Human vs AI Coaching: Where the Real Value Lies

Insight article by Becky Viccars, Associate Leadership Development Practitioner

As AI coaching becomes more accessible, organisations must understand where technology excels and where human coaches remain irreplaceable.

Two of the most referenced studies on the impact of coaching, Metrix Global (2001) and The Manchester Review (2001), both put ROI at over 500% when measuring the bottom line alone.

When you consider the less tangible benefits of coaching, we start to see what the catalyst for such incredible ROI likely is:

The Metrix Global study cited productivity (60%) and employee satisfaction (53%) as the outcomes reported by the businesses as being most significantly impacted by coaching.
The Manchester Review concluded that the greatest impact was on improved relationships with reports (71%) and stakeholders (77%), as reported by executives.

So, with the advancements in AI and the development of AI coaches making it available to more people and at much lower cost, we could easily get excited by the potential impact this could have on organisations. Not to mention how it could make coaching more accessible.

These studies, however, are based on the results of human coaches.

More recent studies have shown that AI coaches work most effectively when the goals are clearly defined and easy to measure. In fact, they’re more effective in their ability to monitor and follow-up than the human coach.

Human coaches, aside from the obvious benefits of social interaction on adult learning (The Royal Society), provide a richness AI, for now, isn’t able to match.

Emotional Intelligence

As a coach my coachee has my full attention, not just the things they’re saying but I’m also focused on the things they aren’t saying. If a coachee hesitates, or their body language or expressions shift, I can get curious and dig deeper.

Discovery

One of the real benefits of coaching is in the discovery:

Exploring the focus of the coaching from different angles and in different ways.
Taking the different route when something new is uncovered.
Utilising embodied practices such as perceptual positions, to help a coachee explore a tricky relationship, and find their way forward.
Exploring nuanced or competing objectives and holding two seemingly opposing truths.

A coachee’s thinking and beliefs shift, change and expand through this discovery, resulting in them being more resourced and with more options available in their leadership tool kit.

Feedback and challenge

When the coach and coachee are well matched and rapport is high, a gentle challenge can go a long way. It would be so much easier as a coachee to say the “right thing” for an AI coach and tick a box, much less easy to hide when you’re face to face with someone.

Your coach is someone who’s task is to see you reach your goals and step further into your potential. This can look like naming a pattern, questioning how decisions have been reached, making observations or a connection between a current way of thinking in relation to a person’s goals. Done well it can be catalytic.

Ecology

Perhaps the most obvious things a human coach brings is when there are ethical considerations. Put more simply, does a coachee’s goal potentially impact another person?

We can also help explore whether their goals potentially impact them in a way they hadn’t previously considered, being mindful of the coachee’s context. And the human coach can respond appropriately to any wellbeing concerns that may be disclosed.

That said, I’m reluctant to dismiss the obvious benefits of AI coaching altogether. When goals are easy to define and measure, or when an AI can be utilised to take the load of prompting and following up, it would be prudent to utilise its capability to support development.

Where the goals are complex, nuanced or have ecological considerations a human coach is, currently, well, more human.

Selecting a great coach is only part of the picture. How coaching is framed within an organisation, a coachee’s readiness and commitment to engage, and the support the organisation provides are also key.

About the author:

Becky Viccars is a leadership development practitioner and facilitator with over 20 years’ experience managing and developing people and teams.

Becky has track record of building, leading, and developing national teams with high-profile clients and draws on this experience to design and deliver transformational leadership development programmes with an emphasis on personal and cultural change.