Don’t Have a Business Coach? Start with AI

2002. My office. It’s nearly 11 pm.

I stared at the spreadsheet on my screen, numbers blurring together. I’d just pulled off what everyone called a miracle—turning around a failing division of a major public company. Now they expected me to do it again. And I had no idea how.

The truth? I was exhausted. My marriage was strained. I’d missed another one of my kids’ games. My doctor had started making concerned noises about my blood pressure. Success was killing me.

I needed help. But admitting that felt like admitting failure.

Then a mentor asked me over lunch how I was doing. I hesitated. I didn’t want to spill the beans. But something in his question gave me permission, and it all came tumbling out. He listened intently, and then said something that changed everything: “Michael, you need a coach.”

A coach? I’d never heard of hiring someone to help you think better, work smarter, live better. It sounded almost indulgent. But I was desperate enough to try anything.

That conversation launched a 24-year relationship with professional coaching that literally saved my career—and probably my life. The insights, the accountability, the outside perspective when I was too close to see clearly—nothing else could have provided that.

Here’s what I know after two decades on both sides of the coaching relationship: human coaching is irreplaceable. The depth of understanding, the ability to read between the lines, the wisdom that comes from lived experience—AI can’t touch that.

And the best coaches don’t just help you succeed at work—they help you thrive in life. Because you can’t neatly separate the two. Your business decisions affect your family. Your personal wellbeing affects your leadership. Great coaching addresses both.

I was desperate enough to try anything.

But what if you’re not ready for that investment yet? Or what if you want support between coaching sessions?

That’s where AI becomes useful. Not as a replacement, but as a practice tool. And like a human coach, AI can help you think through both business challenges and life decisions—because they’re interconnected. I use it between my coaching sessions to work through ideas, challenge my thinking, and prepare for deeper conversations with my actual coach. It’s like having a sparring partner before the real match.

Most business owners know they need coaching but haven’t taken the leap. Here are five benefits of using AI as your personal coach—especially if you’re not ready to invest in human coaching yet.

Benefit #1: Access Coaching Anytime, Anywhere

Your biggest breakthrough doesn’t happen on a Tuesday at 2 PM when your coach is available. It happens at 11 PM on a Sunday when you’re replaying the board meeting in your head. Or at 6 AM when you wake up with clarity about that personnel issue.

AI coaching is there when you need it. No scheduling. No waiting. No invoices for emergency sessions.

Research from McKinsey found that AI tools can increase productivity by up to 40%, especially in knowledge-intensive work.¹ A Stanford study showed that workers with AI assistance were 14% more productive on average, with the greatest gains among those who needed the most help.²

That 24/7 availability matters. When you’re working through a strategic decision or processing feedback from a difficult conversation, having immediate access to a thinking partner accelerates your growth.

I use AI coaching most often in three situations: late-night strategy sessions when I’m wrestling with a decision, early-morning preparation before important meetings, and weekend reflection when I’m processing the week. It’s not replacing my human coach. It’s filling the gaps between our sessions.

Benefit #2: Never Repeat Your Context

Ever notice how much time you waste bringing people up to speed? “Remember when I told you about…” or “So, here’s the background…” or “Let me refresh your memory…”

With human coaches, you meet bi-weekly or monthly. That’s appropriate—they’re expensive, and you need time between sessions to implement what you’ve learned. But it also means you spend the first 10 minutes of every session recapping what’s happened since you last talked.

AI doesn’t forget. It maintains context across sessions, continuously learning about you and your preferences.³ Research shows that AI systems with long-term memory can retain user-specific knowledge and improve personalization over time, allowing for more coherent and contextually appropriate responses.⁴

My AI coach knows my business challenges, my team dynamics, my personal goals, and my thinking patterns. When I ask for advice on a situation, it already understands the history, the players, and the stakes.

I don’t have to rebuild context. I just pick up where we left off.

Benefit #3: Spot Patterns in Your Thinking

Here’s something most business owners never realize: you have blind spots in your decision-making that you can’t see. You repeat the same mistakes. You avoid the same hard conversations. You default to the same comfortable solutions.

A good coach spots these patterns and calls you on them. AI does something similar—but faster and with more data.

Your biggest breakthrough doesn't happen on a Tuesday at 2 PM when your coach is available.

AI excels at pattern recognition, analyzing vast amounts of behavioral data to identify trends that inform strategic decisions.⁵ Studies show that AI-powered insights frameworks can identify recurring behaviors and storylines that shape human decisions, surfacing opportunities that traditional analysis misses.⁶

My AI coach recently spotted two patterns I couldn’t see. First, it pointed out that I consistently procrastinate on routine administrative tasks—expense reports, inbox cleanup, updating systems—the kind of work that keeps things running smoothly but never feels urgent.

Second, it noticed that over 15 conversations, I’d found creative ways to work around conflict with one particular team member instead of addressing issues directly. I didn’t see either pattern. AI did.

Those observations led to changes that improved both my productivity and my working relationships.

Benefit #4: Think Out Loud Without Judgment

Let’s be honest about something most people won’t admit: sometimes you don’t share everything with your human coach. You hold back the messy stuff. The embarrassing doubts. The half-formed ideas. The fears you’re not proud of.

Why? Because even with a great coach, there’s that whisper of worry: “What will they think of me?”

AI provides a judgment-free zone. Research on AI conversational agents for mental health shows that users overwhelmingly appreciate the non-judgmental nature of AI, which creates a safe space for expressing thoughts and feelings without fear of criticism.⁷

Studies across different populations consistently find that people feel less concerned about judgment when interacting with AI, making them more willing to be vulnerable.⁸

I didn’t see either pattern. AI did. Those observations led to changes that improved both my productivity and my working relationships.

I use AI coaching to work through ideas that aren’t ready for prime time. To voice fears that sound irrational when I say them out loud. To explore options I’m not sure about yet.

It’s a place to think without performing. To be messy without consequences.

That psychological safety accelerates growth. When you’re not managing how you appear, you can actually work on what needs work.

Benefit #5: Tap Into Expert Wisdom Instantly

Your human coach brings their own experience to your conversations. That’s valuable. But they can’t know everything about every topic you face.

AI has been trained on massive datasets that include the world’s best coaching frameworks, business strategies, and leadership wisdom. When I ask my AI coach about a specific challenge, I’m not just getting generic advice. I’m getting insights drawn from thousands of sources, case studies, and best practices.

I’ve uploaded books by coaches I admire, articles I’ve saved, frameworks I’ve found helpful. My AI coach can reference all of it instantly.

When I’m working through a decision, it might say, “Based on the framework from Patrick Lencioni’s work on organizational health, here’s how I’d approach this…”

That’s not replacing human wisdom. It’s augmenting it with collective intelligence.

Look, I’m not suggesting you cancel your human coach and go all-in on AI. That would be a mistake.

But I am saying this: If you’ve been putting off getting a coach because of cost, time, or uncertainty—AI gives you a place to start. If you already have a coach but want support between sessions—AI fills that gap. If you’re simply curious about what coaching could do for your thinking—AI lets you experiment without risk.

AI doesn’t forget. It maintains context across sessions, continuously learning about you and your preferences.

The five benefits we’ve covered—24/7 availability, perfect memory, pattern recognition, judgment-free exploration, and access to expert knowledge—make AI coaching a powerful complement to human coaching. And for business owners who aren’t ready for the full coaching investment, it’s a way to start the journey.

Imagine what could change if you had a thinking partner available whenever you needed one. Someone who never forgot what you told them. Someone who could spot patterns you couldn’t see. Someone who created space for you to think without worrying about judgment.

Your business would benefit. But more importantly, you would benefit.

Because better thinking leads to better decisions. Better decisions lead to better outcomes. And better outcomes give you margin to actually enjoy the success you’ve worked so hard to build.

What would you work on first if you had an AI coach available right now?

Comments

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P.S. Consider the AI Business Lab Mastermind: Running a $3M+ business? You’re past the startup chaos but not quite at autopilot. That’s exactly where AI changes everything. The AI Business Lab Mastermind isn’t another networking group—it’s a brain trust of leaders who are already implementing, not just ideating. We’re talking real numbers, real strategies, real results. If you’re tired of being the smartest person in the room, this is your new room. 👉🏼Learn more and apply here.

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REFERENCE

1. Broscorp, “AI-Powered Assistants in Modern Business: Benefits, Use Cases, and Challenges,” December 20, 2024. ↩︎
2. Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li, and Lindsey R. Raymond, “Generative AI at Work,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 140, no. 2 (April 2025): 889-945. ↩︎
3. arXiv, “Towards Ethical Personal AI Applications: Practical Considerations for AI Assistants with Long-Term Memory,” September 17, 2024. ↩︎
4. arXiv, “From Human Memory to AI Memory: A Survey on Memory Mechanisms in the Era of LLMs,” April 23, 2025. ↩︎
5. Rapid Innovation, “AI Agents for Behavioral Pattern Analysis – 2025 Guide,” September 19, 2024. ↩︎
6. Greenbook, “When AI Learns to Think Like Us: The Rise of Behavioral Intelligence,” November 3, 2025. ↩︎
7. PMC, “User perceptions and experiences of an AI-driven conversational agent for mental health support.” ↩︎
8. arXiv, “Attachment Styles and AI: Understanding Human-AI Interactions Through Attachment Theory.” ↩︎