Artificial Intelligence as a Personal Coach: A Narrative Review of Benefits and Risks in Educational and Health Contexts

The last decade has seen a rapid increase in individuals turning to artificial intelligence (AI) for advice related to their personal development, especially with the introduction of general-purpose large language models (LLMs) to the general public in 2022. This narrative review examines the potential benefits and risks of using AI for coaching purposes in educational and health contexts. Given that empirical studies on using general-purpose LLMs in these domains remain limited, this paper first synthesizes findings from purpose-built coaching chatbots designed to perform specific tasks that facilitate personal development in these domains and discusses limitations associated with studies that use older versions of chatbots. The reviewed evidence suggests that purpose-built chatbot coaching systems may have some benefits as they are generally well received and can support short-term motivation and selected behavior change, but effects for sustained, meaningful outcomes are inconsistent. We then reflect on the potential risks of using general-purpose LLMs as a coach without appropriate human oversight, by reviewing features of general-purpose LLMs, such as sycophancy, accuracy, and problematic patterns of use. Synthesizing these findings, we consider their implications before identifying potential directions for future research.