ChatGPT as A.I. Leadership Coach? Yes and No
AI as a Learning Coach?
I’ve spent years in the learning and development profession. One of the long-standing goals for learning designers has been to make it as easy as possible to access the right learning at the right time—in a way that feels personal. When generative AI platforms hit the scene, it quickly started to look like personal learning coaches might actually be within reach.
A Learning Experiment
At Thrive at Work, we’ve been working in leadership development for some time. We do coaching, facilitation, and program design—so I wanted to see how A.I. could help with those areas now, not just in the future. I asked ChatGPT to be my leadership coach to see where it would be helpful and where it would fall short.
My Thoughts
How it can support coaching
ChatGPT can absolutely support leadership development by helping leaders at any level and in any type of organization. For example:
– It can respond to questions and simple context. Try a prompt like:
“You are my leadership coach. I was recently promoted to a management role overseeing a team of software engineers. I was previously a peer of my employees, and I was promoted partially because of my expertise. I am finding that my team defers to my ideas. I'd like them to come up with their own ideas, challenge mine, and take initiative. Can you help?”
– It helps uncover ideas, frameworks, and best practices you may not even realize you’re looking for.
– It’s like getting a condensed summary of hours of research, reading, and browsing in one conversation.
– It lets you dig deeper into specific areas and surfaces additional resources (books, courses, tools).
– It can even create basic learning plans or action steps, like a two-week development roadmap.
How it can’t support coaching
The good news for leadership coaches and development professionals is: ChatGPT can’t replicate the depth or nuance of a human coach—at least not yet.
When I asked ChatGPT what its own limitations were as a coach, it pointed to:
Lack of emotional intelligence
No personalized context
Inability to observe non-verbal cues
Limited real-time interaction
No practical experience
Lack of flexibility
Ethical concerns
Dependency on input
So much of leadership coaching centers on people—their psychology, relationships, strengths, motivations, and lived experience. Those things can’t be automated. A human coach brings not only insight but intuition, nuance, and presence that’s simply unavailable in a tool like this right now.
My Conclusion
No, a human coach can’t be automated at this stage. But yes—ChatGPT can be a useful learning and development tool.
For leaders who don’t have access to a coach, aren’t sure where to start, or need quick support, it can spark awareness, offer direction, and help them move forward. And that’s powerful.
AI will absolutely change the way learning happens inside organizations. It may finally allow us to embed personalized learning into the flow of work—translating into growth and performance at scale.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to ask ChatGPT for a performance plan to level up my pickleball game.
