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Admin Setup and Rollout Guide for AI Coach

Roll out AI Coach across your org with this admin guide, setup steps, adoption tips, FAQs, and support to get started.

Jessie Walsh avatar
Written by Jessie Walsh
Updated yesterday

🚀 Update: AI Coach in Surveys is here!

See it in action and learn how it can help managers act on survey results: Watch the demo

Overview


AI Coach is a new tool that provides your people with personalized, science-backed guidance to help them navigate feedback, development, and leadership challenges.

This guide is for Account Administrators and People teams who want to roll out AI Coach across their organization. AI Coach will be available in three versions:

  • General AI Coach: Provides broad leadership and development coaching.

  • AI Coach in Surveys (also referred to as Coach in Engage): Helps managers act on engagement survey results.

  • AI Coach in Performance (closed EAP): AI Coach in Performance helps managers draft reviews and prepare for performance conversations.

    • It’s currently available only to organizations participating in our closed Early Access Program.

    • If you’ve submitted the form to register interest, thank you! There’s no immediate access at this stage, we’ll reach out once your account is eligible and AI Coach in Performance becomes generally available (GA) later in Q4 2025.

Tip: Want to learn how AI Coach is designed and powered? Read The Science Behind AI Coach

Phase 1: Plan Your Rollout


You can launch AI Coach across your entire organization or start with a smaller pilot group (recommended for up to 200 users). A phased rollout helps you gather feedback early, refine your approach, and build internal advocacy.

Best Times to Launch

Align your rollout with key employee moments for maximum impact:

Product

Timing

Why it Works

AI Coach in Surveys

After engagement surveys

Helps managers communicate results, facilitate discussions, and create actionable plans that drive accountability and change.

General AI Coach

Alongside leadership or development programs

Supports managers and leaders with broader topics like career pathing and development challenges.

AI Coach in Performance (Closed EAP)

During a performance cycle

Prepares employees for effective feedback, performance conversations.

Rollout Readiness Checklist


Before launching, confirm you’ve considered the following:

  • Language: Currently available in American English only.

  • User Access: Activate for all employees or a pilot group (max 200 users, added individually via self-serve Coach Settings).

  • Format: Text based only, it does not support voice, images, or document uploads.

  • Integrations: AI Coach does not integrate with external tools or systems outside of Culture Amp.

  • Confidentiality: All conversations are private to the user and are not visible to anyone else in the organization.

  • Reporting: Reporting features are not currently available but will be introduced in future updates.

  • Data Access: Learn more in the user guides:

Phase 2: Configure AI Coach Admin Settings


Key Dates for Engagement Customers

  • October 8, 2025 (AEST): The Surveys toggle will appear in Coach Settings for all Engagement customers. The default setting will be activated.

  • October 8–20, 2025 (AEST): Engagement customers have until October 21 (AEST) to review and adjust activation settings. If the toggle remains activated, users with access to shared survey reports will have AI Coach available in their survey reports starting October 21.

  • October 21, 2025 (AEST): AI Coach in Surveys will become available to Engage users, provided it's still activated under Coach Settings. Admins can always review or update access before or after General Availability.

Note:

  • The AI Coach in Performance toggle will appear in Admin controls only for customers participating in the Early Access Program (Closed EAP).

  • If you don’t see this toggle yet, your organization hasn’t been onboarded to the program. Once GA becomes available later in Q4 2025, your Customer Success Manager or the Culture Amp Support Team will be in touch to confirm next steps.

Updating the Admin Coach Settings

1. Sign in as an Account administrator.

2. Go to your Settings page, under the Account section click on Coach.

3. You’ll see separate toggles for each version of AI Coach depending on your account products and participation in any Early Access Programs (Closed EAP):

  • General AI Coach – Available to all customers.

  • AI Coach in Surveys – Only visible for customers with Engagement as part of their Culture Amp subscription

  • AI Coach in Performance (Closed EAP) – Only visible and available for organizations part of the AI Coach in Performance (Closed EAP).

4. You’ll also see a separate Activate AI Coach toggle. This allows you to activate or deactivate AI Coach across all product areas (General, Surveys, and Performance) in one action.

  • Default setting: Activated for everyone

You can adjust these settings at any time as your rollout progresses:

  • Keep activated for everyone

  • Limit activation to a specific pilot group.

    • To add employees to a pilot group, enter their name or email in the add employees field and click Add.

    • Once you have made your selections click Update access to save (max 200 employees).

  • Deactivate temporarily

Rollout Schedule


Plan ahead using the timeline below for AI Coach in Surveys.

AI Coach in Surveys

Date (AEST)

Milestone

Details & Admin Actions

October 8, 2025

New Admin controls visible

  • Account Admins will see new AI Coach toggles on the Coach settings page.

  • Use this window to review your rollout plan for Coach in Surveys ahead of the general availability (GA) launch on October 21, and update your activation preferences as needed before launch.

October 8–20, 2025

Preparation period

  • Review your settings and confirm who will have access (everyone, pilot group, or deactivate setting).

  • If your organization was part of the Early Access Program (Closed EAP), you’ll continue to see and use AI Coach in Surveys before general availability. Your existing settings will automatically carry over once GA launches.

October 21, 2025

AI Coach in Surveys available to users

  • If AI Coach in Surveys remains activated, users with report access will have AI Coach available in their engagement survey reports.

Post-launch (from October 21 onward)

Gather feedback and monitor adoption

  • Send a short feedback survey to pilot groups or people leaders and adjust your rollout or comms based on insights. (optional)

Tip: Use this schedule to communicate key dates internally so managers and teams know when to expect changes in their Engagement reports.

General AI Coach

Who

What You Need to Know

New Customers (after July 7, 2025)

General AI Coach is already available in your account settings.

Existing Customers

Enabled gradually for existing customers between July and September 2025.

AI Coach in Performance

AI Coach in Performance (Closed EAP) is available only to organizations participating in the Early Access Program and will appear in Coach Settings for those accounts.

Tip: Register your access to AI Coach for Performance using this form. If you’ve already submitted the interest form, there’s no action needed for now, you’ll be contacted once your account is eligible and AI Coach in Performance moves to General Availability (GA) later in Q4 2025.

Phase 3: Support Adoption


Getting the most out of AI Coach means driving awareness and usage, especially among people leaders and team leads.

Tips for Encouraging Adoption

  • Promote practical benefits: AI Coach helps people prepare for feedback, development, and tricky conversations

  • Share real examples: Show how AI Coach helped a manager find the right words for a performance review or feedback chat

  • Position it as an enabler, not another tool, especially for new or time-poor managers

  • Build momentum with pilot champions: Ask a few users to share their experience in team meetings or Slack

  • Include AI Coach in onboarding for managers or leadership development programs

Phase 4: Learn and Iterate


AI Coach doesn’t yet offer in-platform usage reporting, but you can still learn a lot from your rollout.

How to Gather Feedback

  • Send a quick post-pilot survey to ask:

    • What situations did you use AI Coach for?

    • What was most helpful?

    • What could be improved?

  • Run a short retro with pilot group leads or People Partners

  • Share feedback with your Culture Amp Customer Success Manager or the Culture Amp Support Team, we’re always looking for ways to improve AI Coach based on what we hear from customers

Your Privacy with AI Coach


  • Your interactions with AI Coach are private. No one else in your organization, including your manager or administrators, can see your interactions or the content you share.

  • Culture Amp retains de-identified customer data securely within the Culture Amp platform to monitor and improve AI Coach over time.

  • This helps us enhance capabilities in high-demand areas and continuously refine the coaching experience.

  • We prioritize safety and fairness in AI, with safeguards actively in place, and we're committed to strengthening them over time.

  • No conversation data is stored outside of the Culture Amp environments

  • No data is logged by 3rd party large language providers, or used to train 3rd party LLM models.

Want to learn more? Visit our Security Trust Center for details on how we protect your data.

Troubleshooting AI Coach Access


  • Make sure you’re logged in as an Account administrator.

  • Confirm access: If you can see the Coach settings page, that means you will have (at a minimum) AI Coach (General) available to activate or deactivate.

  • Can’t see the AI Coach Surveys option?

    • Check whether the overall Activate Coach toggle is visible.

    • You’ll need to turn this on before you can activate the other AI Coach instances (like Surveys or General).

  • Don’t see AI Coach in Performance?

  • Still not showing up?

    • If you have tried these troubleshooting steps and still need help, type "Ask a person" in a support conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.

FAQs


Can we customize the topics or add our own resources to AI Coach?

Not right now. AI Coach is built on Culture Amp’s People Science knowledge base and can’t be customized with company-specific content or policies.

How can we track adoption or impact?

Detailed reporting isn’t available yet but is on the way. In the meantime, you can gather feedback from your pilot group or send out quick surveys to see how people are using AI Coach and what they find helpful.

Will AI Coach connect to other Culture Amp tools?

AI Coach is currently standalone.

Will AI Coach be available in other languages?

Right now, AI Coach is available only in American English. We plan to expand language support in the future. To share feedback on your specific language needs, just type “Ask a person” in a support conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist

Can I export the list of users that have been added to the pilot group?

No, there’s currently no option to export the list of users assigned to the pilot group.

Can rollouts be controlled by demographic groups, teams, or management populations?

No. There are no controls in place to limit access to specific demographic groups. Admins can individually select up to 200 users to be included in a pilot group via self-serve controls available under Coach Settings.

Will AI Coach in Surveys be available for past surveys?

Yes. When AI Coach in Surveys is enabled, it works on all surveys, past and present.

I’ve turned on AI Settings in Performance, does that mean I have AI Coach for Performance?

They’re different features!

When you turn on AI Settings in your Performance module, you enable two features:

AI Coach for Performance is separate. It’s a conversational AI tool that helps managers draft performance reviews. Right now, it’s only available through our Early Access Program (Closed EAP).

If you don’t see Performance listed under Coach Settings and haven’t joined the EAP, you don’t have access yet. Further details about General Availability (GA) will be shared closer to launch, stay tuned.

You can register your access to AI Coach for Performance using this form.

Can I exclude sensitive demographics (like ethnicity, gender, or disability) from AI Coach in Surveys?

No, if those demographics are included in your survey report, AI Coach in Surveys can access them. However, it only sees aggregated data, not individual employee information. The only individual demographics visible to Coach are manager status and job title.

I filled out the form for AI Coach in Performance but haven’t heard back, when will I get access?

Thanks for registering your interest! AI Coach in Performance is currently available only through our Early Access Program. Submitting the form adds you to our early access list, it doesn’t provide immediate access.


We’re planning to move to General Availability (GA) later in Q4 2025, and your Customer Success Manager or the Culture Amp Support Team will reach out once it’s available for your account.

➡️ Next Steps:


💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.

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