Can a robot help with something as human as coaching?
I’m an ICF-certified coach committed to presence, partnership, and honoring the resourcefulness of my clients. Coaching is personal, reflective, and grounded in trust. But like many people in many jobs, I’m wondering if AI is coming for mine.
I decided to find out. I asked ChatGPT to coach me.
I didn’t want to fake it. And like every coach I know, I’m trying to crack the code on getting leads and turning those leads into clients. So I started experimenting with ChatGPT on how to support my own practice-building.
Here’s the prompt I gave it:
Greg: Hi, I’m an ICF-certified coach. I’m a Myers-Briggs ENTP; my CliftonStrengths top 5 are Strategic, Communication, Woo, Responsibility, and Individualization; and I am an Enneagram Type 8. Based on those profiles, I need a coach. Can you help?
Not surprisingly, AI was up for the challenge.
What I found surprised me: In this first (very short) engagement, ChatGPT definitely provided solid coaching—although I’m not worried for my job just yet.
How I Used ChatGPT to Coach Myself
Recently, I hit a common challenge that many entrepreneurs, including coaches, face: I wanted more clients. To get there, I needed to clarify the focus of my business and figure out what actions to take next. I knew the kinds of clients I wanted more of—leaders needing help with KPIs and organizational performance—but I didn’t have a solid plan for how to attract them.
So, I treated ChatGPT like a thinking partner (one of my favorite ways to describe coaching). I gave it some context from my own personality profiles and asked it to reflect my characteristics back to me and help identify next steps aligned with my profile.
It’s not a question of whether the responses were “accurate,” because that’s too subjective. But I can tell you the responses were actionable, which is even better. The AI helped me clarify my ideal clients and their pain points, reflect on how my personality (based on my profiles) influences how I want to show up in my business, and even helped generate ideas for LinkedIn posts.
Granted, it couldn’t do much without my direct and active input, but I’ll be honest: It asked good questions.
What Surprised Me About Chat GPT’s Coaching Ability
The coolest part of using ChatGPT was how it accelerated insight.
When I asked whether my personality profiles made a difference, it responded much like a coach who knows you might respond differently than one meeting you for the first time:
Greg: How did knowing my three personality profiles inform your approach to this coaching?
ChatGPT: With your personality profiles, I had a head start on trust, tone, and traction. I could mirror your natural voice, match your pace and power, and offer actions that felt like you instead of cookie-cutter steps.
The coaching still would have been respectful and useful without the profiles. But with them, it was more precise, personal, and energizing from the first move.
Instead of starting from scratch, I could bounce ideas off of it and get responses aligned to my preferred styles of communicating. I got ideas for actionable steps and had the agency to choose the ones I believed in and could commit to. I ended up with drafts of LinkedIn posts I could tweak, provocative questions to reflect on, and suggestions that felt tailored to my energy and voice.
What stood out most? It recommended three or four courses of action and asked my reaction, rather than prescribing a single path. Each option was solid, grounded in what I’d shared about myself and my goals. As someone who values clarity and action, that mattered.
In fact, every part of the interaction echoed one of the core principles of coaching: The client is already whole and capable—only in this case, I was the client.
The Limits of ChatGPT as a Coaching Tool
That said, ChatGPT isn’t a coach. It doesn’t intuit emotion. It doesn’t pause to hold space. It reflects patterns—but not presence. It needed my informed input to provide useful responses—and yes, it did provide useful responses—but it couldn’t read body language, detect tone of voice, or inquire about a hesitant reply that might signal something deeper.
Coaches can’t outsource emotional labor or ethical judgment to AI. The moment you rely on it to be the coach, you’ve stepped out of partnership and into delegation. At the end of the engagement, even though it was helpful and actionable, it was still, at is core, a transactional exchange.
Used with intention, though, it’s a fantastic tool for reflection, messaging, brainstorming, and even values alignment.
What I Learned—and What I Recommend
My takeaway? AI can’t replace the coaching relationship—but it can absolutely support the coach.
A person who knows their question, or even has just an inkling, can get a powerful reflection partner in AI. ChatGPT helped me focus my action, sharpen my message, reconnect with my voice, and plan meaningful steps with more clarity and less second-guessing.
If you’re a coach curious about using AI in your work, I’d encourage you to explore it—not as an answer, but as a catalyst.
If you’re stuck in some part of your life or career and want some inspiration, try it out. You’ve got very little to lose. Think of it as a GPS: You can ask for directions, and it’ll help you map a path. But it can’t tell you whether it’s the right destination.
