Patel, AI Explained
Real-world operator workflows: How I AI, Jono Catliff
Selling AI services: Liam Ottley, Nate Herk
AI moves fast. The tools change every week. The models improve every quarter. But the people who explain it well, who test it honestly, and who show you how to actually use it? That list is shorter than you'd think. These 17 are the ones we keep coming back to.
If you're a business owner figuring out where AI fits, my advice is simple: start with Matt Wolfe for the big picture, Nate Herk if you want to build something this weekend, and Dwarkesh Patel if you want to understand where all of this is going. Then branch out from there based on what your business actually needs.
We'll keep updating this list as the space evolves. If there's a creator you think we're missing, let us know.
Who should I follow first if I'm brand new to AI?
Start with Matt Wolfe for a weekly overview of what matters and Skill Leap AI (Saj Adib) for step-by-step tool tutorials. Between the two, you'll get both the lay of the land and practical skills within a few weeks.
Which channels are best for building AI automations without coding?
Nate Herk and Jono Catliff are your go-to creators. Both teach no-code automation using tools like n8n and Make.com, with walkthroughs built for people who don't come from a technical background.
Are there any channels focused specifically on AI for marketing and SEO?
Julia McCoy covers AI-powered content marketing and SEO strategy, and Eric Siu (Leveling Up) ties AI into broader growth and customer acquisition. Together, they cover the marketing landscape from content production to paid media.
Which creators focus on AI from a business strategy perspective?
Greg Isenberg, Alex Hormozi, and Y Combinator all look at AI through the lens of building and scaling businesses. They're less about tool tutorials and more about where the opportunities and revenue models are.
How do I stay current on AI news without spending hours a day?
Matt Wolfe, Wes Roth, and Matthew Berman collectively give you the best daily and weekly coverage. Even following just one of them will keep you well ahead of most professionals in your industry.
Is there a channel that helps me understand where AI is headed long-term?
Dwarkesh Patel interviews the people who are building the future of AI. His long-form conversations with leaders at Anthropic, Google, Meta, and OpenAI are the closest thing to a crystal ball this space has.
Need help putting AI to work in your business?
ATAK Interactive helps companies implement AI-powered workflows, CRM automation, and growth systems that actually drive revenue. If you're ready to move from watching to doing, let's talk.