Would You Be Coached by My Avatar?

I first wrote this article in 2022. At that time, one of the most frequently discussed topics at professional conferences was the future of coaching.

Could artificial intelligence replace coaches?

Would we one day find ourselves facing a digital avatar instead of a person?

At the time, these were mainly questions about the future. Today, AI-supported coaching applications are being used and studied in academic research. We are therefore no longer discussing only whether AI can provide coaching. We are also examining how people experience it and under what conditions they find it useful.

AI can be available to users at any time of day. It can help them set goals, ask questions, remember previous conversations and notice certain patterns in their discussions. It can process large amounts of data quickly and bring different options together.

These are significant capabilities.

Some users may feel more comfortable speaking to a machine. They may express themselves more openly because they believe they will not be judged. Others may miss human connection, mutual trust and the experience of being understood by a real person.

AI coaching therefore does not offer the same experience to everyone. The user’s expectations, the issue being discussed, the design of the application and how personal data is used can all affect the experience.

Alongside the opportunities offered by AI, there are also important risks. These include the protection of personal data, confidentiality, incorrect guidance, algorithmic bias and the oversimplification of human experience. A system may use language that sounds empathetic, but this does not mean that it truly experiences empathy.

At this point, I do not think it is helpful to place human coaches and AI in a simple competition over which is better.

This is my opinion.

The main question may not be which one will replace the other. It may be more useful to explore which form of coaching can best meet a particular need for a particular user.

AI may be useful when people need structured thinking, goal tracking, reminders and continuous access. A human coach may offer a different kind of support when exploring complex emotions, relationship dynamics, ethical dilemmas and experiences shaped by a particular context. Hybrid models that combine human coaching with AI may provide another option.

For coaches, the issue is not only the risk of losing their jobs. Neither using AI without questioning it nor rejecting it completely appears to be a healthy approach. Coaches need to understand the opportunities, limitations and ethical risks of this technology.

Based on what I know today, I do not believe that AI will remain outside the field of coaching. However, there is still not enough evidence to say that it will completely replace human coaching.

Perhaps the main question for the future is this:

Will AI replace the human coach?

Or will humans and AI reshape the coaching experience together?