AI Can Analyze Data, But It Will Never Understand You: Why Coaching Needs a Human Touch

Original post on https://ceoworld.biz/2025/08/11/ai-can-analyze-data-but-it-will-never-understand-you-why-coaching-needs-a-human-touch/

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has sparked a revolution in nearly every industry, from healthcare to finance, education to entertainment.  Artificial Intelligence is a breakthrough that can help us navigate faster and with more precision technical field, however not all fields.

Imagine this: You are in crossroads for a difficult decision and you need to work with a coach. What would you chose to do: pick a human coach or just try a chat bot that has been highly trained to coach you?

While AI is changing the world, the essence of coaching will always remain uniquely human despite the fact that many digital coaching platforms are competing on who is going to be the first and the most successful in winning the largest share of the coaching market offering automation – often promote it as “democratization of coaching”, scalability, and efficiency.

Is the chat bot trained to be a real coach that can demonstrate the coaching skills of even the most experienced coach?

The answer is no and I will explain why:

• Coaching is not about demonstrating in a mechanical manner a certain process of questions or competencies.
• Coaching is not about giving advice or fixing the client.
• Coaching – at its masterful demonstration – is about presence.

When you coach a person the shift happens not with the use of complicated tools, frameworks and acronyms that any coach is free to use, it happens only when the coach can demonstrate global listening to the coachee’s emotions, motivations, and struggles.

For example, the clients’ tone of voice, their body posture, their pauses, their breathing rhythm and of course the mental challenge the coach is inviting them to take to find their own solutions.

What AI will never acquire is authentic emotional intelligence through which trust is built. A coach builds rapport and earns trust over time, which allows clients to be vulnerable and open up. AI lacks the ability to form these authentic, trust-based relationships.

While AI can process large volumes of data and make predictions, it lacks true emotional understanding. An AI agent can analyze a person’s words, tone, or facial expressions about their emotional state, but it cannot genuinely empathize with the coachee or provide the emotional support that is often crucial for personal growth.

Another factor is the human complexity. And humans are not algorithms. A coaching session even though it has a certain structure on a masterful level is much more complicated because the most important element is presence. And by presence, I mean that a coach can read between the lines, pick up on subtleties that aren’t explicitly communicated, and adjust their approach to match the coachee’s shifting needs. This level of nuanced decision-making is something AI will always struggle to replicate.

That also happens with questioning: While AI can generate questions based on predefined patterns or logic, it lacks the intuitive judgment to ask the right question at the right time.
Because the questions a coach asks can summarize the global listening that took place even a second ago.

Last but not least, AI hallucinations, incorrect or misleading results that AI models generate or even worse “AI people pleasing” trained attitude.

By default, a coach is the greatest supporter of their client. However, the best coaches challenge their clients – they are not pampering them, because they know that only if a client is stretched they will leave their comfort zone and achieve the change they want.

Having mentored and assessed more than 2000 ICF coaches what I know for sure is that coaching is not a dry process of following a certain process. The art of coaching is like a dance. Just as a dancer learns steps but also improvises, a coach guides while adapting to the coachee’s unique situation. The real transformation happens when coaches listen deeply their coachee and they challenge them to become the best they can be.

AI on the other hand, has the tendency to “please” the coachee and not stretch them enough to move out of their comfort zone- where actual growth takes place.

In a nutshell, AI can support coaches.

It can augment the coaching experience.

But it cannot replace the inner work, the human intuition, or the ethical responsibility real coaching demands.