Prepared by Irma Guramishvili, Educational Director at Infinite Coaching International Institute.
Coaching education: Wake up to the new digital and AI coaching revolution!
Jonathan Passmore & Woody Woodward
Keywords: AI coaching, digital coaching platforms, coaching education, future of work, human connection, coaching technology
🌏The New Era of Coaching Has Arrived:
Coaching has never stood still. Over the past three decades, it has evolved from informal mentorship to a respected academic and professional discipline. But today, we’re witnessing a fourth evolution - one that blends technology, psychology, and human development on a global scale.
Welcome to the era of digital coaching - where platforms like BetterUp, CoachHub, and EZRA are connecting thousands of coaches to organizations worldwide. Coaching has become scalable, data-driven, and tech-powered.
Yet amid all this innovation, one question keeps coming up:
👉 Can artificial intelligence replace the coach?
🔍AI Is Transforming Coaching - But Not Replacing It.
Here’s the truth: AI will not replace human coaches.
Yes, AI can analyze goals, track progress, and even deliver reflective prompts. It can help people stay on track, offer reminders, and bring structure to the development process.
But coaching is not just about performance - it’s about presence.
Coaching is empathy, intuition, and the subtle reading of human emotion. It’s the unspoken connection that helps people confront fears, clarify identity, and make real change. And no algorithm can replicate that.
As Jonathan Passmore and Woody Woodward write in “Coaching Education: Wake Up to the New Digital and AI Coaching Revolution" - AI should be viewed not as a competitor, but as a collaborator - an intelligent assistant that supports human growth, not a substitute for it.
💡The Future Coach: Human + Digital Intelligence:
The next generation of coaches won’t just master listening and questioning skills. They’ll also understand technology, ethics, and data literacy
Coaching education must now teach future professionals to:
Use AI tools ethically and effectively,
Work across digital and hybrid environments,
Manage large-scale coaching programs, and
Maintain human warmth in a tech-driven world
Universities and training organizations need to evolve too. The future of coaching education will prepare three types of professionals:
Evidence-based coaches with digital fluency,
Coaching program managers who commission and oversee large-scale initiatives,
Service managers who integrate technology, analytics, and human insight.
🚀A Human-Centered Digital Revolution:
The rise of AI is not the end of human coaching - it’s a human-centered revolution.
Technology allows us to democratize access to coaching, making personal growth available to millions. But the soul of coaching remains deeply, beautifully human.
The best coaches of the future will be those who combine two forms of intelligence - human empathy and artificial insight. Together, they can do what neither could do alone.
So, if you’re in coaching education, it’s time to wake up - not to fear AI, but to work with it.
Because the future of coaching isn’t about machines taking over - it’s about humans evolving