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 (Beta): Helps managers draft reviews and prepare for performance conversations.
More information on the Beta and wider rollout plan can be found in the Rollout Schedule.
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 | During a performance cycle | Prepares employees for effective feedback, performance conversations. |
Rollout Readiness Checklist
Before launching, confirm you’ve considered the following:
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: Track adoption using the AI Coach Usage Report, which provides aggregate insights into engagement across General, Surveys, and Performance modules.
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.
Updating the Admin Coach Settings
1. Sign in as an Account administrator.
2. Go to your Settings page and click on Coach.
3. You will see two tabs: Access and Usage. Click Manage access to control who can use Coach.
3. You’ll see separate toggles for each version of AI Coach depending on your available account products.
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 (Beta) - Available to all accounts with access to Performance Cycles as part of their subscription.
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 |
|
October 8–20, 2025 | Preparation period |
|
October 21, 2025 | AI Coach in Surveys available to users |
|
Post-launch (from October 21 onward) | Gather feedback and monitor adoption |
|
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
Date (AEST) | Milestone | Details & Admin Actions |
December 4th, 2025 | Beta. Available for all accounts with access to Performance Cycles | AI Coach will be available for all customers with access to performance cycles, beginning December 4th. The feature is ready to use, but must be manually activated by an Account Administrator in the AI Coach settings for either a pilot group or the entire organisation. |
Q1 2026 | General Availability (GA) | In Q1 2026, AI Coach in Performance will move to general availability. We will share full details of the wider rollout schedule in Q1 as we get closer to the release. |
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 now includes the AI Coach Usage Report, giving Account Administrators aggregate insights into adoption and engagement across all modules. Use this report alongside post-pilot surveys and retros to understand how people are interacting with Coach and identify areas for improvement.
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?
Make sure your subscription has access to Performance Cycles. From December 4th, any eligible account should have the option to activate the frature manually in their AI Coach Settings.
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?
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?
How can we track adoption or impact?
Use the AI Coach Usage Report to see aggregate usage data across General, Surveys, and Performance modules.
Will AI Coach connect to other Culture Amp tools?
Will AI Coach connect to other Culture Amp tools?
AI Coach is currently standalone.
Can I export the list of users that have been added to the pilot group?
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?
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?
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?
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:
Highlights and Opportunities – AI-generated summaries of employee feedback data.
Suggest Improvements – AI-powered guidance that helps employees and managers write more specific, actionable, and balanced feedback.
AI Coach for Performance is separate. It’s a conversational AI tool that helps managers draft performance reviews.
Can I exclude sensitive demographics (like ethnicity, gender, or disability) from AI Coach in Surveys?
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.
How do Culture Amp’s AI features impact energy use, emissions, or resource efficiency?
How do Culture Amp’s AI features impact energy use, emissions, or resource efficiency?
While our use of AI in our products does increase the supply chain emissions of our business, we are committed to growing in an environmentally responsible way. The largest contribution to managing our footprint is through optimising our engineering infrastructure. In 2022, we were able to reduce our overall footprint in our technical supply chain by 49%, and we’ve made additional improvements this year. We’re continuing to make investments to better understand AI’s specific contribution to our footprint, and will continue sharing our journey publicly. For more on our efforts in climate, please see our 2024 ESG Report.
Do you offer a sandbox or formal test environment for AI Coach?
Do you offer a sandbox or formal test environment for AI Coach?
We currently do not offer separate sandbox accounts or formal testing environments for any of our AI Coach features.
However, you can effectively test the AI Coach features before a wider organisational rollout using pilot groups when activating the features.
This is the easiest and most effective way to test all available AI Coach features.
Setup: An administrator can activate the AI Coach features for a select pilot group of users in the account-level AI Settings.
Testing Flexibility: For specific features like AI Coach in Performance, administrators can utilise the feature on any participant within a live performance cycle (even if they aren't a manager)
Data Safety & Privacy:
The conversational data generated during testing is private.
These conversations will not automatically apply to managers' reviews or survey results, and other users will not see these test conversations.
You have the option to delete the conversations afterwards to maintain data cleanliness.
➡️ Next Steps:
Plan your rollout: Identify your pilot group (optional), set your internal launch date, and define how you’ll measure success.
Review key resources:
Check and update your Coach settings: Confirm which versions are visible and set activation for everyone, a pilot group, or deactivated.
Prepare your internal comms: Let people leaders and managers know what Coach is, how it helps, and when it’s coming.
Collect feedback: After launch, check in with your pilot group or users to see what’s working and what could be improved.
Track Coach adoption with the AI Coach Usage Report
💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.