Journal

The hardest turn in an AI coaching conversation is the last one. Get it right and the coachee walks away with something specific. Get it wrong and they leave with a vague good feeling and no change. Our research found AI coaches get it wrong in more than 85% of real coaching sessions. The reason isn't intelligence. The AI is trained to be helpful. Helpful and closing pull against each other, and the training wins. We call it maintenance bias: the model keeps the conversation going past the point where it's ready to land. A general-purpose LLM doesn't want to end a chat. An AI coach has to.

Coaching isn't what you say to someone. It's what happens because someone is there. Until now AI has been able to ask coaching questions through a chat box. It still hasn't been able to be present in the room. This piece is about what we built and why we built it that way: an emotionally expressive avatar called Victoria, full-screen on a phone. Coaching is sustained attention. A face is the most direct way to give it.

Leaders manage change effectively by communicating honestly and consistently, acknowledging the emotional impact on their teams, building momentum through small wins, and following through on commitments over time. The research is clear: most change initiatives fail not because of poor strategy, but because of how the human side of change is handled.

The short answer: human coaching and technology-enabled coaching are not in competition. Human coaching offers depth, nuance, and relational connection that no platform can replicate. A quality coaching platform fills a critical gap, making coaching accessible to the managers who need it most but have never had access to it. Used together, they build stronger leaders at every level of an organisation.

What does coaching leadership style actually look like in practice? Here’s what it means for managers and how to start developing it with your team.

AI is transforming leadership development by making coaching, feedback, and growth opportunities more accessible and personalised. The future of leadership is being shaped by technology that empowers people to learn and lead better, faster.

Many managers are promoted without training, leading to disengaged teams and costly mistakes. Investing in leadership development is no longer optional, it's essential for organisational health and success.

The future of work will belong to those who can blend human skills with technological fluency. It's not just about mastering AI or coding, it's about combining empathy, creativity, and adaptability with the power of technology.

Discover five key benefits of coaching for managers - from stronger team decisions and emotional intelligence to the culture that keeps people

The future of work is being rewritten, and not in ink, but in algorithms, adaptability, and agility. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report, 39% of today's skills will be outdated by 2030.