# Behind the desk, not in the room

*By Phil Goodwin · 2026-06-29*

> AI does not hollow out a studio; drudgery does. A Gen 2 studio runs the back-office watching and hands the human moments to the team. Intelligence behind the desk, humans on the floor.

## Key takeaways
- AI doesn't hollow out a studio; the drudgery does, by crowding out the people.
- A Gen 2 studio runs the back-office watching and hands the human moments to the team.
- It speaks to your staff, never to members as a robot.
- Members want the room human; the intelligence stays behind the desk.

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The fear is that AI hollows out the human thing a studio is built on. Built right, it does the opposite. It clears out the machine work so the people have room to be people.

## Doesn't AI make a studio less personal?

What makes a studio feel like a machine today isn't the people. It's the drudgery crowding them out: the spreadsheet that won't talk to the other spreadsheet, the 6am cover scramble, the Sunday night on the laptop while the family waits.

## Where does the intelligence belong?

Behind the desk, never in the room. Kula Intelligence takes the watching, matching and chasing and leaves the relating to your team. It never speaks to a member like a robot. It speaks to your people and hands a teacher the one true thing they need, "Sarah's back after three weeks, welcome her home," then gets out of the way.

## What does the evidence say members actually want?

In Les Mills' 2026 research, only about one in ten members would choose AI guidance over a human coach. People are happy to let software run the back office. They want the room kept human. So that's exactly where the line sits: intelligence behind the desk, humans on the floor.

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This is part of the Gen 2 studio series. Start with the pillar: [The Gen 2 studio: when every decision finally has help behind it](/blog/gen-2-studio-help-on-every-decision). Next, read [From three years of expensive lessons to day one](/blog/expensive-lessons-to-day-one).

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Source: https://kula.digital/blog/behind-the-desk-not-in-the-room