How will the rise of AI affect coaching?

I recently received a question about how the rise of AI will affect coaching. I believe we should accept AI is going to make its way into nearly all types of work including coaching.

I can imagine a future when a virtual AI coach asks new managers common questions such as:

“Did you prioritize your key tasks today?”

“Did you have that difficult conversation you were supposed to have?” and “How did it go?”

“What will you do differently next time?”

These questions could even be useful to prompt a manager to do what they should do to be better organized, more effective, and reflective. And yet, I don’t think they’ll find the virtual AI coach to be as helpful to them as a real coach.

Why? The main reasons are these: I would rather be challenged by someone I have developed a relationship with. It will mean more to me and be more motivating. In fact, challenging myself would be more motivating than engaging with a virtual coach.

Next, a human coach can sense when it might be the right time to coach the person versus the problem. Moreover, they’ll be trained on how to do that with nuance and based on the trust and safety they’ve cultivated with the coachee.

In addition, human coaches are able to keep the thread across multiple sessions and interactions. They’re also able to interview those who work with the client and distill those interviews down into meaningful comments they can share with their coachee in relation to their coaching goals. While this may sound easy, it’s not.

Lastly, human coaches know when it’s right to challenge a client or empathize and support a client. They know when it’s time to focus on the goals or simply be a sounding board. This type of intuition usually takes time to develop and is valuable to the client.

I think we’re a long way off from having an AI coach provide this level of value and service.

I also believe senior executives are not going to want to be coached by a virtual AI coach. They will demand an experienced, credentialed and very present human coach.

Bottom line, I think executive coaches are not in any danger at present and for years to come. If you are focused on coaching lower level people and primarily coach the what versus the who, then you may be threatened. Virtual coaches will start working at the lowest levels in the organization. If that’s where you are, then start moving up the chain of management and develop the capacity to coach the who and the what.

I’m completely open to your thoughts on this. I’m speculating a whole lot here. Read more about AI with our other article, Will AI Threaten The Executive Coaching Profession?

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