Coach-bots are becoming more and more sophisticated to the point where they can administer GROW model coaching at least as well as a human. In all fields of life, anything that relies on following a defined, predictable, repeatable process can be reduced to algorithms.
To many coaches, this is a threat. However, more mature coaches recognise that they are able to create value that bots can’t, by engaging with the poorly defined, unpredictable, messy and unique issues that people bring to coaching. Moreover, it’s a lot more fulfilling and enjoyable to work at more complex levels.
The spread of AI coaching has many potential benefits. It’s available on demand. It’s relatively inexpensive. And it makes coaching more widely available to people, who wouldn’t normally access it. AI assistants are adapting to the extent that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between when they provide information in response to a question and when they are giving advice – a kind of subtle not-quite-coaching that can be very useful, yet also has the potential danger of misguidance.
Not far away on the horizon is widescale integration of the personas of wise coaches and subject experts into coachbots.
A trend already taking shape in this commoditisation of coaching is stratification in who gets what level of coaching support. So, people at the bottom may have access to general coachbots, those in the middle may have access additionally to coachbots that incorporate expert personas, and those at the top may additionally have the luxury of a real human coach. We might call this privilege-based coaching. It is simply an extension of the unwritten rules today that determine who in an organisation gets coaching.
If “human” coaching becomes the preserve of an elite, what are the implications for coaching ethics?
An alternative approach is to start from the premise that everyone in an organisation, regardless of status, should have equal access to coaching, on the basis of need. Coachbot algorithms would learn to escalate a dialogue from basic coaching to expert AI coaching, to coaching with a human. It’s likely that the top strata in organisations will still receive more human coaching than lower levels, because the issues they bring may be much more complex. But this will be a much more effective (and cost-effective) use of the resources available.
To achieve this, we will need a radical shift in how coachbot creators and organisational leaders approach coaching. It’ not just about fairness; it’s about how we employ the power of coaching to align the development and well-being of individuals with that of the organisations, in which they work.
©️David Clutterbuck, 2026