Your Coach AI.

Over the summer, we recorded our early adopter coaches talking about what AI changed in their practice. No script. Just coaches, on camera, saying what they found.

Starting this week, we share one every Thursday on LinkedIn and on our website, with the story of how we met, and how they use CoachNova in their practice today.

First up, on Thursday: Chris Perkins. In his late forties he hit a rough patch in his career, and could have done with a coach. He didn’t have one. Today he is a midlife transformation coach in Scotland.

When he started with CoachNova, he had one worry: his clients. So he asked his most risk averse client first. That client looked into how we handle security and privacy, and was completely comfortable. So was every client after.

The bonus nobody warned him about: he no longer has to decipher his own handwriting. What we take from Chris: start with your hardest yes.

Not following CoachNova on LinkedIn yet? Now is your chance, so you never miss a Thursday. Follow CoachNova on LinkedIn →

Dr Roger Maitland’s research with CoachNova has received an EMCC research grant and ethics approval from Stellenbosch University’s Research Ethics Committee. The study starts this month, and coaches are invited to participate.

The research explores a timely question: when AI analyses a real coaching session, does it identify the same patterns as experienced coaches?

Earlier published research involving 24 experienced coaches (Maitland, Anderson-Terry & Moore, 2026) identified three tensions that clients continually navigate rather than resolve:

Why this matters for coaching. Coaches, clients and organisations must decide how far to trust AI with coaching conversations. Drawing on real sessions and assessments by experienced coaches, this EMCC-funded study will provide evidence to inform that decision. The findings will be reported whatever the outcome.

Why participate? You will gain another perspective on the tensions shaping your clients’ work, receive a summary report and contribute to the responsible use of AI in coaching. A short review after each session will add directly to the evidence.

Let’s be honest: Coach AI was Nick’s summer. Three months of testing, fine tuning and collaboration with more than ten coaches, many of them highly credentialed and experienced. A true labour of love.

Every test was a live session: a coach meeting their own AI for the first time, and us waiting for their verdict. Nerve-wracking, every single time. In the beginning, we were sent back to the drawing board more than once. The second rounds were something else. Exciting, nerve-wracking, and so worth it.

Today, Coach AI is in public beta. Your clients see it under your name. Switching it on is a step we take together: book a call with Nick, and he helps you set it up, run three test drives, and switch it on when it sounds like you.

We are grateful to every coach who tested with us, and we want to call out one. Jayne Warrilow, founder of Sacred Changemakers, podcast host, and author of 11 books, came up with the idea for the settings. Her point: your AI may need a slight adjustment for each client, depending on how you would show up in that session. Those settings are now live: role, stance and focus, set per client.

We also asked how you’d offer it. The chat filled with one answer: hybrid. Live sessions, plus messaging and Coach AI between and beyond sessions. One coach is moving from hourly sessions to 30 minute check ins alongside their AI. See the call slides →

Now is the time to pick one or two active clients and invite them for a test drive.

And your past clients can come back too. Like Joanna, you can now bring past clients back on, as long as you have transcripts of your sessions with them. Your AI picks up where you left off, and you start a new revenue stream.