The Upper Hand: The Science of Trust, Influence, and Human Behavior

Summary

As AI coaching tools become more capable, organizations are asking an increasingly important question: what aspects of coaching can be effectively scaled through technology, and what should remain distinctly human?

In this episode of Conversations in the Future of Work, Rachel Cossar sits down with executive coach Eric Nitzberg to explore the evolving relationship between AI and human coaching. Together, they discuss where AI creates meaningful value, the limitations of automation, and how coaches and organizations can leverage AI without losing the human connection that drives lasting growth and development.

Where does AI genuinely enhance coaching—and where does it risk diluting it?

Eric believes AI delivers significant value through accessibility, skill development, and data-driven insights. AI coaching can make development opportunities available to far more people, provide on-demand support, and help individuals practice important leadership and communication skills in a low-risk environment.

However, AI risks diluting coaching when it is applied to situations that require deep contextual understanding, nuanced judgment, or authentic human connection. While AI can simulate many aspects of coaching, it cannot fully replicate the lived experience and relational depth that human coaches bring to complex conversations.

What parts of coaching should never be automated, no matter how good AI gets?

According to Eric, the most human aspects of coaching should remain human.

He points specifically to situations that are high-stakes, high-complexity, and high-touch. These include navigating sensitive leadership challenges, difficult interpersonal dynamics, personal growth journeys, and decisions with significant organizational consequences. In these moments, trust, empathy, judgment, and genuine human connection are often more valuable than information or advice alone.

How do you see the role of a coach evolving as AI becomes more embedded in learning and development?

Rather than replacing coaches, Eric sees AI reshaping how coaching is delivered.

He envisions a future where AI handles many of the functions related to practice, preparation, feedback, and ongoing development, while human coaches focus on deeper transformation, leadership growth, and complex decision-making. Coaches may spend less time providing information and more time helping individuals navigate ambiguity, relationships, and meaningful behavior change.

What separates meaningful behavior change from just “AI-generated insight”?

The conversation highlights an important distinction between awareness and action.

While AI can generate insights, suggest improvements, and identify patterns, meaningful behavior change requires consistent practice, reflection, accountability, and application in real-world situations. Lasting growth happens when individuals move beyond knowing what to do and begin changing how they think, communicate, and behave over time. Human support often plays an important role in that process.

If you were designing a coaching practice from scratch today, with AI in mind, what would you do differently?

Eric describes a future in which AI and human coaching work together rather than compete with one another.

In this model, AI expands access to coaching, provides scalable skill development opportunities, and offers continuous support between coaching sessions. Human coaches, meanwhile, focus their time where they create the greatest value: helping individuals navigate complexity, build self-awareness, strengthen relationships, and tackle challenges that require uniquely human judgment and perspective.

Transcript

Rachel Cossar

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Conversations in the Future of Work. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for quite some time because we’re tackling a topic that’s on everyone’s mind right now: AI coaching, human coaching, and where the balance between the two should lie.

To help us explore that question, I’m joined by executive coach and thought leader Eric Nitzberg. Eric, welcome.

Eric Nitzberg

Thanks, Rachel. It’s great to be here. Good to see you again.

Rachel Cossar

It’s great to see you too. We originally connected while you were researching and writing a comprehensive article on AI coaching, and I know that work sparked many of the ideas we’ll discuss today.

For those who may not be familiar with your background, tell us a bit about who you are and the work you do.

Eric Nitzberg

I’m an executive coach based in Silicon Valley, and I’ve been coaching leaders for about 18 years, primarily in technology and life sciences companies.

My interest in AI coaching actually started from a place of curiosity—and maybe a little fear. Like many coaches, I wondered whether these technologies might eventually replace what I do. That led me into a deep exploration of AI coaching tools, capabilities, and use cases, which ultimately became the foundation for the article you mentioned.

Rachel Cossar

Let’s dive in.

AI coaching is already a reality. Organizations are investing in it, and entire companies are being built around it.

Where do you think AI genuinely enhances coaching—and where does it risk diluting it?

Eric Nitzberg

I think AI and humans each have unique strengths.

AI coaching excels in three primary areas.

First is accessibility. AI coaching is dramatically more affordable than traditional coaching, available around the clock, and scalable across entire organizations. If someone needs a quick coaching moment between meetings, AI is immediately available.

Second is skill development. AI can be incredibly useful for practicing communication, preparing for conversations, developing management skills, and learning new leadership behaviors.

Third is data. AI systems can aggregate and analyze patterns across organizations, helping leaders understand what employees are struggling with, where development gaps exist, and what support might be needed.

Those are all areas where AI can create significant value.

Rachel Cossar

Where do you think AI begins to overstep?

Eric Nitzberg

To answer that, it helps to look at what human coaches do uniquely well.

Humans bring lived experience. We’re embodied. We’ve navigated relationships, setbacks, uncertainty, and complexity ourselves.

I often think about human coaching through three lenses:

High-stakes situations
High-complexity situations
High-touch situations

If you’re coaching a CEO making decisions that impact thousands of people, that’s high-stakes.

If you’re navigating complicated power dynamics or nuanced interpersonal relationships, that’s high-complexity.

And if the work depends on trust, connection, and an authentic human relationship, that’s high-touch.

Those are areas where human coaches continue to have a distinct advantage.

The risk comes when we try to apply AI to situations that require judgment, context, and human understanding that current systems simply don’t possess.

Rachel Cossar

One of the biggest challenges I see is that AI lacks lived experience.

Do you think there will always be coaching situations that remain uniquely human, or do you think AI will eventually close that gap?

Eric Nitzberg

AI is improving incredibly quickly.

Digital humans are becoming more realistic. Models are becoming more persuasive. In a few years, many AI interactions may appear almost indistinguishable from human interactions.

As that happens, AI will continue to move into areas we currently consider uniquely human.

That said, I still believe there will always be a space for human coaching. The territory may shrink, but I don’t think it disappears entirely.

There are aspects of being human—our embodiment, relationships, lived experiences, and emotional realities—that remain fundamentally different from machine intelligence.

Rachel Cossar

Assuming AI continues advancing rapidly, where do you think we should be drawing boundaries?

Are there areas where AI simply shouldn’t be allowed to take on a larger role?

Eric Nitzberg

I think we’re already facing those questions.

One area that concerns me is decision-making at the highest levels of organizations. AI is increasingly moving beyond data analysis and into advisory roles within leadership teams and boardrooms.

That shift deserves thoughtful scrutiny because those decisions have enormous consequences.

Another area is education.

AI tutors have incredible potential, but we also need to consider what happens when children spend more time learning from machines than from humans. There are social, emotional, and developmental consequences that we don’t fully understand yet.

Rachel Cossar

That’s something I’ve thought about a lot as well.

AI can be an incredible tool for helping people learn and develop skills. But if it begins replacing human relationships rather than supporting them, we enter much more complicated territory.

Eric Nitzberg

I agree.

Humans evolved as deeply social beings. We need connection, community, and relationships to thrive.

AI may help address certain needs, but it isn’t the same thing as genuine human connection.

My concern is that people may begin relying on AI for forms of connection that are fundamentally human. That creates risks—not because AI isn’t useful, but because our psychological and social needs haven’t changed.

Rachel Cossar

Let’s bring this back to coaching specifically.

How do you see the role of the coach evolving as AI becomes more embedded in learning and development?

Eric Nitzberg

I see a future where most leaders have both AI coaches and human coaches.

AI will handle many of the areas where it excels—practice, preparation, accessibility, ongoing support, and data-driven insights.

Human coaches will focus on the deeply human challenges: navigating uncertainty, managing complex relationships, making difficult decisions, and helping people grow through experiences that require judgment and perspective.

For many professionals, especially senior leaders, the future will likely be a hybrid model rather than an either-or choice.

Rachel Cossar

One interesting challenge is that both human coaches and AI coaches operate with boundaries.

Human coaches have ethical guardrails. AI systems can be designed with guardrails as well.

Do you think AI coaching systems will struggle with maintaining those boundaries?

Eric Nitzberg

What’s interesting is that human coaches often use judgment in deciding when and how to flex boundaries.

Sometimes sharing a personal experience helps a client.

Sometimes a relationship develops in ways that deepen trust and make the coaching more effective.

AI systems, by contrast, are likely to be much more standardized. Their boundaries will generally be more fixed and predictable.

That consistency has benefits, but it may also limit opportunities where human judgment creates value.

Rachel Cossar

That’s fascinating because some of the most impactful coaching relationships often include elements of genuine human connection that are difficult to codify.

Eric Nitzberg

Exactly.

Those moments of authentic relationship-building are often what deepen trust and make coaching transformative.

That’s an area where human coaches still have something unique to offer.

Rachel Cossar

Before we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to leave our audience with?

Eric Nitzberg

I hope people are experimenting with these tools and exploring their possibilities.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about risks today, but I’m genuinely optimistic.

Most people in the world have never had access to coaching. AI has the potential to make coaching, development, and skill-building available to millions more people.

There are countless managers, leaders, and communicators who could benefit from guidance and practice. If implemented thoughtfully, AI could help improve those skills at a scale we’ve never seen before.

The opportunity is enormous—we just need to be intentional about how we use it.

Rachel Cossar

We’ll definitely need a part two.

Eric, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your insights.

And thank you to everyone for tuning in to another episode of Conversations in the Future of Work. We’ll see you next time.

Eric Nitzberg

Thanks, Rachel. It was my pleasure.