What is Coach?
Coach is like a People Scientist in your pocket. It delivers personalized, contextual, and science-backed coaching to help people navigate challenges, build capability, and take confident, effective action.
Unlike generic AI tools, Coach doesn’t rely on pre-written responses. It draws on Culture Amp’s extensive people science knowledge base and over 1.3 billion data points from top-performing teams to provide relevant, practical guidance tailored to the moment.
Who Coach Is For
Coach is designed to support anyone in your organization, but it's particularly useful for:
People leaders and team leads
Managers preparing for high-stakes or developmental conversations
Anyone navigating feedback, tough topics, or team dynamics
How Coach Works
Coach isn’t just a chat tool—it’s a behavior change enabler. It mirrors what it’s like to work with a human coach by helping users reflect, clarify their goals, and move from insight to action with confidence.
Built on People Science
Coach was created by an accredited coach and registered psychologist and is grounded in proven methodologies and frameworks. It uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to reference real-time content from Culture Amp’s People Science library—ensuring responses are both current and scientifically validated.
What is RAG, and how does it work?
You’ve likely heard the term RAG in relation to generative AI systems. RAG stands for Retrieval-Augmented Generation.
In a RAG system, when a user types in some kind of prompt or query, instead of sending that prompt directly to an Large Language Model (LLM), the RAG system first goes off to find any relevant documents that might help the LLM do a good job with handling the prompt. It then passes in those documents as context along with the prompt.
Our Coaching Philosophy
We believe learning, growth, and high performance require more than assistance—they require coaching.
Here are the core beliefs that guide Coach’s design:
Coaching is a partner in growth – helping people move forward with clarity and purpose.
Psychological safety matters – coaching works best when it’s adaptive and personally relevant.
AI should enhance, not replace human insight and decision-making.
Everyone deserves high-quality support, no matter their role, location, or background.
Coaching turns insight into action, empowering people to lead effectively and with confidence.
“A coach helps you figure out what and who you want to be, and then supports you in understanding and actioning what you need to grow into that.”
— Didier Elzinga, Culture Amp CEO
How Coach Responds to You
Coach recognizes that not all needs are immediately clear. Instead of assuming you know exactly what you need, it works with you to explore the challenge, reflect, and move toward a clear and effective next step.
Coach follows a flow designed to mirror the way a real coach would guide a conversation:
Understand your situation – Coach confirms your intent and reflects your challenge in your own words.
Clarify your goal – It helps identify what you're really trying to achieve—not just the initial surface-level problem.
Apply a framework – Coach draws on people science frameworks like SBI or GROW to support structured reflection.
Build confidence through tools and practice – You might explore role play, feedback planners, or guided techniques.
Take meaningful action – Coach offers tips or next steps that lead to clarity, confidence, and results.
Example Flow
Let’s say you ask Coach for help navigating feedback conversations. A flow might look like this:
Coach reflects the challenge:
“Thanks for sharing that with me. It sounds like you're feeling uncertain about your performance and would value more clarity from your manager.”
Coach clarifies your objective and applies a framework:
“I hear your frustration—you're getting general positive feedback but missing the specific, constructive insights that could help you grow as a manager. I'd like to suggest working through Culture Amp’s framework for asking for feedback.”
Coach supports action through guided questions or role play:
"Would you be interested in exploring some specific questions and approaches you could use with your manager to get more meaningful feedback?”
Coach offers a practical tip grounded in People Science:
“Great. One effective approach is to schedule a dedicated feedback conversation with your manager.”
By walking through this flow, Coach helps you move from uncertainty to clarity and prepares you to take effective, confident action.
The Coaching Tools Behind Coach
Coach uses a combination of coaching modalities to guide behavior change:
Modality | Definition | Supports | Example Use Cases |
Role Play | Realistic practice scenarios | Confidence, emotional readiness | Rehearsing a tough conversation, Negotiation practice |
Frameworks | Mental models to structure thinking | Clarity, reflection | Giving feedback, Setting goals |
Tools | Ready-to-use templates or planners | Execution, clarity | Feedback planner, Action planner, 1:1 agenda |
Strategies | Suggested techniques or tactics | Capability, experimentation | Pause-and-summarize, Mirroring, Split tracks |
Guidance | Personalized recommendations | Decision-making, insight | Best-practice nudges, What to prioritize |
Topics | Area of focus for the coaching conversation | Personalization, flow logic | Communication, Feedback, Goal setting, Career growth |
Topics Coach Can Help With
Coach can support a wide range of people leadership and communication topics, including:
Giving and receiving feedback (e.g. SBI model)
Coaching conversations (e.g. GROW model)
Difficult conversations
Performance challenges
Recognition
Goal setting and accountability
Career development
Planning and running 1-on-1s
Building trust with your team
Employee absenteeism
Team effectiveness
Helping lower-performing employees
Employee engagement
Tough decision-making
When Coach Works Best
Coach is most effective when used to:
Prepare for workplace conversations
Craft constructive feedback messages
Plan and run 1-on-1 meetings with team members
Structure development discussions
Develop your conversation skills through suggested approaches
Find the right words when you're unsure how to start difficult conversations
Get guidance on common workplace scenarios based on people science
How Coach Helps Your Organization
Coach helps people leaders act with clarity, confidence, and speed by providing:
Clarity on what to say – Organize your thoughts and use science-backed language to express them.
Confidence before taking action – Practice using role plays and guided prompts to feel more prepared.
Support for tough conversations – Receive structured guidance for challenging messages.
A safe space to practice – Explore options and test ideas without pressure.
Faster speed to action – Move from insight to execution with clear next steps.
Help overcoming avoidance or indecision – Break challenges into manageable actions.
Science-informed coaching – Get recommendations grounded in research, not just generic advice.
What Coach Can’t Do
Coach is powerful, but it’s not a replacement for human expertise. It’s not designed to:
Replace human judgment – Coach gives suggestions, not definitive answers.
Make business or HR decisions – It doesn’t handle compliance, policy, or legal advice.
Provide emotional intelligence – Coach can’t offer empathy or adapt in real time during live conversations.
Access company-specific information – It doesn't know your team history, internal policies, or integrated tools.
Handle sensitive situations – For misconduct, legal issues, terminations, or mental health concerns, consult HR or appropriate professionals.
Create inappropriate or harmful content – Coach supports constructive, respectful communication only.
Note: While it may be tempting to ask Coach general questions, it’s designed to support specific use cases around leadership, communication, and development—not act as a general AI assistant.
➡️ Next Steps:
Start preparing to launch Coach. Access the AI launch checklist
Get familiar - start using Coach!
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