People don’t want answers, they want to be understood. Why AI will never replace a human coach

Artificial intelligence promises instant answers, low-cost solutions, and 24/7 availability. Coaching apps and AI “life advisors” are emerging rapidly, claiming to support personal growth and wellbeing at the click of a button. But can an algorithm truly replace human presence, empathy, and deep listening?
In this interview, experienced coach and mentor Mike Shreeve reflects on what people really bring to coaching today, why the demand for quick fixes is growing, and where he sees the fundamental limits of AI in human development.

What kinds of topics do people most often bring to coaching these days? Have you noticed any change over time in the types of clients or their needs?

I like to divide coaching into 4 categories:
1. Psychological or performance coaching – helping people align their inner resources to realise their potential and improve their skills. This might include leadership, selling, sports performance. It answers the question how I can get better at…. Or what stops me reaching my goal?
2. Capability coaching which includes finding the time and energy to fulfil life expectations. It could be more about balancing work with family, finding different strategies, expanding time. How can I find time to?
3. Awareness coaching which answers how can I enjoy my life, find meaning in my work How can I live my values?
4. Team coaching where groups are coached to enrich teamwork and achieve more. How can we work better together?

Since Covid there has been a movement to the third option where business owners are saying time is passing and our lives are stressful and what we want is to go back to the days where we enjoyed our lives. In other words, it is quality of the subjective experience not external factors or attaining certain goals. Capability questions also are very popular in that people want more time to live as well as work and avoid their brains being overwhelmed.

People today often expect quick fixes. How does a coach respond to this desire for instant results?

Outcomes vary; for example, a client with a fear of public speaking may gain confidence after a few sessions. Another client will want to double their turnover. This second goal may be possible but will take longer. Most clients are realistic about times and welcome someone who will enable them to move forward. Quick fixes lead to superficial and left-brain solutions that quickly disintegrate.

AI cannot offer more than Google search

What do you think clients are really seeking when they come to a coach, and could an algorithm ever offer that?

People come to coaches because they cannot solve their own problems and by collaborating with a person who is skilled and non-judgemental end up solving their problems! Without over-complicating it, this solution is often the result of the empathy and trust encountered in the human interaction. AI technology can make us think we are being listened to but has too many flaws and inconsistencies to justify our trust. AI cannot give us any more than a targeted google search can offer albeit at great speed.

Do you see AI more as a helpful assistant or a potential threat to human connection?

The answer depends on us as humans. People with large incomes will continue to educate their children with holistic communicative teachers who use A1 as a tool. At the same time governments will cost cut to rely on this technology out of its best context. The same will happen in businesses. Good businesses will see that it is a tool, and they need to work harder on the psychological development of their people. Bad businesses will abdicate their responsibilities and over rely on an unreliable technology.

In the future if all the investment comes to fruition there will be AGI (artificial general intelligence) capable of thinking. Their intelligence will be different from ours and whilst they can help us find solutions I personally don’t believe they can help us develop our cognitive capacity to solve our problems. The solution will be there, but the neural pathways will be roadblocked reducing our potential The danger then is human thinking and creativity is downgraded. In the same way that google maps increases our ability to find places by following instructions but obviates the memory needed and map reading skills that we used to have.

You cannot pretend real empathy

Can an AI ever truly “listen” the way a good coach does?

The clue is in the name Artificial Intelligence. Most successful coaching has a high emotional content and the main intelligence used is not logic but creativity. Listening is largely based on empathy all areas where Ai has no provenance.

I recommend you watch the original Blade Runner film. In this the artificial intelligent being (the replicant) fails on the empathy test. True empathy cannot be hidden or acted. There is much that science fiction can teach us.

How can coaches make sure they use AI responsibly without crossing ethical boundaries or losing trust?

There are already ethical dilemmas such as how can we ensure meetings are confidential if both coach and client have AI agents? If people want to use AI to assist note taking or research then on an individual coaching basis AI can assist, But the coach cannot rely on AI for providing the live service. As everything in coaching the extent AI is involved will depend on the “contract” or agreement of expectations with the client and if both parties agree the extent of the involvement of AI, then trust is maintained.

General advice is not coaching

It´s a bit paradoxical that we now must defend coaching with a real human being.

My own view is that AI can help with micro consulting and giving ideas. I don’t think it can coach. As an experiment I put in a question to ChatGPT “how can I improve my life?” It rolled out generic advice such as start small, exercise, sleep well etc. This is not coaching it is the like the unsolicited wisdom of my grandmother, often valid but untargeted. It is an artificial parent from a Transactional Analytical point of view, rather than fostering independent thinking, it is shrinking it. We must wait to see if that AI change and be thinking partner.

Can you finish this sentence: AI in coaching is…

… not there yet and likely to mislead.

Mike Shreeve is, together with Andrea Záhumenská, a mentor in our Mentoring & Coaching Practitioner Course, which starts again in February. If you are interested in attending, please contact our colleague Radka Vajgelová: study@thebridge.sk.

You can also meet Mike in person at SAKonferencia, the 20th edition of which will take place in March. We are once again the main partner, and information about the workshop Mike will lead, as well as other really interesting speakers, can be found directly on the conference website.

Edited by: Kamila Jančíková

Mentoring and Coaching Practitioner – EMCC accredited course

An exceptional internationally accredited course will teach you how to use coaching techniques, conduct a coaching conversation, and communicate more effectively. Includes theoretical sections, workshops, and practical coaching training.  The course is conducted in English and is particularly suitable for coaches, mentors, managers, executives, and anyone who wants to work with people professionally, sensitively, and effectively. Successful graduates will be awarded the EMCC International Certificate.

3.590€ – 5.390€

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