by Valerie Ehrlich

In the rapidly evolving landscape of coaching, staying ahead of the curve means embracing innovative tools that can enhance our practice, bring efficiency to our tasks, and allow us to understand the forces shaping the professional environments of our clients. One such tool that is currently garnering lots of attention is Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), a powerful technology that is transforming various industries, including coaching. In this blog post, I'll explore how GenAI can be integrated into coaching by sharing some ways I've used it in my own practice.

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence that can generate human-like text based on the input it receives. Large language models that underpin GenAI tools like ChatGPT-4 are capable of processing vast amounts of text, understanding context, and generating responses that mimic human conversation. It's important to understand that GenAI tools are essentially predictive text machines trained on a vast corpus of human communication. This 4-minute video gives you an overview of how GenAI works, and this collection of resources I've assembled can be a great place to start if you're just learning about GenAI.

Why Generative AI is Useful in Coaching

When used in a way that 'amplifies' the abilities of the coach, GenAI can help you keep the human part of coaching forefront by amplifying your ability to connect across information for the benefit of your clients. (I highly recommend checking out Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick for more on 'amplifying' intelligence). GenAI can help by offering insights, automating repetitive tasks, and providing personalized recommendations based on different inputs.

How I've used GenAI in my Own Coaching Practice

Example 1: Connecting to Client's Resonant Resources

Recently, a client mentioned a book that deeply resonated with her, but I hadn't read it. Instead of coming back to her after I'd finished the book (which would likely take weeks!), I turned to ChatGPT4. I asked it to summarize the book for me, highlighting what might be relevant for a coach to understand. I also reminded it of how I was trained as a coach (my specific courses) and asked it to draw parallels between my coach training and the book's content, enabling me to connect my tools and techniques directly to what resonated with my client. This approach not only saved time but also allowed me to provide immediate, relevant connections to my client. I was able to design our next session with the book that she was reading in mind, bringing my own tools in but connecting them to tools she was gravitating toward.

Example 2: Summarizing Coaching Sessions

I've also begun asking client permission to record or transcribe coaching sessions and have experimented with using GenAI to summarize the transcripts into post-meeting follow-up messages. In my experimentation, I have found the automated meeting summaries from Zoom to miss important aspects, so I tried loading in a full transcript to ChatGPT in private mode (to ensure additional data privacy). I prompted it to generate a summary of our discussion, list the action steps we identified, and provided a set of reflection questions for my client. It was incredibly accurate! I edited and adapted this output into a follow-up email. My client found this incredibly helpful, as it provided clear and concise reminders of our session, and it was relatively low effort on my part thanks to the AI's assistance.

Future Experiments:

One of my favorite things to do with GenAI is to ask it how best to use it and see what it suggests. When I asked ChatGPT4o how it might be useful for a coach and it came up with a few ideas I'm excited to try (or to hear about, if you try them!).

Role Playing: using AI to simulate different scenarios or practice role playing on different topics
Post-session feedback: Reviewing a session transcript to analyze interactions and provide feedback for me as a coach based on information about specific skills I'm looking to develop
Goal alignment: helping me or my clients break down larger goals into smaller tasks and offer up suggestions for assessing progress along the way

Conclusion

A common fear is that AI will replace human workers or somehow eliminate what is human about the work we do. While I think the privacy and intellectual property risks of AI are very real, my approach has been to face this fear by instead learning how to leverage the tools so that I can fully understand them as they develop and also improve my own ways of working. I've found that incorporating GenAI into coaching practices can significantly enhance personalization and efficiency while often expanding my thinking. Leveraging AI has allowed me to provide more tailored and insightful support to my clients while streamlining my workflow. As the field of AI continues to evolve, so too will the opportunities for coaches to integrate these tools into their practice. I encourage fellow coaches to explore AI tools and consider how they might enhance their own coaching methodologies.

Additional Tips and Considerations

Always ensure client privacy and obtain consent before using AI tools. Read and understand the terms of service for whatever tools you decide to experiment with.
Start with small, manageable tasks to integrate AI into your practice. Keep an experimental mindset.
Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools and adapt them to fit your unique coaching style.
Explore resources and communities focused on AI in coaching to stay updated with the latest developments.

More about Valerie Ehrlich

Valerie Ehrlich, PhD, is a leadership development coach focused on supporting emerging and mid-career nonprofit professionals. Having trained with both the Center for Creative Leadership and CoActive Training Institute, Valerie supports clients who want to reconnect with their values and purpose, find balance in their lives, and work for social and organizational change.