309: Conversational AI: Trust, Values and the Illusion of Understanding with Dr Malak Sadek

In the sixth episode of our series, AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching, host Smaranda Dochia is joined by Iliana Grosse-Buening, author, speaker, adjunct professor and co-founder of Deeply Human Innovation, who brings a global perspective on the intersection of technology and wellbeing.  She widens the conversation on AI from harm prevention and compliance to a more demanding question: what does good look like? And what should good technology make possible for people's lives, relationships and communities?   Through the lens of deeply human innovation, digital wellbeing and human flourishing, Iliana asks whether technology helps people become more capable, connected, curious and able to shape their own lives. She examines the taken-for-grantedness of technology, the slow effects of engagement and attachment economies, and the risks of outsourcing thought, relationship and agency, alongside how organizations can avoid using AI wellbeing tools to individualise problems that are actually created by culture, workload, or power.   The conversation also foregrounds participation, community and the voices of young people in shaping technological futures. Regulation and responsible design matter, but people are not powerless while waiting for systems to change - coaches, leaders and organizations can still make choices that nourish relationships, expand agency and keep human and planetary flourishing at the centre of innovation. Iliana closes with an invitation to the upcoming Deeply Human Summit in Paris, which starts with the Global Youth Imagination Lab. Her passion for humanity creates an episode with a powerful call for action, based in hope and a belief in human potential.   You will learn:   ·       How can we create technology that truly help people flourish: become more capable, connected, and able to shape their own lives ·       Organizations must not individualise systemic problems through AI wellbeing tools that may mask issues rooted in culture, workload, or power ·       People don't need to wait for regulation; they can make choices today that protect human connection and flourishing     "AI is making us have to confront certain things, which, if we courageously address them, I think we would actually end up in a world that is more flourishing."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-digital-wellbeing-human-flourishing

In episode 5 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia talks with Lewin Keller, founder of CoachBot.ai, about what happens when you try to build professional coaching into an AI system rather than just bolting a coaching persona onto a chatbot. Lewin's own path into coaching started almost by accident at Google in 2015, and it left him with a simple question: why isn't coaching more accessible to people who aren't executives with corporate budgets? That question eventually led him to build CoachBot.ai. Lewin is refreshingly honest about the early stumbles. His first users loved the attention but kept asking why they should pay for questions when a general LLM would just hand them advice for free. That feedback pushed him to think harder about what actually makes a coaching bot different: not the model underneath, but the standards, boundaries, and structure built around it, so it knows when to ask and when to guide rather than defaulting to shallow, generic output. He's also candid about the fear running through the profession right now and pushes back on it in an interesting way: the risk isn't AI itself, but the design choices humans make around it, and coaches who stay curious and involved have far more influence over that than those who simply hope it goes away. What comes through most is a sense of responsibility rather than alarm. Lewin sees it as the profession's job to help people understand the difference between directive and non-directive coaching, what AI companionship actually is, and why so many people are drawn to it in the first place. For him, coaching still has something the world clearly needs, and AI, used thoughtfully, is a way to get more of that into more people's hands. You will learn: ·       A coaching bot earns that name through the professional standards, guardrails, and structure layered on top of the language model, shaping when it asks questions versus when it offers guidance. ·       Fear should be pointed at design choices human's make, not AI itself.  ·       Educating coaches is a professional duty, not optional extra – helping coaches move from basic AI literacy to AI maturity.  "This is the first LLM that actually behaves like a coach. Like it's not going directly into giving shallow generic advice. It's actually asking questions. It's setting goals. It's keeping boundaries."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-responsible-coachbot-maturity

In episode 4 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia sits down with Dr Malak Sadek, researcher and teaching associate at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Human-Inspired AI, to explore why conversational AI affects us so differently from other technologies. Conversation is already natural to us, so we never have to learn how to "use" a chatbot the way we'd learn a new app, and that ease is exactly what blurs the line between a fluent response and genuine understanding. Malak explains how design choices in tone, voice, and responsiveness shape trust, reinforce gender and racial biases, and lead people to attribute empathy, authority, or even relationship-like qualities to systems that have no lived experience or personal stake in the outcome. The discussion also touches on how repeated interaction with these systems may quietly shape behaviour, beliefs, identity, and the choices people make over time.   The conversation then turns to the values built into these systems by default. Malak makes the case that no version of "neutral" really exists: privacy settings, curiosity, playfulness, politeness, cultural assumptions, and commercial incentives are all design decisions that shape how an AI behaves, and many carry Western-centric assumptions that go unexamined. For her, responsible AI needs more than technical safety — it needs meaningful participation, cultural representation, and transparency about the values embedded in the system, so that design strengthens human agency rather than quietly eroding it. She closes with a challenge to coaches and other professionals: rather than resisting these tools, the more useful path is to understand their limitations well enough to guide clients through them.   You will learn:   ·       Fluency isn't understanding – coaches need to help clients see this distinction ·       No system is truly neutral: Every design choice — tone, defaults, privacy settings, cultural framing — embeds values, often Western-centric ones, and coaches should be aware of whose assumptions are shaping the interaction.   ·       Rather than avoiding AI tools, coaches and professionals are better placed to guide clients by educating them on AI's limitations.       "We have a very strong tendency to give human traits and human characteristics to things that aren't human beings just because they kind of either look human or they remind us of humans somehow. and obviously with LLMs this is on steroids now because they are actually behaving on the surface like, human beings."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-conversational-AI-values-chatbots  

Most coaches using AI couldn't tell you exactly where their client data actually goes - which platform, which server, whether it's used to train a model. In the third episode of AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia talks with lawyer and AI governance practitioner Amber Foster, and leadership coach, and technology and compliance specialist Colin Cosgrove to unpack what GDPR and the EU AI Act really mean for coaches, coaching providers, and the organisations that hire them. Rather than treating compliance as a box-ticking exercise, Amber and Colin reframe it as the foundation of client trust starting with a deceptively simple question: where is AI actually touching your coaching practice, and what happens to the data once it gets there?      Beyond the legal frameworks, Amber and Colin keep coming back to principles — both the EU AI Act's own principle-based approach, and the personal ethics coaches bring to their work. They push coaches to go beyond "is this compliant?" and ask "does this align with my own values and how I want to show up for clients?" That said, the conversation stays firmly practical: they walk through how to map data flow, what to actually look for in an AI tool's terms and documentation, and why transparency and informed consent can't be a one-off conversation: tools and clients' wishes change, and so should the contracting around them. They also tackle the trickier territory of organisational coaching, where a use case that looks low-risk one-to-one can become high-risk the moment it sits inside an HR system with multiple stakeholders.   This episode is essential listening for any coach, L&D professional, or organisational leader using AI in their practice. Where inaction will put you at risk, this episode will provide the information you need to get started to ensure both you and your clients are protected, and ethical.   You will learn   ·       There are two sets of principles and one question: the EU AI Act is principle-based, and so is good coaching; the real test is whether your AI use lines up with both? ·       GDPR and the EU AI Act set legal minimums; genuine trust with clients requires transparency and consent that go further. ·       Context changes risk: a coaching use case that's low risk individually can become high-risk once it operates inside an organisational or HR system.   "As soon as you start to receive data about people, that's when you need to switch on and start to think about this."    Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-legislation-gdpr-eu-ai-act-governance

In the second episode of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, Smaranda Dochia talks with Dr Benita Mayhead, an executive coach, coach supervisor, researcher, and author of Duty of Care in Coaching, whose empirical research moves duty of care out of the realm of abstract codes and into the lived reality of practice: how coaches actually make decisions, hold ambiguity, set boundaries, use supervision, and account for the wider system around them. Benita's research found that most coaches' understanding of duty of care doesn't come primarily from formal training. It's shaped by personal values, life experience, and professional background, and by the sense-making that happens when practice gets genuinely uncertain. Codes, law, and standards offer necessary scaffolding, but they can't make the hard call for you; when a real dilemma arises, coaches tend to reach for another person - a peer, colleague, or supervisor - rather than a rulebook.   The conversation traces how duty of care plays out across the whole coaching relationship: in contracting and re-contracting, boundary-setting, endings, reflective practice, and supervision, as well as in the ripple effect coaching has on people the coach may never meet. Ethical maturity, Benita argues, is an ongoing capacity to sit with silence, ambiguity, notice when values collide, question your own motives, say no when needed, and actively seek challenge rather than certainty.   They also discuss AI's growing presence in coaching, where Benita neither dismisses AI nor treats its adoption as inevitable. Clients may arrive with AI-generated interpretations already in hand, use general-purpose tools between sessions, or take part in AI-enabled organizational programmes, while coaches and supervisors themselves increasingly use AI for preparation, reflection, or documentation. Benita asks the profession to engage with this critically and collectively, in service of the client rather than in step with the technology by default. Her question:  in whose service is this? - becomes the ethical test for the rest of the series, reframing the conversation from "can we use AI?" to why it's being used, who benefits, and who remains accountable. Fluency with a tool, she makes clear, does not remove the need for human judgment or responsibility.   You will learn:   ·       Duty of care is a foundational concept in coaching, but its meaning extends far beyond legal definitions. Benita's research reveals that, for most coaches, duty of care is not just about contracts or compliance—it's about lived experience, personal values, and the impact of every interaction. ·       The coach has the responsibility to be informed and develop understanding of AI, even if they don't use it in their practice, because their client may be. ·       AI shifts the central question from "can we?" to "in whose service?" Whether a client brings AI-generated insights into a session or a coach uses AI for their own preparation, the technology introduces new actors, unclear permissions, and new routes to foreseeable harm.     'If we are taking a position of no I'm not going to enter into any AI understanding and awareness. I think that we're perhaps missing something within there because our clients are. So, I think there's a responsibility - even if we're not using it in our own practice, to build our own awareness and understanding.'   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-duty-of-care-supervision        

In the first episode of a new series, AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching, host Smaranda Dochia talks with founder of The Moment Institute and creator of Narrative Coaching, David Drake, to tackle the question on every coach's mind: what is coaching actually here to do in an AI-driven world?   Rather than rehashing the tired "AI vs. Humans" debate, David offers a reframe. AI, he argues, isn't simply a new tool or competitor — it's a mirror that exposes the strengths and limitations of coaching, education, leadership and human development as they currently stand. That shift changes the whole conversation: less about whether AI will take coaches' jobs, more about whether coaches have been quietly protecting familiar methods and formats instead of asking what people actually need to grow, think critically, relate well, and navigate a more complex world.   David doesn't shy away from challenging the profession's comfort zones. He talks about coaching as a "third space" within a much wider human and systemic context, and about how the traditional one-hour session is losing its centrality as immediate, multimodal support becomes the norm. As quick answers become the norm, he points to a paradox: people have never had more information at their fingertips, yet loneliness and disconnection are on the rise. For David, the real risk isn't AI replacing coaches — it's coaches failing to evolve alongside the people they serve. His central challenge to the profession: stop building learning and development around industrial era models, and start building it around real human experience. Ultimately, this episode is a call to action. David pushes coaches to ask themselves hard questions about purpose — are their current methods genuinely serving human development, or just protecting familiar ways of working? Is the profession mature enough to use technology selectively, in service of something bigger than technique? It's a thought-provoking start to the series, setting the tone for the honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations about ethics and trust that AI is forcing our profession to have.   You will learn ·       AI as tool, mirror and provocateur: not just something that automates tasks, but something that exposes the limitations of current coaching and learning models, and provokes new thinking about what coaches are really for ·       Why coaching may need to be reimagined as a "third space" within a wider human and systemic context ·       Why purpose must lead practice: coaches should regularly ask whether their methods truly serve human growth, or just protect familiar routines     'We need to stop being so parochial and precious about coaching. It too was a disruption.'   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-purpose-led-practice-human-potential

This episode is part of our 'A Day in the Life' series, where we talk to coaches about their real lives and businesses. In this insightful episode, host Maxine Bell talks to Kate Jenkinson, creative executive coach, business poet, and founder of Next Step HR and the Business in Poetry conference. Kate shares her unconventional career path, from biologist, HR professional, to the coach and business poet she is today. She highlights how emotional intelligence and creative expression aren't "nice to haves" in business, but essential tools for genuine human connection that create better outcomes for all.   Kate discusses the surprising overlap between poetry, neurodiversity, and leadership. She talks candidly about her own neurodivergent journey and how it's shaped the way she sees patterns, people, and possibility - often before anyone else in the room does. As a coach she, highlights the value of curiosity, creativity, presence and silence in coaching and development. Kate talks about her passion for poetry and poetic intelligence, and how it has evolved into the publication of her poetry, as well as the Poetry in Business conference. She shares her vision for supporting poets wanting to create a career path within businesses and organisations, and helping organisations understand how poetry can boost wellbeing, connection, and innovation. This is a conversation demonstrating what happens when you stop compartmentalising your creativity and uniqueness and start bringing all of yourself to work.   You will learn:   ·       Creativity isn't a special skill – it's innate. It shows up in how you solve problems, connect with people, and see the world. ·       Emotions and poetry belong in the workplace, bringing more humanity, connection and effective leadership. ·       Seeing the world differently is a superpower, bringing new ideas, perspectives and innovation.   'Post-pandemic, there's a real trauma that people are experiencing and go back to creativity and poetry. We know that these are practices that give people hope, that help people express how they're feeling.'   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel_day-in-the-life-of-coaches-coaching-neurodiversity-poetry-in-business

In this final episode of our Coaching Men series, host Rob Lawrence sits down with Al Kennedy, a coach who works exclusively with men navigating midlife. Al's own path from graphic designer and business owner to full-time coach grew out of his personal midlife questioning, and it's given him a grounded, deeply caring approach to holding space for other men. He talks about midlife not as a crisis to be fixed, but as a genuine threshold: a rite of passage that Western culture rarely marks or supports, even though many other cultures have rituals for exactly this kind of transition.   Al shares how he creates the safe, intentional spaces men so rarely get: three-day walking pilgrimages he calls "Long Walks," regular men's circles, and creative practices like journaling and poetry. Nature isn't just scenery for him — it's an active part of the work, slowing men down, reconnecting them to their bodies, and mirroring the internal shifts they're going through. He's also thoughtful about accessibility, adapting his methods for online coaching and for men with disabilities or health concerns, so the work stays open to more people, not fewer.   What comes through most in this conversation is Al's warmth toward the men he works with. He pushes back gently on the idea that men are naturally closed off, describing emotional armour as often "just a couple of millimetres deep" — meaning that with the right conditions, openness comes surprisingly fast. It's a fitting, hopeful note to end the series on: a reminder that community, care, and simply being asked "how are you, really?" can be quietly transformative.   You will learn: ·       Midlife is a threshold, a rite of passage — approached with intention, it can lead to real renewal rather than just crisis. ·       Safe, intentional spaces give men rare permission to slow down and explore without needing to "fix" anything. ·       Men's emotional armour is often thin and nature, genuine connection and deep listening can unlock vulnerability faster than we assume.   "It's too easy just to say that men aren't showing up in the right way; we have to provide different types of spaces for men to be able to surface the things that they're really holding down."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-coaching-men-nature-pilgramage-masculinity-midlife

In episode 5 of our Coaching Men series, host Rob Lawrence talks to Cassandra Andrews, author of Unlearning Masculinity: Redefining Success for High Achieving Men over 40, to explore why so many successful men—CEOs, founders, and elite athletes among them—feel trapped even after ticking every box of conventional success. Cassandra unpacks the identity crises, purpose gaps, and feelings of entrapment that often surface in midlife, tracing them back to an outdated masculine blueprint that prizes stoicism and winning over vulnerability. Rather than rejecting masculinity altogether, she makes the case for relearning what it means to be a man beyond those rigid rules. Her work starts with a vision, rather than goals: a more personal picture of where a client actually wants to be, rather that what they feel expected to chase.   The conversation turns to Cassandra's coaching methodology, which draws on NLP, timeline therapy, and motivational mapping to help clients build self-awareness and understand how their motivations have shifted from external validation to internal fulfilment. She also shares the thinking behind her intimate group dinners—safe spaces that give high-achieving men permission to open up honestly with peers, often for the first time. Rob and Cassandra close on what she sees as the real prize of this work: not more success, but emotional freedom, autonomy, and choice.   You will learn: ·       Winning isn't the same as fulfilment: many high-achieving men over 40 are feeling trapped despite external success. ·       Self-awareness, including understanding shifting motivations is key to creating the life a client really wants, rather than what he thinks he should want.   ·       How Cassandra's work helps men find emotional freedom, autonomy and choice.     "When a woman tells a coach, "I've never told anyone this before," she means apart from her mother, her sister, her best friend. When a man says it, those words have never left his lips."   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-coaching-men-unlearning-masculinity-high-achievers

In episode 5 of our Coaching Men podcast series, host Rob Lawrence sits down with Sam Adams, a coach specialising in healthy masculinity. Drawing from his background in regenerative farming and chaplaincy across Africa, Sam explains how masculinity and femininity exist as complementary energies within everyone. He discusses the shame and confusion many men face today, often rooted in unspoken social expectations, and the reason why so many struggle to ask for help or express what they truly feel. Central to Sam's philosophy is a single powerful word: permission. He invites men to give themselves permission to feel, to rest, to be uncertain, and to step away from the silent shame to have everything figured out. Sam also draws on the natural world to guide this inner work, using the rhythm of the seasons as a metaphor for life:  summer as a time for action and growth, winter as a time for reflection and renewal. His coaching weaves together nature, spirituality, and emotional courage to offer a genuinely holistic path forward. Sam reframes the idea of strength, by sharing the root meaning of the word 'courage' is 'heart;' Sam reframes that true strength lies not in fearlessness, but in the willingness to be open and vulnerable. It's a reframe that sits at the heart of everything he does. He also discusses the relevance of spirituality in men's lives and its connection to masculinity and shares strategies for achieving balance and setting boundaries in life. Listen and enjoy this warm, honest conversation.       You will learn ·       Giving yourself permission to feel, rest, and be uncertain is often the first and most powerful step toward growth. ·       Nature's rhythms offer a roadmap to a life of both action and ambition, and stillness and reflection.   ·       True strength lies not in fearlessness but in the willingness to be vulnerable and open.   'The emphasis is on liberating yourself by connecting with your own freedom and the masculinity and the femininity within.'   Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.   For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit:  https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-coaching-men-liberating-masculinity-spirituality