As potential use cases for artificial intelligence continue to emerge, professionals across industries are discovering resourceful ways to leverage it to optimize their workflows. In the world of coaching, leaders are using AI to improve the efficacy and impact of their coaching methods and empower their clients to achieve their goals.
Below, Forbes Coaches Council members explore innovative ways AI can be used to enhance coaching engagements. Read on to learn how these AI-enabled approaches can support both coaches and clients, elevating the experience and delivering more personalized insights.
1. Confirming The Accuracy Of Answers To FAQs
I’m often asked questions such as, “How can I increase revenue?” “In what ways can I increase employee engagement?” and, “What’s the best way to market my business?” Before AI text generation, I would pull knowledge from my memory and experience, maybe even Google. Now, with a specific prompt, I get a list of information that confirms what I know, jogs my memory on things I’ve forgotten and adds to my knowledge. - John Knotts, Crosscutter Enterprises
2. Streamlining Administrative And Marketing Tasks
We need to integrate AI tools into our coaching practices to take meeting notes, assist with content marketing and brainstorm ideas. Beyond this, I believe that AI not only can assist human coaches, but also offer coaching directly. Chat-based AI coaching tools make coaching more accessible and can offer more services than human coaching, as they have no time limit. - Minna Hu, AI Business Coach Inc.
3. Generating Client Coaching Narratives
At a recent coaching conference, Martin Seligman showed coaches how he uses AI to generate detailed coaching narratives about their clients at the beginning of the relationship. The clients are often blown away by the level of detail, and many say they learned something about themselves. These narratives also help the coach and client set up appropriate coaching goals. - Justin Patton, The Trust Architect Group
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4. Exploring Alternate Possibilities
AI could add value to creativity when coaching. Too often, the coachee jumps to action. There is a crucial step in between, and that is exploring possibilities and “what ifs.” Taking the creativity step counters the effects of the insanity loop: doing the same things, yet expecting a different result. Having done some thinking, ask ChatGPT or a similar tool for ideas; there may be something worth exploring. - Ricky Muddimer, Thinking Focus
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5. Generating Alter Egos
As AI becomes more advanced, having the capability to generate alter egos in coaching engagements could be profound. What could this look like? If a coach and client were working through establishing executive identity when faced with a challenging work dynamic, the client could see their alter egos engage with the coach. Such simulation could provide options for responding prior to doing so. - David Yudis, Potential Selves
6. Automating Responses To Lower-Level Questions
Many coaches are programming their apps to handle their clients’ lower-level questions and provide answers in response. This lets clients get answers more quickly, and it helps coaches appear to “respond” in real time. This might be one of those “don’t knock it until you try it” functions to engage with so you can find how it benefits your clients and you as a coach. Trial and error will help you discover how it fits for you. - Carry Metkowski, Carry Metkowski
7. Encouraging Behavioral Changes
AI can be trained to respond with coaching questions instead of answers. When embedded into day-to-day messaging tools, such as WhatsApp, it can help learners with making behavioral changes following a workshop by offering reminders and tailored insights. Other than insights from the data collected, this approach drives down costs (versus engaging a human coach) and makes coaching more accessible to the masses. - Weixi Tan, Workplace Asia
8. Facilitating Brainstorming
AI is a great tool to get started with brainstorming or filling a gap when I feel stuck. This could be done in conjunction with a client, or I could use it to spark ideas before a client session. - Kelly Ross, Ross Associates
9. Helping Clients Tailor Their Communication Styles
I’ve used AI in my coaching practice to help clients tailor their communication styles for different personality types. For example, to deliver difficult feedback, we ask AI to use the GROW model to write different scripts for a person who is a big-picture thinker versus detail-oriented. This enables them to word their communication to have more impact on specific personalities and in specific situations. - Gabriella Goddard, Brainsparker Ltd
10. Providing More Personalized Support
AI-driven continuous learning and behavior change support enhances coaching practices by integrating AI-driven conversational agents. These agents can offer personalized interactions and reminders, extended support, scalability and data-driven insights, making coaching more efficient and accessible. - Izabela Lundberg, Legacy Leaders Institute
11. Giving Access To The Underserved
There are individuals with inadequate access to coaching services. Access has always been an issue for any services provided to leaders or organizations, and this will inevitably continue. I anticipate that the use of AI in the coaching industry will allow individuals or leaders in more remote areas or less-developed regions to provide those services and add value to groups that still need them most. - X. Carmen Qadir, Coaching & Consulting Experience, LLC
12. Testing Different Approaches To Conflict Scenarios
I often use AI to help clients who regularly encounter similar conflict scenarios to explore different approaches and options. AI tools can simulate realistic interactions, allowing individuals to practice and develop their conflict resolution skills in a controlled, risk-free environment. These simulations can adapt to various responses, providing immediate feedback and personalized guidance. - Stephan Lendi, Newbury Media & Communications GmbH
13. Delivering Real-Time Sentiment Analysis
Integrating AI into coaching can revolutionize feedback with AI-driven sentiment analysis. By analyzing clients’ verbal and written communication, AI provides real-time insights into their emotional states and progress. This allows coaches to tailor their approach more precisely, enhancing client engagement and outcomes while streamlining the coach’s workflow with actionable data. - Andre Shojaie, HumanLearn
14. Understanding Clients On A Deeper Level
The key to growing a practice is simple: “Know your people, find your people and love ‘em hard” by truly understanding clients on a deeper level and working to better attract and engage them. AI presents a tremendous opportunity to up-level these efforts. Use strategic AI prompts to help gain a better understanding of your market and to develop content and offerings that solve clients’ most pressing issues. - Kristin Andree, Andree Group
15. Training With Virtual Scenarios
Integrating AI into coaching allows for the creation of virtual scenarios where clients can safely explore decision-making and problem-solving. This method offers real-time feedback and adapts to the client’s evolving competencies, enhancing personalized learning and resilience. For coaches, AI provides insights into client progress, enabling more focused and effective guidance. - Alejandro Bravo, Revelatio360