Artificial Intelligence in Coaching: The Online AI Coach Is Here
- Ryszard Skarbek
- 7 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering the world of coaching, supporting both coaches and coachees. Using machine learning algorithms and chatbots based on large language models ( LLMs ), AI can analyze massive datasets, provide personalized recommendations, and be available 24/7.
This modern technology, though already highly advanced, cannot yet recognize the subtleties of human emotion and certainly cannot replace human empathy. However, when used effectively, it can strengthen the interpersonal bond in the coaching process. This is achieved, among other things, by allowing the coach to take over routine tasks (e.g., note-taking and analysis) from a human coach and by providing real-time feedback.
In this article, we present specific examples of existing AI solutions that demonstrate how AI is used in coaching and support different types of coaching:
Our summary includes both global solutions and those available on the Polish market.
Which artificial intelligence is best for life and individual coaching?
In short, life coaching focuses on personal development, mental well-being, and achieving life goals. Currently, there are applications known as virtual life coaches that guide users through self-improvement using natural-language conversations. Among them, the following are notable:
A personal development assistant available in Polish. It utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy ( CBT ) techniques and the concept of mindfulness. It helps users reduce stress, build positive habits, and achieve personal goals. The app adapts to the user's needs, providing expert guidance and emotional support at every stage of development. Eywa integrates elements of coaching and e-therapy, helping users regain control of their life through personalized exercises and advice.
That is an international coaching platform offering daily micro-coaching sessions focused on personal development and leadership at work. It features a conversational chatbot coach that engages users in daily reflection, goal-setting, and the learning of new soft skills. Rocky.ai delivers short, tailored developmental content fostering self-improvement habits and a positive mindset.
Moreover, big tech players are also experimenting with advanced AI systems as a “life coach”.
For example, the Google DeepMind team is testing a chatbot that could act as a "personal life coach" offering advice on intimate life dilemmas and assisting with task planning and learning new skills. Such an AI life coach could, for example, advise on how to tell a friend that you can't afford to attend their wedding abroad. While this raises ethical dilemmas and concerns about data security, it demonstrates the AI's life coaching capability.
AI in Career Coaching: How Can It Help?
In career coaching, artificial intelligence is primarily used to increase the accessibility of career counseling services. It focuses on enabling specific skill training and personalizing development paths. Examples include:
BetterUp Grow
Companies use an AI module available on the global online platform BetterUp for employee development. BetterUp has introduced a chatbot that offers real-time on-the-job support. By combining machine learning with knowledge from millions of coaching conversations, the AI coach provides personalized advice tailored to the employee's role, experience, and goals.
For example, an employee can practice a difficult conversation with the chatbot or ask for ideas on how to solve a current problem, and the bot will immediately suggest possible strategies.
Importantly, this tool for supporting personal and professional development works with a human coach – if necessary, the user can be redirected to a conversation with a real person. Initial BetterUp research shows that 51% of employees are open to combining human coaching with AI, while 34% prefer a human coach alone. However, 15% already prefer AI alone! This indicates that the hybrid approach is acceptable to most coachees.
Interflexion
An innovative AI career coaching platform for programmers, also available in Polish. The tool uses role-playing simulations and skills analysis to create personalized career paths for IT professionals. Interflexion enables programmers to learn new technologies. But that's not all! It allows them to hone both technical and soft skills and plan their next career steps based on individual goals and performance.
Star Method Coach
An example of a specialized form of AI for interview training. It allows candidates to conduct mock interviews (simulated interviews) with a virtual recruiter who asks questions and provides feedback.
The platform offers interactive training interviews, generates sample questions (e.g., behavioral ones as part of the STAR method), and analyzes candidate responses. Users can also access a ready-made database of recruitment questions from various companies and record their audio responses, while the system assesses progress and identifies areas for improvement. Such tools significantly increase candidates' confidence and prepare them to answer challenging questions.
Yoodli
A free AI speech coach useful for both career coaching and broader communication skills development. Yoodli analyzes the user's speech (e.g., during public speaking or interviews) and provides personalized feedback. It analyzes speech rate, detects filler words (e.g., "yyy"), and assesses message clarity, etc. This allows job candidates and speakers to hone their presentations and speeches in a safe environment – before they face a live recruiter or audience.
Artificial intelligence in business coaching and executive coaching: what competencies does it develop?
Business and executive coaching are increasingly leveraging AI to scale and personalize development programs. Machine intelligence helps match coachees with the ideal coach, monitors client progress, and provides ongoing support between sessions. Here are some key solutions:
CoachHub (AIMY)
CoachHub is an international digital coaching platform that invests heavily in AI. It uses algorithms to automatically match coaches with coachees based on user preferences, coaches' profiles, and historical matchmaking data. The system achieves a 98% success rate in finding the ideal professional for a given individual. Furthermore, CoachHub provides coaches with personalized recommendations for training content (e.g., materials from the CoachHub Academy knowledge base) tailored to their established development goals.
In 2024, the company also introduced an AI Coaching Companion called AIMY™ – a virtual assistant integrated with the company's chosen platform (e.g., Microsoft Teams). This chatbot complements the work of a coach-human. Coachees can talk to the bot at any time about current challenges, ask for advice on a specific business situation, or practice a difficult conversation (for example, thanks to the AI role-playing function, it can simulate a demanding interlocutor).
The app continuously learns from previous interactions, providing increasingly relevant, context-specific guidance and nudges to support the implementation of the established development program.
According to research, 77% of HR leaders see the potential of AI to increase the effectiveness of employee development at all levels, and confirm the need for such tools in business. AIMY currently communicates in English, French, and German, with plans to expand to additional languages.
BetterUp
The aforementioned BetterUp platform, used by such well-known companies as NASA and Chevron, also integrates AI into its business services. The BetterUp AI Coach feature provides immediate, contextual support for managers and employees, integrating it into the company's daily workflow. The app provides personalized guidance tailored to the organization's realities (taking into account, for example, company values, job title, and employee training history).
This is a good example of a solution called "blended coaching", where AI increases the scale and accessibility of business coaching, and when necessary, a human coach steps in to deepen key topics.
Spacy AI Coach
It is a Polish solution for AI-based business coaching. It's a virtual coach developed by Space to Grow, operating in Poland and supporting managers daily. Spacy AI Coach acts as an "intelligent assistant." It provides personalized advice and recommendations 24/7, precisely when needed ( real-time ). It analyzes user information (including competency assessment results, previous coaching sessions, and current challenges) and, based on this, personalizes its suggestions to the manager's management style and needs.
This personalized assistance can address topics such as better team motivation, decision-making, or conflict management. Importantly, the platform also allows for measurement of results. Development program participants have access to a dashboard to monitor their progress, business goal achievement, and various metrics, such as team satisfaction (eNPS).
This tool demonstrates that Polish solutions, tailored to the local language and work culture, are emerging and combine traditional coaching with AI technology.
Wave AI
It is an example of an advanced AI tool for executive coaching. It provides managers with tailored coaching experiences, combining coaching expertise (an expert knowledge base) with data analysis and interactive development exercises. The platform offers in-depth insights and analytics that enable leaders to make better decisions. It can suggest structured action paths in areas such as leadership, work-life balance, and overcoming career challenges.
Wave AI is a relatively expensive tool, targeted at organizations investing in executive development. However, this demonstrates that there is a market for highly specialized, professional AI coaching solutions for top management.
What AI solutions support a coach's work?
It's worth emphasizing that artificial intelligence not only supports coachees but also helps coaches themselves. Here are some examples of such solutions:
Scaling the practice of a professional coach or mentor
CoachVox AI is a tool that allows you to create a digital copy ("clone") of a human coach. This avatar can automatically handle repetitive questions and interactions.
The coach or mentor goes through a special AI model training process (a 7-step program) in which they share their knowledge, methods, and communication style. Then the AI agent replicates these characteristics in conversations with clients.
This virtual "double" can support an unlimited number of people simultaneously, 24 hours a day, ensuring that the message conveys the individual's philosophy. As a result, the coach can reach a much wider audience without compromising quality, and clients receive quick answers and guidance even outside of live sessions.
Session Transcription and Analysis
AI excels at automating a coach's administrative tasks, such as taking notes during meetings or analyzing client feedback. For example, Rev.ai uses advanced speech-to-text recognition to transcribe coaching conversations in over 30 languages. Transcripts can be generated both live and from recordings, providing a full transcript of the conversation almost instantly.
Furthermore, thanks to built-in NLP tools, AI can conduct qualitative analysis of the conversation, for example, assessing the sentiment of the statement (positive/negative emotional tone) or identifying key topics discussed. For coaches, this means access to richer information. They can more easily spot patterns in the client's narrative, monitor their emotions over time, and better prepare for subsequent meetings.
Other tools, such as Poised AI and Otter.ai, offer similar capabilities, including feedback on communication style (speaking pace, word use) or automatic extraction of findings and tasks from the session.
Generating coaching materials and content
– AI also makes it easier for coaches to create personalized development materials. Natural language generators (such as ChatGPT or specialized platforms like Jasper) can quickly generate, for example, a coaching program outline, suggested exercises for the client, a summary of conversations in clear bullet points, or even motivational content.
For example, the LearnWorlds platform offers coaches integrated AI tools for automatically creating course outlines and quizzes based on a given topic. This means a life coach can quickly draft a plan for a 4-week confidence-building program, while a business coach can generate a set of coaching questions tailored to the client's leadership competencies.
This support saves time and allows them to focus on direct work with people rather than on office tasks.
Summary on the use of AI in the coaching process.
AI in coaching is developing rapidly in all areas — from individual life coaching and career coaching to business and management coaching. There are already many mature solutions globally that actually work and support the coaching process.
Thanks to platforms like BetterUp and CoachHub, coaching is becoming more accessible both in organizations and on a personal level.
Consumer apps like Rocky.ai and Eywa offer a virtual coach to anyone who wants to work on themselves at their own pace.
At the same time, local innovations are also emerging in Poland.
Domestic companies are implementing coaching chatbots in our language, and global platforms offer coaching services in Polish (e.g., CoachHub has a team of coaches conducting conversations in over 80 languages, including Polish).
It's worth noting that all of these solutions are tools, and the effectiveness of AI- assisted coaching depends on wise application. The best results are achieved with a hybrid model, where the " human touch " remains paramount.
Artificial intelligence in coaching supports a qualified coach, ensuring personalization and continuity of the process. However, it is the human coach who sets the tone for the entire process and the relationship with the client.
Nevertheless, AI is already significantly expanding the possibilities of coaching, making it more accessible, scalable, and data-driven – both globally and in Poland.
Digital sources and online reports
The analysis was based on current materials on AI in coaching, including press releases, coaching platforms, reports, and application descriptions. All examples provided represent solutions currently available in practice and on the market.
Main sources of knowledge:
BetterUp,
CoachHub,
Space to Grow,
Spacy AI Coach,
Poised,
Interflexion,
Star Method Coach,
Yoodles,
Eywa AI,
Rocky.ai,
CoachVox AI,
Rev.ai,
Otter.ai,
learnwordls.com,
businessinsider.com,
ioplay.google.com.
See also connected articles:
How does team coaching work?
Good coach: Who is this?
About the author:
Ryszard Skarbek is a certified business coach, mentor, and HR advisor. He has over 30 years of professional experience, including 22 years in an international corporation operating on six continents.
As a coach and mentor, Ryszard works mainly with middle and senior managers and business owners.
His main specializations are 21st-century leadership, interpersonal communication, self-awareness, HR, IT, and Project Management.
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