Will AI Replace Us Coaches?

This UCSD research came across my feed. It showed that patients rated AI chatbot responses more emphathetic than physicians. How funny. AI > Physicians!

Earlier this week, Apple announced Quartz, a project to launch an AI driven health coach. Many of my colleagues in the coaching field were getting nervous as well as outraged.

Technology cannot replace a real human coach!

Well, there are problems with all this.

What Apple is building is more of a health advisor. It takes your metrics and then makes some recommendations. It might get to some habit work; anything that can be systematized and algorithmized is likely fair game for technology since it is established and repeatable.

A real HEALTH COACH isn’t just a habit building machine, although we can be. A REAL HEALTH COACH might offer information on health but information rarely moves people to action or resolution.

AI might offer empathy, but it remains to be seen exactly HOW does a machine interpret what information and emotions another human is giving off accurately to form a good response. Anyone can talk conversationally in a pleasant and caring manner, but authentically?

(And BTW what exactly is the authentic self of an AI algorithm?)

So is AI > human coach or human coach > AI?

Go see for yourself and decide. Launch OpenAI’s ChatGPT, sign up, and then start your session saying you want to be coached by a health or life coach. Then see what happens. How did it feel for you? Did it find a resolution for you?

Then try one of us out and compare.

Will we beat out AI or will AI beat us, like they did physicians?

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