A systematic literature review of artificial intelligence (AI) in coaching: Insights for future research and product development

Purpose

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to dramatically change the human approaches to work, and specifically to learning and development. While AI coaching can reduce costs and increase accessibility, it also presents both opportunities and threats to human coaches. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research on the use of AI in coaching.

Design

A SLR method was used to search eight databases for articles produced up to March2024. Data extraction was conducted, with Quality Assessment undertaken independently, in parallel, using two researchers and a third arbiter. TheROBINS-I tool was used to assess risk of bias in the included studies. A narrative synthesis of a total of 16 quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods studies covering n = 2312.

Findings

The SLR identified four key themes: Research design and AI integration, AI usefulness in coaching, impact of AI coaching, and ethical considerations. The findings suggest that AI coaches can be effective, accepted, useful and match human coaches incompetence for specific tasks.

Practical Implications

AI coaching is a growing area ofpractice and research. This paper brings together the literature and identifies future research priorities and potential next steps in AI Coach development.

Originality

The paper uses clinical research SLR methods applying these robust processes to the field of organisational research, to set a new standard through the use of a pre-determined research protocol, quality assessment and ROB, well providing a comprehensive literature review of AI coaching.

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