As an executive coach who’s always pondering the future of coaching, I’ve been thinking recently on whether organizations today are using AI for their leadership development. So I asked. Most replied with a ‘’No, and it’s never going to happen with us..’’ and a few said, ‘’Oh, absolutely- technology must play a role with leadership..’’ And one person added “ Without question, chatbots give that nudge you need to make the changes.”
I can see the benefits of a good solid nudge to start that change.
But I can tell you (with many years of stories) that any behavioral change is complicated and slow-moving. And yes, visibly ineffective or irrational behavior is very often hard to change, particularly if an ineffective behavior is also an overused strength. When things are going well, we never see our own blind spots; how could we?
So, we can define a weakness as a strength carried too far. To become a better version of ourselves takes not only work, but honest understanding of strengths used too much. A neutral third party can offer such a reality check — and that third party could be a chat-bot or another AI tool.
As AI winnows its way into Learning and Development, it will soon be more visible in coaching. To support leadership development, ‘AI coaches’ are now a chatbot interface with enough resources to provide coaching techniques at the right time.
For example, Bunch, an AI enabled leadership intelligence app, “takes the world’s knowledge on leadership and breaks it down into bite-sized chunks, so you can get 1% better every day.” There is also VIC (Virtual Interactive Coaching) and Coach Amanda, which offers “insightful and actionable content- all within 5 to 10 minutes.” How good are they on their own? Pocket Confident (a group of entrepreneurs with experience in coaching, human-machine interaction, neuroscience, innovation, education management, training and teaching) do not see chatbots as coaches but have found that a “chatbot “can” have a coaching conversation, that is to say it can ask you good questions…”
Hiring an executive coach is a significant investment whereas AI is scalable, ‘round-the-clock and portable. As one example, the founders of Butterfly.ai (which offers data-driven tools for managers) wanted every employee to have access to coaching, not just senior management. And it works by offering timely actionable feedback. It’s helpful to keep in mind that a chatbot doesn’t replace a conversation.
Given the on-going challenge of talent retention and developing next-generation leaders, using a bot for leadership development at scale is not only a great idea but a huge relief for some companies For others it’s alarming, especially when you consider that 86% of consumers prefer a human interaction to a bot, as there is reluctance (if not irritation) chatting with chatbots. Can we assume the same ratio when it comes to employees dealing with coaching chatbots?
Like coaches, chatbots are not all the same. Coaches must have an essential component of knowing what to ask, how to listen and when to answer. A coach must be able to clarify the intent and purpose of any question raised. That may sound easy, but it’s complex, and chatbots are often not able to understand the unique human complexity.
My conclusion- at least for the remainder of 2021 and beyond. Coaching chatbots won’t replace a human coach. But increasingly, they will augment and help the coaching process, it will give some nudges, some reflection to look within and a dose of self discovery, all of which are terribly valuable.
The choice, in other words, won’t be one or the other, but both human and chatbot, in order to improve oneself, knowing how to embrace the machine and the human are the future of the world and of oneself.
