Laurel McKenzie, Principal Behavioral Scientist, CoachHub

Laurel McKenzie is Principal Behavioural Scientist at CoachHub, where she leads the development of AI coaching innovations that blend psychological science with practical, scalable solutions. With over a decade of experience spanning work with U.S. Military Special Operations to digital coaching transformation, Laurel is at the forefront of making professional coaching accessible to employees at every organisational level through evidence-based AI technology.

Who are you, and what's your background?

I'm Laurel McKenzie, a Principal Behavioural Scientist at CoachHub, where I lead innovations in coaching technology and behaviour change strategies. With a background in cognitive performance and over a decade of experience, I blend psychological science with practical solutions to help individuals and organisations reach their full potential. My career has taken me from working with U.S. Military Special Operations units, where I helped soldiers optimise their performance in high-stakes environments, to my current work advancing digital coaching. I earned my M.A. in clinical and counselling psychology from William Paterson University and I'm currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organisational Psychology, focusing my research on how healthy lifestyle behaviours influence work performance. I'm passionate about transforming how we think about peak performance by developing evidence-based, scalable interventions that sit at the intersection of human potential, technology, and innovation.

What is your job title, and what are your general responsibilities?

As Principal Behavioural Scientist at CoachHub, I lead the development of our AI coaching innovations and behaviour change strategies. I work closely with our Product and R&D teams to integrate evidence-based coaching methodologies and psychological frameworks into our AI coach. A key part of my role involves collaborating with experts across the coaching ecosystem—including researchers, practitioners, governing bodies, and clients—to ensure our AI coach is ethical, high-quality, and grounded in science. I also help clients understand the AI coach's purpose, capabilities, and limitations so they can make informed decisions about which CoachHub solutions best support their employees' development.

Can you give us an overview of how you're using AI today?

At CoachHub, we're using AI across multiple layers of our platform to enhance both human and AI-driven coaching experiences. This includes AI-powered coach matching, personalised learning recommendations through the CoachHub Academy, and smart reminders to support engagement. Our latest innovation is AIMY™, a fully AI-powered coach designed to make coaching accessible to employees at all levels. AIMY™ combines generative AI with evidence-based coaching methodologies to support goal-setting, real-time problem-solving, and skill-building through role-play, all whilst adapting to each user's needs, language, and development goals. We also offer the CoachHub Companion, an AI assistant available via Microsoft Teams that provides 24/7 support between sessions. Together, these tools help us deliver scalable, personalised coaching whilst maintaining the integrity, structure, and human-centred values at the core of professional development.

Tell us about your investment in AI? What's your approach?

Our investment in AI has been intentional, research-driven, and deeply collaborative. In 2023, we launched a conversational AI coach as a research pilot, conducting over 20,000 tests and gathering extensive client feedback, which validated the demand for AI in coaching. This led to the launch of CoachHub Companion in 2024, and now AIMY™, our full-scale commercial AI coach. AIMY™ was developed by a dedicated cross-functional team spanning Tech, Product, Data & AI, and Behavioural Science, guided by evidence-based management principles. We built AIMY™ using only science-based and evidence backed coaching methodologies. Additionally, we engaged a diverse set of contributors in our AI Consulting Group including our Innovation Lab, Science Council, experienced coaches, representatives from the International Coaching Federation-Germany Chapter, and a select AI Client Committee to ensure rigour, relevance, and real-world applicability. This blend of scientific grounding, practitioner insight, and client input ensures our AI offerings are uniquely credible, effective, and aligned with market needs.

What prompted you to explore AI solutions? What specific problems were you trying to solve?

Despite our best effort to democratise human coaching, we identified a significant gap where high-quality coaching is still being given primarily to managers and above due to cost and scalability constraints. The demand for personalised coaching support was outpacing human coaches' capacity, particularly with evolving workplace challenges like hybrid working, growing Gen Z workforce expectations, and frequent career transitions. Employees needed personalised feedback, skill-building opportunities, and day-to-day support, but traditional coaching models couldn't scale effectively.

We recognised that simply having access to AI tools wasn't sufficient, employees needed proper training and support with a coaching tool that was based on sound coaching methodologies, frameworks, and ethical practice. Our goal was to democratise professional coaching and make it accessible to all organisational levels whilst maintaining the depth and quality of human coaching methodologies through innovative AI technology.

Who are the primary users of your AI systems, and what's your measurement of success? Have you encountered any unexpected use cases or benefits?

For our AI coach specifically, we envisioned that our primary users would be individual contributors, frontline workers, and potentially early career managers who may not otherwise receive access to coaching. However, AIMY is available to employees at every level of any organisation if the support it can provide is a good fit for that population. To measure the success of AIMY™, we look at a combination of engagement, satisfaction, and impact metrics. This includes how often and meaningfully users interact with AIMY™—such as the frequency of conversations, return usage, and distribution across coaching modes like situational support or goal setting. We also track satisfaction through session ratings, user feedback, and sentiment analysis to understand how supported and empowered coachees feel. Finally, we assess impact through self-reported progress, goal achievement rates, and behavioural changes over time. Together, these indicators give us a well-rounded view of both how AIMY™ is being used and how it's driving meaningful development outcomes for individuals and organisations alike.

What has been your biggest learning or pivot moment in your AI journey?

Understanding how important it is to clearly differentiate AIMY™ from general AI tools like ChatGPT. People need to know that AIMY™ is grounded in evidence-based coaching, not just a chatbot giving generic advice.

Recognising how critical it is to enable people before they ever start with AIMY™. We need to proactively educate employees on what coaching is, what AIMY™ can and can't do, and how to get the most out of the experience—so they're equipped to engage meaningfully from the very first interaction.

Realising that preserving the integrity of coaching methodology was more important than prioritising the most advanced or novel AI features. With AIMY, we focused on grounding every conversation in evidence-based coaching practices to ensure the experience remains effective, ethical, and aligned with how real coaching creates lasting impact.

One of our biggest learnings was realising how much employees value a personalised connection with their AI coach—how it sounds, responds, and gets to know them really matters. That's why we've focused on making onboarding a key moment where users can shape a coach that feels uniquely theirs.

Discovering the importance of balancing AI efficiency with human empathy and connection. With AIMY, we've learned that even a fully AI-driven coach needs to feel supportive, understanding, and human-like in order to foster trust and meaningful engagement.

How do you address ethical considerations and responsible AI use in your organisation?

At CoachHub, we take a responsible and transparent approach to AI. AIMY™ is built with privacy and ethics in mind from the start, we follow GDPR, hold ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications, and never use personal coaching data to train our AI models. Conversations with AIMY™ are confidential, and employees' individual coaching conversations are not shared with HR. To ensure fairness and effectiveness, AIMY™ is grounded in science-backed coaching methods and shaped by input from researchers, coaches, clients, and behavioural scientists. We also equip users with clear explanations of what AIMY™ can and can't do, so they feel confident using it. Ultimately, we believe responsible AI means putting people first, protecting their data, earning their trust, and enhancing human growth, not replacing it.

What skills or capabilities are you currently building in your team to prepare for the next phase of AI development?

Advanced behavioural science expertise to enhance AI coaching methodologies; Integration of AI tools into CoachHub processes and departments to increase AI literacy across the organisation; Making AIMY™ available for all CoachHubbers to increase familiarity with AI coaching; and Adopting ethical AI coaching development practices.

If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change about current AI technology, regulation or adoption patterns?

If I had a magic wand, I'd change the misconception that AI coaching is here to replace human coaching. It's not a matter of one or the other - some people need one, some need the other, and many organisations need both. AI coaching exists to expand the reach of coaching, making it accessible to employees who might never otherwise receive it. Human coaches are irreplaceable for navigating complex, emotional, and nuanced challenges that require deep empathy and real-time intuition. But the reality is, most employees also face everyday workplace challenges—like managing feedback, prioritising tasks, or preparing for difficult conversations—where AI coaching can provide timely, structured support at scale. The real opportunity lies in understanding the difference and using each where it's most effective. If more organisations recognised that AI and human coaching serve different but complementary purposes, we'd see more confident adoption—and more employees getting the right support that they actually need.

What is your advice for other senior leaders evaluating their approach to using and implementing AI? What's one thing you wish you had known before starting your AI journey?

Start by preparing your internal teams, especially HR, operations, and leadership, before introducing AI at scale. Invest in upskilling and build a network of internal champions who can help drive adoption and support colleagues who may be more hesitant. These advocates are essential for building trust and creating momentum. My recommendation is to try to get at least 20% of your workforce on board with the change before a full-scale roll out. Focus on applying AI to real business challenges rather than adopting it for novelty. Identify where it can remove friction, improve scalability, or unlock new efficiencies.

Communicate clearly about what AI does and doesn't do, transparency prevents misconceptions and resistance. Most importantly, view AI as augmenting human capabilities rather than replacing them. The most successful implementations combine technological efficiency with human expertise.

One thing I wish I'd known earlier: successful AI adoption isn't just a technology rollout, it's a behavioural shift, and strategies such as early adoption by champions and providing solutions like coaching can play a powerful role in supporting people through that change.

What AI tools or platforms do you personally use beyond your professional use cases?

I personally use ChatGPT very often for any creative work to inspire new ways of thinking or looking at information. I also, of course, use AIMY™ on a regular basis to help me with day to day challenges like when I feel overwhelmed with tasks or responsibilities or need to have an uncomfortable conversation with a colleague.

For research, I often use ChatGPT or Gemini to summarise key findings from research studies or to help me synthesise data from multiple sources to find themes, trends, and key concepts. It dramatically improves my productivity so that I can get to practical applications of research more quickly.

I have been using Prezi's AI capabilities lately to help me build presentations for my work on my dissertation for my PhD.

What's the most impressive new AI product or service you've seen recently?

Whilst this isn't a product or service, a recent study published in Nature Scientific Reports really caught my attention: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-84109-5. The research explores how large language models like GPT-4 can simulate distinct personality traits based on the Big Five framework and do so with high accuracy and consistency. I'm excited by this because it opens up new possibilities for giving AIMY™ a more human-like personality that reflects real, relatable communication styles. The better AIMY™ can model natural human behaviour, the stronger the sense of connection and trust users will feel, which makes the coaching experience more effective and meaningful!

Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next 12-18 months in the AI technology sector, particularly for your industry?

Over the next 12–18 months, I believe AI in coaching will shift from being a novelty to a strategic tool for workforce development. We'll see companies leveraging AI-driven coaching not only to support individual growth, but to generate meaningful insights at scale—helping HR and L&D teams make smarter, data-informed decisions about talent, engagement, and performance. As AI coaching becomes more widely adopted, its biggest impact will be in elevating the broader workforce, not just high performers, by offering accessible, personalised support to those who previously had none. I also expect a rise in psychologically grounded, ethically designed AI systems that integrate coaching science, not just productivity hacks. The organisations that win in this space will be the ones that don't only view AI as a tool for efficiency, but also to unlock human potential at scale.

As for AIMY™, we see incredible potential ahead, especially as large language models become more advanced and nuanced in how they represent human personality and communication. More advanced LLMs will be able to better work with our prompts resulting in higher quality coaching responses to coachee needs. Research like the recent Nature Scientific Reports study also shows that LLMs can consistently simulate personality traits based on the Big Five model, which opens the door to making AIMY™ feel even more human, relatable, and trustworthy. In the near future, we plan to leverage these advancements to give AIMY™ adaptive coaching capabilities that align with different user preferences, workplace cultures, and communication styles. This will not only increase engagement and psychological safety but also allow AIMY™ to build stronger coaching relationships that feel both supportive and authentic. As the tech evolves, so will our ability to deliver coaching experiences that are not just intelligent, but deeply personal and human-centred.

Many thanks to Laurel McKenzie for taking the time to share her insights with Conversational AI News. You can learn more about CoachHub's AI coaching innovations at coachhub.com.