Hi all!
A huge part of our USP as an organisation is that we are all coaches. We believe that supporting our clients to find their own answers is what leads to sustainable cultural change - whether that be at an individual or a systemic level.
Everyone is talking about AI at the moment and exploring what it means for their businesses. We have been no different. The thing that has really caught the attention of the coaching world is the potential of being coached by AI. Anything that allows coaching to be delivered at scale and that democratises coaching is something that we think deserves exploring further so we have dug in...
What is AI coaching capable of?
AI coaching is now good enough to help you set objectives, ask powerful, open questions and reflect/mirror back what you are exploring. It's worth having a go. We've been trying Rocky.ai (absolutely no links with us as an organisation but if I was going to create a coaching robot that's probs what I'd call it!).
We've actually found it to be more useful at mentoring rather than coaching. In my interactions with it, it was the challenges I have, where I could benefit from other people's experiences and case studies, that it really excelled at.
It was also great at delivering 'just in time' and bite-sized sessions. No need to wait for my next session to roll around, I can get support exactly when and where I want it. This sort of immediate service provision is something that Gen Z have grown up with and are used to, so could mean they are quicker to buy into it than other generations...
However...
And it's a big however. There are obviously significant ethical questions around AI coaching standards - how do we ensure they genuinely do prioritise a client's well-being and privacy?
So....where can a 1:1 with a human add value?
A core belief of ours is that the world is changed through conversation. People have a fundamental need to be truly seen, and the support of your coach during such conversations creates oxytocin which, in turn, is thought to facilitate greater openness and change. The jury is still out as to whether a bot can mimic that same championing and emotional support.
While AI can replicate some aspects of coaching, it cannot fully emulate the depth of human connection, empathy and intuition that a highly skilled coach can provide. The ability to respond to subtle emotional cues and create a safe space for vulnerability and foster trust is uniquely human. At the moment, human coaches (in our opinion and trials) do better at complex problem solving, understanding the 'issue that sits under the issue', holding the space for true emotional exploration and bringing in their intuition.
We actually had a team group coaching session yesterday and I can’t imagine a machine replicating the connection, humanity and compassion we collectively witnessed.
There are also substrands of coaching, such as somatic coaching (where the coach uses the body to explore challenges and themes) which AI coaching can't replicate now or in the foreseeable future.
Using a mixture of AI and human coaching
This is probably the sweet spot for most people at the moment. We can use AI to support our clients to set objectives at the beginning of programmes, to check in and hold them accountable for their commitments, to summarise complex 360 feedback and to record sessions so that our clients get an accurate summary along with their agreed actions.
Our commitments
At THC, we need to adapt along with the changing technologies that are on offer. Here are our commitments:
- To work with all of our coaches to integrate AI alongside human centered coaching to make it even more impactful
- To work with our clients to get creative in how we offer our sessions. How can we make them more bite sized and more timely if required?
- To keep investing in upskilling our coaches and leaning into gritty ethical conversations. I've now started my MCC journey as it offers an unmatched advantage in providing a deeply human, adaptable and ethically grounded approach to coaching which are qualities we believe will continue to be highly valued.
What do you think?
We'd really love to hear what you think so have put this questionnaire together to give us an insight into how coaching requirements are changing for you and your organisation. We will share the results in a forthcoming newsletter.
Thank you!
Rox x