AI and Coaching — the 2025 NYU Coaching and Technology Summit in a Nutshell

This year’s NYU Coaching and Technology Summit was all about coaching and AI. Plenty of big coaching kahunas were present from top coaching behemoths such as BetterUp but also exciting start-ups and researchers such as Dr. Nicky Terblanche.

I was able to discern three big themes:

• AI will enable us to democratize coaching

• While everyone needs coaching, in the context of organizations executive coaching will have the biggest impact on companies

• Health and well-being will just get bigger for coaching

What is Coaching?

During one of the sessions, Emma Barker-Goldie, global senior trainer and coach at Amazon was asked about her hopes for coaching: “Imagine a world where we know what coaching is?” She continued wondering how it would look like if we introduced coaching to school age children. 
How do we explain what coaching is? This topic still seems to challenge even the combined brain power I encountered here in New York City. I asked one prominent coach and researcher who actually did not want to get into that kind of debate. Perhaps I am a horrible would-be journalist, but I guess this also highlights how difficult that question remains.
I decided to try my luck elsewhere and asked Laura Rees-Davies, CEO of GlobalForward Consulting who has worked with schools in the United Kingdom. How would she explain what coaching is to a 10-year-old kid. She responded: “Someone will ask questions and not tell you what to do.” She further emphasized the importance of playfulness for children. That made me curious about how to translate this back to the adult world. How would “play” help us explain coaching to adults? In response, Rees-Davies laid out the importance of creativity. Adults need to shed several layers of mentalized frameworks and structures before they can approach coaching with creativity to find answers to the coach’s questions.

So far nothing new. Also not new is that our trade is exposed to the same disruptive forces posed by AI like any other industry. Many coaches and obviously entrepreneurs fully embrace this and only see opportunities. Several researchers are doing what researchers should do and ask the tough questions. For example, Dr. Terblance pointed out currently there are only about 150 peer reviewed articles about AI and coaching published in academic journals - and many of these are not good. Then there are the sceptics and not surprisingly coaches are among them. It seems sometimes even more so than among our clients. 

When the Market outruns Coaches

NYU professor of entrepreneurship Arun Sundararajan explained the number one use of AI is as a personal therapist. Alex Haitoglou, founder of Ovida added “We will all have an AI to speak to.” That means the “consumer” already embraces AI. Coaches need to adapt to it, too. One way many panelists see this play out is in their desire to democratize coaching. It cannot remain a service whose availability is limited by how much people are able to pay. That is primarily a problem of scale – and that is where AI steps in. The technology is placed to make that possible. 

AI as an Opportunity and Risk

That means we coaches perhaps more so than others need to act on what we like to preach, reamin curious about this new thing and think about it creatively. In fact, adapting intentionally to AI is all about curiosity, as Tim Harrison, founder of EPOG Academy explained on how to use AI tools: “It is all human interaction: you need to be curious, communicate well [to the tool] and provide feedback [for the tool to do what you need it to do].”
This mindset shift is not just hard for “older” people. Again, Sundararajan highlighted how for the first time in his 25 years of teaching young graduates are fearful on leaving college. The concern and frustration many express can be summarized in one statement: “If AI can do all this then what is left for us to do?” He went on to provide some perspective, explaining “AI like all innovations helps us meet unfulfilled aspirations”. AI will be a scaling of a combination of human and technological action. To illustrate this, he pointed out that healthcare did not even exist 200 years ago. Now it contributes to GDPs in double digit numbers.
The opportunity is we will be able to offer coaching to a much larger market. How that looks like is currently being addressed by an entire industry segment. What they are up against is the technology itself and our willingness to adapt it. For example, our clients already use AI as a personal therapist. The danger is that “AI can put up a great front”, according to Sundararajan. The current risk of AI in coaching/therapy is inadequate design of the human/technological mix.
He pointedly asked, “What are the pedagogically grounded and science-based templates we use?” The danger is people will not believe in the technology’s potential if it is not designed well. We need to be proactive - intentional (!) - about how we design the tools and the mix of technology and humans.

For our approach to AI’s impact on the workforce in general that means, in the future people will need to be much more entrepreneurial about their work environment. Having the right person in that environment to figure out how to make these transitions and improve our performance and learning who we are at the different stages of our lives will become increasingly important. 

For example, the current labor market includes an unprecedented cohort of five generations (Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z). As a result, we need to manage a lot of mid- to end-of-career transition. The United States, specifically, is great about early career transition - from high-school to college and first jobs – often managed by educational institutions. It lacks the ability to facilitate mid-career transitions. Up until a few decades ago, jobs were for life, the job trajectory was clear and company and pension plans took care of retirement. 

Transitions with Dignity

Today, companies are the only institutions which can manage mid-career transitions, both for the talent they keep and the one they won’t keep. In this context, Sundararajan made a statement that resonated with me a lot. He said, the increasing number of mid-career transitions needs to be managed “with dignity”. There will be people who have done an excellent job throughout their careers. Over time, their jobs have changed. It is too simplistic to always blame employees whose jobs have outgrown their capabilities. Take AI. Today’s experts themselves do not know what will come in six months. As Alex Haitoglo said: “The crystal ball is broken.”

So what are we to learn from all this? There seems to be consensus on AI’s ability to help coaches to scale their business across the entire range. For example, BetterUp shared research results proving how AI can increase bookings for a second session by about 10%. As Woody Woodward, BetterUp’s chief coaching officer said, the first session often “does not feel like a coaching session” because it is all about contracting, managing expectations, goal setting, etc. Coaches who implemented a pre-first session contracting tool reported 92% of clients were satisfied with the tool. With all the “admin” stuff out of the way for the first session, the experience of that first session was better. As a result, 10% more clients booked a second session.

The real scaling though will be on a much bigger level. One hoped for outcome is access to coaching for the “most vulnerable” as Sarah Sheehan, CEO of Braverly said. This is crucial because many underfunded organizations try their best to offer coaching to their staff. They hire well-meaning people but do not have the required resources to afford experienced coaches who also undergo supervision which led Laura Rees-Davies to ask: “Is coaching actually happening” in these places? 

None of this means the end of in person coaching. In fact, there seems to be wide agreement on a hybrid model becoming the norm. But there will be a shift which Levi Goertz, founder of Valence referred to a distinction between lower case “c” coaching and upper case “C” coaching. AI scaled coaching to a mass consumer market is on the way to solve coaching problems for many people in their early career stages. Liz Lowry, VP of talent development and learning at Hearst reported how junior staff utilized Valence’s AI coach Nadia to prepare for review meetings asking very practical questions such as “how do I get a raise”. Christine Nollen, global head of coaching for VML agrees. She believes, AI coaching works extremely well for mid-level and junior staff. 

Coaching for Leaders and Employees

The difference is in coaching for “executives who need to know how they show up with all their emotions, etc.” She argues, coaching is being present with a human including the mirroring and reflecting. “I point out what I see and feel. You have the answers yourself. It is about asking the next provocative question.” That is where non-sentient AI is presumably lacking. The upper case “C” coaching is targeted to the leadership because of the cascading effect. “Leaders make the weather”, Nollen said underscoring the importance of leading by example. No corporate coaching program or corporate transformation program will fully succeed unless the leadership is willing to undergo a transformation themselves. Danny Shea, founder of Thrive Global added to that “[the leaders’] example and sharing their story provides permission and makes them accountable, too”. 
 
The concept of upper and lower “c” coaching does not imply leaders deserve better. Rather, Shea views this in the context of what helps corporate clients. Organizational change is exponentially more impacted by the leaders. The community and peer aspect is essential because of adaptations. Leaders leading by example is the key. That is why it is crucially important for them to be aware of how they show up from an organizational perspective. 

 
However, for an organizational transformation to trickle down throughout the entire organization including the front workers, the most powerful motivator is to see your peers take steps. What are some of the most important areas for sustainable personal transformation? Thrive Global highlights five core areas for micro-steps, including 
 
The emphasize is on micro-steps which is something every professional athlete will tell you. In fact, Holly Benner who is associate director for global talent management at Merck USA said just that. When she is not coaching, developing talent, etc. she runs marathons, triathlons and used to be an elite rower. My memory is a but hazy on that because as a no-sports person I nearly fainted a triathlon, but this quote stuck with me: “We get offered radical change. That is not sustainable. Pick that 1%.” Sustained incremental steps are the way forward through a transformation.

• Healthy nutrition
• Sufficient sleep
• Exercise
• Stress management 
• Community

That Well-Being Thing

That brings me to the last theme I was able to identify at the NYU Coaching and Technology Summit. Where is this all going to play out the most? What is the big area where coaching will take place? If the AI as the new technology impacts how we do coaching not just in terms of methodology but simply in scale, leaders remain the prime target due their pivotal roles in their organizations. They lead in an increasingly volatile environment where the one constant is leadership. As a result, we need leaders who function well in a fast-paced high-pressure environment. That level of performance will only be possible if leaders are mentally and physically fit. So the big trend is, you guessed it: Well-being. 
 
It turns out everyone I spoke with at the NYU Coaching Summit seems to agree they don’t like the term nor much of what the market is including into that. Diego Salinas, founder of Vibly brought his neuroscientific training to bear when he criticized the much-touted concept of work-life balance. “You bring the same molecules to work and elsewhere.” In the end, any well-being program, regardless of what you call it and what you throw into the mix (from bean bags to DEI) has one goal only: performance increase. There is the scientific proof of its health benefits to the people in the organizations. Hardcore management consulting companies have brought the numbers to show how much money companies can safe and how they can improve the bottom line by implementing such programs to boost performance.

 
Like many programs, corporate well-being initiatives can go either way and the one determining factor is corporate culture or as Salinas called it “organizational citizenship behavior”. Unless leaders put their money where their mouth is and walk the talk by actually joining the corporate transformation project as someone who transforms his or her own behavior, the trickle-down effect will be much less impactful and sustainable. Boasting about how you just need four hours of sleep to run your organization is misguided and will only achieve one thing, the failure of any well-being initiative in your organization. Perhaps therein lies the leader’s responsibility for the performance of the organization: lead by example. Use the most powerful tool in the toolbox, i.e. soft power, be present and learn to be aware of how you show up. So, from a coaching perspective nothing new, only this time you can use AI to do it. 

Disclaimer

I conclude this with the statement this article was entirely written by a human, so don’t blame AI for any bad writing.