Why I Don’t Allow AI Notetakers in My Coaching Sessions

One of the core values of coaching, at least in my practice, is creating and holding space for the coachee. A space where they can think the unthinkable, explore new perspectives, and assess their thoughts in a way that leads to clarity, direction, and—hopefully—progress.

I know many of my coachees choose to work with me not just for my experience, but because of the energy I bring into our conversations. This energy is positive, improvement-driven, and focused on moving forward.

Coaching, in this sense, isn’t about extracting the “right” answers from people. It’s about helping them unlock their own insights, in a space where they feel supported rather than scrutinized. The image below helps illustrate this concept—you can see that “telling” actions, like solving people’s problems for them or giving advice leads to little to no development, while “asking” actions like providing feedback or challenging their thinking leads to long-term development.

A coach’s actions exist on a spectrum from telling to asking. The more the action falls into the “telling” category, the less it leads to long-term development.

That’s why, in most of my coaching sessions, even the most engaged and proactive coachees rarely take extensive notes. At most, they jot down three or four sentences—usually by hand. The ones who begin with detailed notetaking tend to drop it after our second or third session, once they realize I’m not here to quiz them on their progress. I trust them to take notes when they need to, in a way that serves them best.

I like when people experiment with new technologies. I’m a big AI user myself. But I also have a deep sense of unease when I see the increasing drive to track everything, record everything, optimize everything. I feel this irritation with health and fitness trackers that turn movement into metrics, with augmented reality glasses that layer screens over real-life moments, and, yes, with AI notetakers in coaching conversations.

I get using these tools for business meetings where decisions and action items need to be captured. But let’s be real—there’s a lot of beauty in human-to-human conversations. In the pauses. In the way someone takes a moment to find their words. In the trust that builds when people know they are speaking freely, without an invisible third party documenting every thought.

The feeling of something listening in on a deeply personal coaching conversation creates a subtle, but significant, shift. And that’s enough for me to say no.

For now, I’ve decided not to allow AI notetakers in my coaching sessions. Not because I reject the technology, but because I believe the essence of coaching—real transformation—happens in the moments that don’t need to be recorded.

Maybe that will change. Maybe I’ll see a use case that convinces me otherwise. But right now, I stand by this: Coaching is about trust, presence, and exploration. If recording everything gets in the way of that, I’d rather leave the AI at the door.

Consider this article a gentle reminder that you don't need to universally adopt a new technology just because it's there. It's worth spending some time reflecting on whether the technology is genuinely serving you or if it might be leading to some less-than-optimal unintended consequences.