the long-term impacts of COVID-19 are reshaping coaching. Youth face heightened loneliness, device addiction, and mental health struggles. Lockdowns deepened disconnection, driving reliance on screens while reducing authentic connections. Coaching must foster resilience, self-awareness, and real-world engagement. By blending innovative, tech-driven approaches with a focus on community and belonging, we can help youth break cycles of dependency and thrive in an uncertain world.

a growing gap between those who actively integrate AI into their daily work and professional practices — coaches, leaders, educators — using it to prepare reports, presentations, analyses, and more… and those who either ignore or reject it.
The difference in how these two groups perceive and engage with the world today — and how they prepare for the future — is striking.
These observations are at the heart of my current doctoral researche
how do do we choose to develop ourselves for the future?

AI will provide quick advice on HOW to DO practical things. I think people want a more personalized support for figuring out the challenges they are facing. Advice from family and friends, self improvement courses and self-help books often involve generic skills and tools that may more may not work. As coaching becomes more mainstream, accessible and affordable, I think the demand for live one-on-one coaching will grow as people seek to figure out how to tackle their unique wants and needs.

I am noticing more AI coaches and tools mix coaching with advising or consulting. Many coaches already bring expertise from second careers. Maybe the future is a hybrid coach—someone who mentors, trains, and inspires.

leaders are not primarily asking for better strategies. They are asking for clarity in confusion. The pace of change is relentless, but what exhausts them most is not workload. It is meaning overload. Constant decisions. Constant noise. Constant uncertainty.

Hunch:
The future of coaching will shift from performance acceleration to sense-making. Coaches will increasingly serve as thinking partners who help leaders slow down, interpret complexity, and act with intentions.