Coaching & AI | Part 2 of 4: The 6 C’s

We started The Breakaway to become that trusted coach and companion in your pocket. But what is a coach really? I’ve had many in my life, some good, some not, and some that were true life changers for me. To be clear, you can think of this as it pertains to coaching, instruction, teaching, tutoring and more. It’s all changing. Just recently Duolingo (which my daughters love) announced they are cutting a portion of their contractor team stating; “We just no longer need as many people to do the type of work some of these contractors were doing,”. I don’t celebrate anyone losing their job. That said, we can’t fight progress, so I choose optimism and get excited about how things can change for the better.

As I noted in the previous post, The future of AI & Coaching, human coaching is never going away. But I also noted that the future will enable anyone who wants an AI Coach, to have one at a fraction of the cost of a human coach. This will open up a world where millions of people who never thought they could afford a coach (or just didn’t want to/couldn’t spend the money) now have an elegant and simple solution at a low cost of entry.

When you break it down, Coaching is about what I call the 6 C’s:

1. Content
2. Customization
3. Cadence
4. Communication
5. Compassion
6. Channel

Below I’ll dive into the specifics of each of these, and talk about where AI can and can’t have a significant impact.

Content (AI impact: 10 out of 10)

Content is everything a Coach has at his/her disposal that they have accumulated over time. Content is the workouts, frameworks, recovery techniques, reference studies, knowledge, etc. For many coaches this lives in their heads, in their workout templates, and structured training plans and preferences.

This is where AI gets incredibly powerful. Someone once asked me “How will being coached by The Breakaway be different/better than a human coach”? My answer was that AI will never replace the true human element, but what AI can do, that a human can’t, is have immediate and infinite access to as much or as little content as you wish. New studies, new data, different methodologies and more can be instantly updated to your AI Coach. Soon, every athlete could have an incredible level of fidelity from their Ai Coach for the difference in training methodologies for say, a 35 year old women trying to break 4 hours in a marathon, vs a 55 year old man recovering from knee surgery to a 42 year old woman riding her first 100 mile race. In each of these your AI Coach will have access to the personal data, studies, methodologies and even population data that are specific to the needs of that individual.

Customization (AI impact: 10 out of 10)

As the examples in the last sentence above about Content suggest, the levels of customization with AI are infinite. Customization is the combination of athlete data, preferences, and insight to enable the ideal Content, Cadence, Communication and Channel (delivery) that adapts with the user over time. Imagine a coach that has access to your data, and is constantly looking for correlations and outliers to adjust your plan. Your sleep, your steps per day, all of it part of a 24/7 repository who’s only goal is to give you the best possible suggestion for the day. Further, your AI Coach will have access to your calendar, contacts, local weather and anything else you enable so that you’ll not only have the ideal workout for the day, but you’ll have it scheduled, and perhaps your favorite training partner will be invited as well (if that’s your preference).

Cadence (AI impact: 8 out of 10)

You could call this the Schedule, but that doesn’t start with a ‘C’. Cadence is the pace and programming that results in a training plan, a day off, a schedule, a recommendation, periodization, and more. Cadence is the packaging of all of the Content, Customized for you. Again with the power of AI, this can be targetted, adjusted at any moment and even compared to population level data to show you what’s worked for people like you. Cadence will soon tie into so much more including your settings, calendar, travel plans, patterns, and more.

Imagine a future where your AI Coach sees a trip booked on your calendar, lets you know that they’ve adjusted your schedule based on the travel, and even shows you a few gyms or hotels with a Peloton to make sure you can get your workout in while away. This is all in our not very distant future.

Communication (AI impact: 10 out of 10)

This is a key difference between a Coach and a Training Plan. You talk to a Coach and they talk back to you. This critical back and forth results in the coach asking key questions at key times. These questions can be LLM based, or simple UX interactions when a basic ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ will suffice. As the athlete provides more input and feedback, the AI Coach can learn adjust the Cadence and Content.

For an AI Coach, what you lose in the personal touch, you gain in multi-modal, 24/7 communication. Imagine a text message when you wake up, or a push notification when your Coach realizes you logged 12,000 steps walking the streets of Manhattan for meetings and asks if you still feel fresh for the interval workout that afternoon? Your AI Coach also knows you’re in New York, and has already reserved a Peloton bike at the local Hotel Gym for your 4:00 pm session. Communication with your AI Coach is always at your fingers, ready to go. Soon you’ll be listening to a song, and ‘talk’ to your coach asking what to do for the day’s workout because you feel fatigued. Your response will be immediate, and perfectly targeted for you.

Compassion (AI impact 2 out of 10)

There’s an emotional side to any Coach or Companion whereby the shared experiences result in emotional and mental feedback and support. This is an area where AI is a long ways from replacing a human, and likely never will. In fact, I hope this day never truly happens. But it might…

Sure there are ways AI will be able to infer emotion, but the reality is nothing can replace a human connection. Compassion is a key element to a top coach who knows that regardless of what the biometric data is saying, that the recent job struggle, relationship challenge or fight with your best friend has you in a not so great spot for training and improvement. As bullish as I am on AI, this is an area where human coaches will always win.

Channel (AI impact 1 out of 10)

To be clear: A chatbot is not a coach.

The Channel is the way/mechanism(s) and modalities in which all of this is delivered by your AI Coach. The normal channels for a coach are email and/or phone calls with some personal meetings as well. In some cases your coach uses software to deliver a workout that you can view.

For your AI Coach, the channels will change based on need, your preference, and where and how operate throughout your day. Your AI Coach will have access to all of your channels, at any time, and make smart decisions on where and how to communicate based on your actions and preferences.

Your AI Coach will live in an app, website, the cloud, etc and be able to adjust the delivery channel from a visual UI, to an audio workout, an email, text, even a phone call. Your AI Coach will know for example, that you’re on your hour long commute home, and that the weather has turned against you. You’ll get a phone call, since you’re driving, letting you know your workout plan has changed: “Hey there, Coach here. Given the rain, I’ve swapped your workout from outdoors to indoors, and sent the details to your indoor trainer. Have a great workout!”.

That’s the future I want!

Summary

As I hope you see now, AI is a powerful tool in delivering coaching and guidance and new software agents, and products will open up a world of opportunities for millions of people who previously didn’t have access to a Coach. Having been coached before, I know the feeling of having someone constantly making sure you’re becoming the best version of yourself, and it’s empowering.

All of this being said, there are two things to keep in mind here. You can wrap them both up in one of my favorite quotes (from an old coach): “I never saw a stopwatch that could see inside a person’s heart”.

First, AI is just a tool, and part of the toolkit designers and developers will use to deliver magical experiences but there are certain areas, where nothing beats the understanding of a human coach, sitting across from you, looking into your eyes with compassion on the day.

Second, you have to want it. You have to do the work to improve. Whether it’s improving at cycling, general fitness, speaking Spanish or anthing else, progress and improvement will always take effort and some sacrifice. AI can’t fix that…

In my next post I’ll show you how AI can be used in a ‘Co-pilot’ approach to help anyone (like a coach!) dig into large amounts of data.