CaronMargareteI listened with curiosity as the webinar host used their in-house AI tool to demonstrate its capability. I heard my internal voice speak with pessimism, “How good could it possibly be?”
The host asked the AI to perform the role of coach. I was shocked at how good the AI was at asking coaching-style questions to explore the host’s challenge. No word of a lie, as the demonstration went on for the next 10 minutes, I became a tad alarmist: “Shit. This thing, and others like it, will ruin the coaching industry. Damn. Before long, my clients won’t want to hire me when they can just use AI.”
And yet, as the short role play continued, I began to see its limitations. “Yeahhh,” my internal voice sighed with relief, “Nahhh, I’m good.”
The AI bot (which I refuse to name because humanising machines with names and pronouns is problematic for so many reasons) was good at intellectualising the challenge that the webinar host presented. It was good at listening and interpreting the meaning from the host’s responses. It asked good questions that challenged the host to think deeper about the problem. It would be a good tool for people who need to experience a taste of what coaching can offer. The keyword here is “tool”.
An AI bot is just a tool, like a carpenter’s electric drill. An electric drill is a faster, more efficient screwdriver, but ultimately, its effectiveness resides solely in the carpenter’s capability. Without a firm grip, strong wrist, balance and control, that screw is going in crooked and the wood will crack irreparably.
The adage, ‘Rubbish in, rubbish out,’ applies here. To a person new to coaching, you will not know how to qualify the AI bot’s questions to understand their value. Yes, they’ll likely take your questions and problems and assist you in expanding your thinking, and then what?
And herein lies the limitation of using AI as a coach: it’ll only get you so far. An AI bot is incapable of emotional intelligence. It understands the theory of emotions, but not how emotions feel physiologically and psychologically. This key differentiator is what makes real-life coaches so much more effective than a bot will ever be. A real-life coach can hear, see, and feel their client’s emotions. An AI bot cannot do that. I’ve had multiple clients who said one thing when the emotional tonality of their voice or their body language conveyed a completely different meaning. With my emotional intelligence training and years of experience, I pick up these cues quickly and can support my clients to unpack them more deeply.
The AI bot in this webinar host’s demonstration missed the opportunity to explore the host’s physical movements while he was speaking. In a coaching session, the way you move, touch your face, raise your eyebrows, or any nuance you make can have significance. An AI bot cannot see you and does not know how to bring these movements to your awareness for you to interpret their importance, nor the relevance to what you’re saying.
A client of mine scratched the side of her forehead as she described her confidence in the decision she had made. When I enquired about the action, she laughed and acknowledged that I was right. She wanted to be confident, and yet she had doubts. We went on to explore those doubts through my Fact vs. Fiction exercise, which removed all of her doubts and gave her a genuine sense of confidence in how she would proceed. Without me seeing and asking about her movement, we would not have achieved the more powerful outcome for her.
An AI bot cannot go beyond the remit of its instructions or programmed training. Yes, it is a machine that learns, but it is limited by what and how much it learns based on the data input it’s provided by the programmer. By the very nature of being perpetual learners, open-minded, curious, and inquisitive, real-life coaches do not have data input limitations or quality assurance challenges. Yes, we have our own unconscious biases to overcome, but that we are aware of them and actively work to counteract them will always be what an AI coach cannot do.
Go ahead and experiment with an AI coach, recognise that it’ll only get you so far, and when you’re ready, I’ll be here to take you to the next level, beyond any limitation you or a bot has placed upon your capability!
Blessed be,
