“Our understanding of technology limits and enables our imagination about work.” This statement from my own book, Talent Tectonics, captures why I was eager to read The Digital Coaching Revolution: How to Support Employee Development With Coaching Tech by Dr. Anna Tavis, department chair of Human Capital Management at New York University, and Dr. Woody Woodward, chief coaching officer at BetterUp. Coaching is one of the oldest developmental techniques with roots dating back to the Socratic teaching methods of ancient Greece. It is a highly human intensive activity that leverages the power of dialogue to facilitate learning and behavior change. Coaching’s reliance on one-to-one developmental conversations has made it a scarce resource, with access often limited to senior executives and high-potential employees. By reading this book, I was hoping to learn how modern technology, particularly the advent of artificially intelligent natural language processing solutions, might enable companies to provide coaching to a much broader audience of employees.
The content in The Digital Coaching Revolution broadly falls into two categories that I describe as conceptual and technological. The conceptual category contains discussions about the nature of coaching, elements that underlie effective coaching interventions, and how these are being changed by technology. It is exemplified by text such as
[Humans] are social creatures designed to interact and driven to connect. There is no doubt that some of our interactions can be simulated and the technology will undoubtedly get better, but the question we will need to continually ponder is: What is the right application of and use of AI-driven chatbots [for coaching]? (p.165)
The technological category consists of descriptions and lists of coaching technology solutions, such as “BetterUp is the largest and most prominent player in the digital coaching space. With over $600 million in funding and a reported valuation of $4.7 billion in 2021, they have positioned themselves as a successful first mover” (p. 45).
The book feels like it was written for two audiences: people who design and deliver coaching programs and people who sell, purchase, and manage HR technology solutions. As a person whose career spans both audiences, I was engaged through most of the book. But I suspect many I-O psychologists may end up skipping over the sections of the book that read more like vendor marketing brochures than discussions of the interplay between coaching methods and coaching technology. That said, I do think this book is worth reading for anyone who is interested in learning how technology is changing how companies deliver coaching to employees.
Where I Gained the Most Value From the Book
Over the course of my career, I have worked as an executive coach, benefited from receiving coaching, and been involved in the design and deployment of multiple coaching technology solutions. Being familiar with the field of coaching, I appreciated how the book outlined different categories of coaching, defined specific elements of the coaching processes, and summarized research on factors that impact coaching effectiveness. Breaking coaching into distinct components is important because technology does not automate coaching in a holistic sense. Technology automates specific tasks associated with coaching or augments human behaviors that impact the act of coaching. Understanding technology’s impact on coaching requires looking at coaching at a granular task- and behavior-based level. Examples include discussions in the book about how technology is as follows:
- Enabling greater access to coaching through platforms that help individuals define coaching needs and build relationships with human coaches whose capabilities match these needs
- Allowing coaches to use structured feedback and assessment tools to enrich coaching activities
- Leveraging wearable and web-based monitoring solutions that measure people’s physical and online activities to increase self-awareness and support ongoing self-management
- Using AI-powered chatbots to augment human-to-human coaching conversations
- Integrating coaching into the flow of ongoing work operations and learning programs
- Capturing and analyzing data that enables companies to track coaching effectiveness and calculate the ROI of coaching investments
The book also contains an interesting discussion of how technology is impacting the coaching training and certification industries. Regulations to practice as a coach vary around the world, reflecting the fundamental challenge that “there is no single agreed upon definition for professional coaching” (p. 1). Technology has the potential to make coaching accessible to far more people. It also has the potential to ensure coaches are qualified to coach others. Technology is also changing the skills coaches need to be effective, such as understanding how to appropriately use chatbots and self-monitoring tools in the context of a coaching relationship.
Where I Found Myself Wanting More Information
The book provides several useful frameworks to categorize coaching based on things such as
- The context where coaching is delivered, such as remedial performance coaching, work transition coaching, high-potential leadership coaching, or crisis recovery coaching
- The outcomes coaching is seeking to achieve, such as delivering on business goals, improving interpersonal skills, managing resilience and well-being, or career advancement
- The status of the coach, such as external contract coaches, internal company coaches, or manager/leader coaches
- Phases of the coaching process, such as defining goals, understanding realities, identifying options, and committing to a way forward (the GROW model)
These models helped clarify the ambiguous meaning of the word “coaching.” Unfortunately, these models were rarely revisited in the chapters discussing coaching technologies. It would have been insightful to examine the impact of technology on coaching through the lens of these frameworks. For example, are chatbot technologies more or less effective for different phases of the GROW model, or do self-monitoring technologies that may be useful when used by external coaches create risks when used by manager/leader coaches?
Another place I found myself wanting far more information was the sections of the book that listed coaching technology solutions. These sections frequently failed to provide details on how solutions affect coaching at a behavioral or tangible level. And they almost never discussed risks or problems associated with using the technology. For example, on page 60, we learn that “some digital coaching marketplaces have integrated real-time digital feedback tools like Loupe to enhance the coaching experience.” This sounds fascinating, but it does not describe what the solution actually does. What type of feedback does it collect, and how is it measured? How does the solution ensure the accuracy of the feedback? How can companies ensure this feedback is constructive versus being a source of distraction or anxiety? Technology does not create results merely by turning it on. It enables behavioral change and decision-making insight that create results, assuming it is appropriately used. It is impossible to fully understand the impact of digital coaching tools based on high-level descriptions of functionality. When it comes to using technology to improve something as complex as coaching, we need information about the details.
What I Could Have Done Without
Many parts of the book read more like an HR technology vendor marketing brochure than a book intended to educate readers on the use of digital coaching tools. Given the background of the second author, one might expect the book to have a somewhat commercial focus. But constantly touting the same vendor solutions over and over without mentioning other widely used coaching technology solutions was off-putting. For example, the book is 203 pages long and includes over 85 references to the company BetterUp. This amounts to a product placement ratio of one mention per every 2.4 pages. Given the book is ostensibly sold as an educational resource, this level of product marketing strikes me as somewhat repugnant.
Would I Recommend the Digital Coaching Revolution?
This is a useful book for people seeking an overview of different ways technology is impacting coaching. It is also the first book to substantively address this topic since AI LLM solutions became widely available for use in coaching applications. The authors are to be applauded for diving into this complex topic and attempting to provide clarity in a world of constant change and considerable confusion. Although the book overly promotes digital coaching tools made by a specific set of companies, it does contain useful information that transcends any specific technology vendor solution.
New coaching technologies are constantly being developed, and every new solution creates a new set of lessons learned. When I contacted the first author and SIOP member Anna Tavis to give her an opportunity to respond to this review, she told me she agreed with many of these comments. She shared that this book was created shortly after the second Coaching & Technology Summit held in 2022. The book was written to make people aware of how quickly technology is changing the field of coaching. In 2026, Anna will be holding the fifth Coaching & Technology Summit. She said it is striking how much more we know now about the intersection of coaching and technology than we did when this book was written. In light of this knowledge, she would make considerable changes if the book were written today. In response, I told Anna I would gladly read a second edition of the Digital Coaching Revolution, particularly because the authors are so open to receiving coaching advice.
