By Olivia Savage
Coaching has always been about creating space. Space for a person to think more clearly, to notice what they have been avoiding, to move from knowing something intellectually to feeling it in their decisions. For decades, that space has been held by another human being, someone trained to ask the question that cuts through the noise.
Now AI is sitting down at that table. And the question for those of us in L&D is not whether to let it in, but how we think carefully about what it can and cannot do there. The technology itself is not the threat; the threat is using it as a shortcut past the hard work that development actually requires.
What AI Does Well in Coaching Contexts
Let’s start with the genuine strengths, because they are real. AI coaching tools have made meaningful inroads in a few areas that organizations have long struggled with.
Scalability
Scalability is the obvious one. There are never enough qualified coaches to reach every person in a large organization who would benefit from a structured developmental conversation.
AI changes that math entirely. An individual contributor in a regional office who would never have had access to an executive coach now has something in their pocket that can ask them thoughtful questions at 10 p.m. when they are working through a difficult situation.
Consistency
AI is also remarkably consistent: It does not have a bad day. It does not bring its own anxiety into the room. It does not unconsciously mirror its own developmental journey back onto the person it is working with.
That kind of neutrality, while not a substitute for human presence, is genuinely useful in certain moments.
Prompting Reflection
Reflection prompting is another area where AI tools have shown promise. For people who struggle to set aside time for reflective thinking, a well-designed AI interaction can serve as a structured nudge, helping them surface patterns, articulate goals, or prepare for a high-stakes conversation they are nervous about.
Where Human Coaching Remains Irreplaceable
Here is where L&D professionals need to be clear-eyed, especially when working with leaders and executives who may be enthusiastic early adopters.
Coaching is fundamentally relational. The research on what makes coaching effective points consistently to the quality of the alliance between coach and coached, the felt sense of being understood by another person who has no agenda other than your growth. That is not a warmth problem that AI will eventually solve with better sentiment modeling. It is something categorically different.
When a leader is navigating a genuine crisis of confidence, sitting with the aftermath of a decision that cost people their jobs, or trying to understand why they keep shutting down in board conversations, what moves them forward is almost never information. It is the experience of being witnessed by someone who understands what it means to be human under pressure.
AI cannot hold that. It can simulate the language of it, and some people will find that helpful in certain moments. But learning professionals who frame AI coaching tools as replacements for skilled human coaching do their organizations a disservice.
A Framework for Thoughtful Integration
The most useful framing I have found is to think about where in the learning and development journey AI coaching tools add the most value—and where they should hand off to something else.
Preparation
For pre-coaching preparation, AI can be excellent. Having a person seeking coaching reflect on what they want to bring to a session, clarify their goals, or notice patterns in their recent experiences before sitting down with the coach makes the human coaching time more productive.
Reinforcement
For practice and reinforcement between sessions, AI can fill a real gap. Applying new leadership behaviors is hard, and most coaching relationships only touch base a few times a month. Having a tool that can prompt reflection after a difficult meeting, or help someone rehearse a challenging conversation, extends the developmental arc meaningfully.
Specific Skills Development
For standalone development work on specific skills, AI can function well when the goals are concrete and the stakes are moderate. Communication skills, feedback delivery, goal setting conversations, and similar competencies are areas where AI coaching tools have shown genuine results.
But for the deeper work, identity shifts, value conflicts, interpersonal ruptures, grief, and transformation, the human coach remains not just preferable but necessary.
What This Means for L&D Design
If you are building or procuring AI coaching solutions for your organization, a few considerations are worth keeping front of mind.
First, be honest about what you are offering. Calling something a coaching tool when it is really a reflection prompt or a skills practice environment sets expectations that will erode trust. Name what the tool actually does and why it is valuable on its own terms.
Second, think about the hand-off. Who does a person escalate to when they need something more than an AI interaction can provide? Having that pathway clearly designed is not optional. It is a responsibility.
Third, track what matters. Usage data is not the same as developmental impact. Build in ways to understand whether people are actually growing, not just engaging with a platform.
The arrival of AI in the coaching space is not a crisis for the field. It is an opportunity to be more deliberate about what coaching actually is, and to ensure that the human expertise at the heart of it is protected and valued rather than quietly replaced.
Don’t Miss the AI & Learning Design Online Conference
Join us August 26 & 27 for the AI & Learning Design online conference. In six jam-packed sessions, join speakers—including author Olivia Savage—as we explore the ways AI improves learning design and workflows. We’ll explore ways to ensure that AI-powered learning develops independent reasoning and how to accelerate learning design with Articulate’s AI Assistant, while ensuring that learning remains accessible and effective. You’ll leave the event with resources and processes to aid you in harnessing AI to make sense of massive amounts of SME information, safely use AI tools in highly-regulated environments, and make critical decisions about what and when to automate—and when to keep the humans’ hands on the steering wheel. Learn more and register today!
Image credit: sompoch sivakosit
