How AI Agents Are Redefining Coaching—and Why Human Coaches Will Always Win

[00:00:00] Okay, let's talk about it. Everybody's buzzing about AI, artificial general intelligence, and the new AI agents that are going to be taking on the show. They're going to be automating everything, ads, content, tasks. But here's the thing, where does that leave us, the human coaches? We're about to become obsolete, or is it going to be a bigger opportunity? In this episode, I'm going to break down how AGI is going to reshape the coaching industry, and more importantly, how you as a coach can stay irreplaceable. I'm going to be sharing some key ideas that has never been shared before, where things like empathy,

[00:00:29] creativity, storytelling, all of these are going to be more important than ever before, and how you can double down to thrive in this new era. So are you ready to future-proof your coaching game? Let's go.

[00:00:41] I have never been more excited about technology than the time and space that we're living in right now. The world is changing super fast. Ever since AI took on mainstream a few years ago, now it is going at a much, much faster and a rapid pace that is impacting all industries, not just the coaching industry.

[00:00:59] And for the kind of person that I am, I'm a geeky guy, I like to do a lot of research, and I like to take complex ideas, make them simple. And for that reason, I'm recording this podcast to give you a perspective on how you can stay ahead of the curve as a coach, and how do you prepare yourself? Because everything is about preparation, right? How do you prepare yourself and be aware of what is coming up next so that you can thrive and you can grow and create an impact in this world?

[00:01:23] So the title of this podcast is how AI agents and AGI will redefine coaching and why human coaches will always win. As you can see, there are three types of revolutions that have happened in the last few decades. The first revolution is the knowledge revolution, which has happened. And then the knowledge revolution has impacted in the intelligence revolution, meaning so much of data that has been gathered by all these different platforms.

[00:01:50] It has it's now actually helping and all this data machine learning is happening. And now I feel you are moving into the prosperity revolution, especially those who are going to be tapping into the power of AI in a better way as compared to being oblivious to it.

[00:02:03] So where I see things happening is everything's moving towards rapid innovation, which has never happened in the past. In fact, Moore's law is dead now. Those of you do not know what's Moore's law, Moore's law is that every 18 months technology doubles. And that has been happening in all phases of technology in the last probably two to three decades. But now Moore's law is dead because of AI and technology is doubling 4x every year. That means what you should take 18 months to double right now, we are able to do at a 4x

[00:02:33] speed and this is only going to go even more exponential in the coming years. So based on the research I've been doing, I've been following three, four people. The first person I've been following recently is Jensen Huang, who's the founder of, I would say the CEO of Nvidia, the chip manufacturer. I've been looking at many of his videos recently and been opening up my mind because he is possibly the most important person on earth right now, when it comes to artificial general intelligence. And I'll tell you more about what it is when it comes to

[00:03:03] application of AI in all different industries because it's all happening at a micro processor level and Nvidia has been innovating like crazy on that. The second person I've been following closely and researching on is Sam Altman. That was a recent interview that he did with Y Combinator, which is on YouTube. He talks about how AGI or artificial general intelligence or super intelligence is just around the corner and how that can have an impact on all industries in the world.

[00:03:33] And besides this, I've been following many other AI articles, AI blogs and many other influencers in the space for a long time right now. And I'm just gaining a pulse of the market. And the purpose of this podcast is to give you the essence of all of the stuff that's happening outside, but crystallize it for the coaching world. Okay. So let's get into the five different stages or levels or hierarchy of how AI is going to evolve in the coaching industry.

[00:03:58] The level one is the very basic level, which is to do with chatbots. And we're already seeing this happen right now. So I'll give you the definitions also of each so that you understand this on a much deeper level.

[00:04:11] So chatbots, okay, chatbots are AI powered conversational tools that are designed to handle basic interactions such as answering common questions and guiding users through simple workflows.

[00:04:22] So this is already happening right now where you can have personal interactions like chatbot that provide tailored answers to learners.

[00:04:29] And you can install a chatbot on your website or inside your learning system to enhance accessibility, scalability and clarity for your students.

[00:04:36] Okay. The second area where chatbots can be used is automated content delivery.

[00:04:41] Right now you may be seeing on Instagram people, you know, you can just use ManyChat or you can use Instachamp.

[00:04:46] We ask people to type something in the comments and then you deliver some content to them where you instantly share materials or resources with your learners on social media using chatbots.

[00:04:55] This is also another application.

[00:04:57] And the third area you can use chatbots is for 24 by 7 query resolutions like customer support or even conversational sales.

[00:05:06] So if you train your chatbot well enough, as the person is chatting with the chatbot, you can even get the chatbot to sell stuff for you based on what the user really wants.

[00:05:14] So there are not many coaches doing this, but you're going to see more of coaches start to apply chatbots on their websites, inside their learning management systems, on social media to really improve the conversational sales and conversational marketing.

[00:05:28] So that's the first level of where AI can be used.

[00:05:31] Now there's one level better than this.

[00:05:33] These are called reasoners.

[00:05:34] The definition of a reasoner.

[00:05:37] Reasoners are AI systems that are capable of contextual understanding and logical decision making to provide personal insights and recommendations.

[00:05:45] Now as a coach, where all can we use it?

[00:05:47] The more and more the chatbots get trained, you can also use reasoners like ChatGPT and basically take a lot of data from your courses, from your students.

[00:05:56] And there are three applications.

[00:05:58] One is contextual feedback.

[00:06:00] How you can analyze your students' inputs to provide deeper situation-specific responses.

[00:06:05] So let's say you run a poll in your community, you take all that poll data, throw it into ChatGPT, ask you to analyze it, and then give you a reasoning on what it needs to be done.

[00:06:13] And then the second application is, based on whatever data you have, you can also give learning path recommendations for your students.

[00:06:20] You can suggest customized learning journeys based on the learner goals and performance.

[00:06:26] And the third thing you can do is data-driven feedback.

[00:06:28] So you can offer insights into areas of improvement, both for the learners and your students as well as for you as a coach.

[00:06:36] So when you throw in, let's say, all of your business data, the entire system can analyze and tell you what decisions you can make based on the data.

[00:06:44] So the three applications of reasoners are contextual feedback, learning path recommendations, as well as data-driven feedback.

[00:06:53] Now let's come to the level three.

[00:06:55] Level three is AI agents.

[00:06:57] Now agents are smarter versions of reasoners where a reasoner is going to only give you the information, but an agent is actually going to do the task.

[00:07:04] And we're going to see this whole buzzword of AI agents grow more and more and more in the coming years to come.

[00:07:09] So the definition of an AI agent, agents are AI systems designed to autonomously execute and manage long-term goal-oriented tasks, adapting and making decisions over time.

[00:07:21] So the three applications in the coaching industry is one is goal management.

[00:07:26] So if you're a coach and you have a learning path that has already been set, imagine an AI agent that can help your students define their own objectives, track their own progress and stay accountable to it.

[00:07:37] We are doing it to some extent in our diamond level membership.

[00:07:40] We have a level up platform where each of the students, they actually go in and they enter their tasks and everything else.

[00:07:45] But I see that that platform itself is going to evolve to a point where instead of me as a student entering my goals, the AI is going to give me my goals based on where I am in my business.

[00:07:55] Okay.

[00:07:56] Or even my tasks and, you know, it's going to help me track my progress.

[00:07:59] The second application of an agent is dynamic curriculum design.

[00:08:03] So where I see things going the next one year is continuously updating and refining course content based on the learner's needs and industry trends.

[00:08:12] So I've been doing this manually right now, but I can see that the more and more I'm listening to my students, I can also create a process or a system or an AI agent that can give me suggestions and also execute things that I can do on the background on improving my courses and updating my courses.

[00:08:28] Number three is AI agents can also do networking assistance in terms of, you know, connect learners with peers, with mentors, resources for achieving milestones.

[00:08:37] And a lot of things can be automated.

[00:08:39] There are also agents that can optimize your website.

[00:08:42] Agents that can reply and repurpose your social media content.

[00:08:45] Agents that can also do the selling for you.

[00:08:48] So of course, right now I'm using automated webinars, but I can see there's going to be a point where that can be webinars where based on the person who's in the webinar on what stage that they're in or where they are in their business, a different product can be sold to them.

[00:09:03] So basically think about it more like a contextual selling, but it is not one-to-one.

[00:09:09] It is one-to-many selling through webinars.

[00:09:11] Okay.

[00:09:11] So I can see this also coming.

[00:09:13] So AI agents can do the selling for you also.

[00:09:15] And that is level three in terms of AI.

[00:09:17] Okay.

[00:09:18] Now level four and level five in terms of AI application is going to take some time.

[00:09:22] It may take probably one to two years to five years, but level four is what I call as innovators.

[00:09:29] Innovators are scientists and explorers that are AI.

[00:09:33] The definition is innovators are advanced AI systems capable of conducting research, identifying trends, and creating novel solutions in unexplored areas.

[00:09:43] So the three applications in a coaching context is number one is AI driven course creation.

[00:09:49] Imagine an innovator is automatically innovating and, you know, creating the courses based on market gaps or emerging trends.

[00:09:57] I can see a time maybe four or five years from now, or maybe faster than that.

[00:10:01] My entire persona would have been modeled by AI.

[00:10:06] The way I speak, the way I give examples, the way I would communicate my values, and it generates courses on its own based on my persona.

[00:10:16] Okay.

[00:10:17] So that's one area, which is an innovator.

[00:10:19] Two is predictive insights.

[00:10:21] So innovators also can anticipate future skills that are in demand.

[00:10:25] And also it can help you align coaching programs accordingly.

[00:10:28] And it'll do everything on its own.

[00:10:30] And number three is immersive simulations.

[00:10:32] So imagine an AI agent, or sorry, an innovator, where it creates real world scenarios for training in complex or high stake environments.

[00:10:42] Meaning, right now I'm doing a hackathon.

[00:10:45] Okay.

[00:10:46] Now imagine if an innovator models me exactly and conducts the hackathon, which is very, very customized for each of the students based on where they are in the journey.

[00:10:55] Now, this is still going to take time, but this is going to be coming.

[00:10:58] And mark my words, I'm recording this podcast on 25th of November, 2024.

[00:11:04] And when this happens, many of you are going to be coming back and saying that, hey, Sid already spoke about this many years back.

[00:11:09] Okay.

[00:11:10] So the three applications of innovators are AI driven course creation, predictive insights, and immersive solutions.

[00:11:16] And the last one is what I call as AI super intelligence or AGI, AI general intelligence, super intelligence.

[00:11:24] It's like scientists at scale.

[00:11:26] This is going to take some time, but let's look at the definition.

[00:11:30] Super intelligence refers to AI systems that surpass human cognitive capabilities, operating as scientists at scale to innovate and optimize solutions at an unprecedented level.

[00:11:44] So the three applications of where I see this happening in a coaching context is number one is global learning systems.

[00:11:50] So how can this super intelligence adapt courses in real time for diverse audiences worldwide in multiple languages and multiple niches?

[00:12:03] Two is autonomous knowledge expansion.

[00:12:06] That means how this super intelligence can independently research, curate, create advanced coaching content on its own.

[00:12:17] Three, mass personalization.

[00:12:19] How super intelligence can deliver hyper personalized coaching experiences to millions of people simultaneously.

[00:12:28] Okay.

[00:12:29] This is where the super intelligence is going to come.

[00:12:31] And now the question you may be thinking is what is the value of a human digital coach?

[00:12:36] Okay.

[00:12:36] And I did a research on this and there are six things that make us humans valuable.

[00:12:42] Number one is emotional intelligence and empathy.

[00:12:45] See, AI can process data, but it lacks the ability to understand human emotions.

[00:12:49] So your focus should be to build trust, provide motivation, address emotional and psychological needs of your learners.

[00:12:56] And that's what's going to make you valuable.

[00:12:57] That's the first point.

[00:12:58] Second is personalized mentorship.

[00:13:00] While AI can offer all tailored suggestions, human mentors can intuitively adapt their guidance based on real time understanding of your students' unique situation.

[00:13:10] Right?

[00:13:11] So the more you focus on offering tailored advice, constructive feedback and accountability that goes beyond algorithms, that's where your value is going to be.

[00:13:20] Number three, storytelling and inspiration.

[00:13:22] See, stories inspire and deeply resonate with your students, motivating them to take action.

[00:13:27] And a coach has lived the experiences.

[00:13:29] It's not like an AI that has just giving you a story.

[00:13:32] It's not lived the story.

[00:13:33] So your life experiences and your personal anecdotes make you unique as a human.

[00:13:38] And so your focus is when you use storytelling to engage your students, communicate complex ideas and inspire transformation.

[00:13:44] That's going to help you get more valuable.

[00:13:47] Number four is community building.

[00:13:49] Humans excel at fostering excellence in a sense of belonging and purpose.

[00:13:53] Something which AI cannot do.

[00:13:55] Because coaches can nurture communities where students, they need that support and they grow with one another.

[00:14:03] So your focus as a coach is to create, manage and lead communities like the way I'm doing and drive collective learning and collaboration.

[00:14:10] Number five is ethics and vision.

[00:14:15] Human coaches have that power to establish ethical frameworks, code of honor and long term vision that align with human values, ensuring that AI is used responsibly.

[00:14:24] And that is where our true value comes in.

[00:14:26] So your focus should be to guide your learners on ethical, purposeful and sustainable paths while leveraging AI effectively.

[00:14:33] And finally, number six is creative problem solving.

[00:14:36] Human coaches can actually think out of the box, combining knowledge, intuition and experience to solve complex problems.

[00:14:44] Which AI can do to a large extent, but our value as a human is going to come more when we focus on innovative strategies.

[00:14:53] And adapt our methods and provide unique solutions that are tailored to the diverse challenges that others may face.

[00:15:02] So if I have to sum up all of this, right now, intelligence is not a one shot thing.

[00:15:10] Intelligence requires reasoning.

[00:15:13] And the more you are able to spend time on thinking, the better you will be able to serve your students.

[00:15:20] Like even what I'm doing right now, the purpose I'm recording this podcast is not just for you, it is also for me to start thinking on these lines.

[00:15:26] And I spent a lot of time thinking deeply on this topic.

[00:15:29] Then I did my research, I used the right prompts, I got whatever I needed.

[00:15:33] And I'm collating all of that together in a simple 15 to 20 minute podcast for you.

[00:15:37] Okay, because I can totally bet on this trend.

[00:15:40] These five levels going from chatbots to reasoners to agents to innovators to super intelligence is going to happen.

[00:15:45] How fast is that's the only question.

[00:15:48] So speed is the name of the game.

[00:15:50] And you got to start, you know, thinking on these lines starting from today if you're a coach.

[00:15:55] Now if you're not a part of my community, jump in on board, go to sidzsids.co slash live, attend my AI coach launchpad, and I'll help you get on the fast track as a digital coach.

[00:16:06] And if you're already in my community, I would highly recommend that you upgrade to Diamond Membership because that's where the cutting edge of the game is.

[00:16:13] I give different prompts every Monday morning.

[00:16:15] I share unique ideas.

[00:16:18] And we're also innovating at a level that, you know, puts all of the coaches on a totally different track.

[00:16:25] In other words, we are the fast track of the coaching industry because of the collective combined innovation that's happening at the Diamond Membership level.

[00:16:32] So with that being said, I want to thank all of you for listening to this podcast.

[00:16:36] Subscribe to this podcast on Apple and Spotify, and I look forward to sharing more episodes in the future.

[00:16:40] God bless, and catch you in the next one.