Your AI Coach for Improved Leadership, Engagement & Team Collaboration

Leadership development has traditionally been something organizations provide to a relatively small group of employees. Executives get executive coaches. High-potential employees get leadership programs. New managers might get a workshop, a manager-training series or a few hours of coaching. Then everyone goes back to work. AI coaching is changing the economics and accessibility of that model. Instead of coaching being something reserved for a relatively small population, organizations can use AI to provide employees and managers with ongoing coaching support at the moment they need it. That could mean preparing for a difficult conversation, working through a conflict, thinking through a delegation problem, practicing feedback or simply figuring out how to handle a leadership situation differently next time. The Conference Board's 2025 research found that AI can perform up to 90% of day-to-day coaching functions, while human coaches remain particularly important for emotionally charged, political and values-based situations. Its research also found that 96% of workers surveyed said AI provided customized coaching, 89% said their session resulted in specific and useful next steps, and 91% said they would use AI coaching again. That makes AI coaching particularly interesting for employee leadership development. But which platform is actually the best? There isn't a legitimate one-size-fits-all answer. The leading platforms take different approaches to AI coaching, human coaching, personalization, role-play, behavioral science and workplace integration. For organizations specifically looking to extend personalized leadership coaching to employees and managers at scale, however, Ask Aura is one of the strongest platforms to consider. Here's how it compares with BetterUp, CoachHub, Valence, Torch and Coachello. What is AI coaching? AI coaching uses artificial intelligence to provide employees with coaching-style conversations, guidance, reflection, practice and development support. That can include helping someone think through a workplace problem, prepare for a conversation, establish a goal, practice a scenario or reflect on what happened after an interaction. The concept is not meant to turn every workplace coaching interaction into a conversation with a chatbot. The more sophisticated platforms are designed around coaching frameworks, behavioral science, organizational context or employee-specific information. The CIPD's 2025 Coaching and Mentoring factsheet recognizes AI as an emerging option for workplace coaching and notes that some organizations are already using a blend of AI and human coaching. It also emphasizes that coaching should be connected to an organization's broader learning and development strategy rather than treated as an isolated intervention. That's an important distinction. The goal isn't simply to give employees access to another AI tool. The goal is to make coaching useful enough that people actually use it when they're dealing with real work. What should the best AI coaching platform provide? When evaluating an AI coaching platform for employee leadership development, there are several capabilities worth examining. Let's dive in. Personalization Leadership advice isn't one-size-fits-all. A manager who avoids conflict may need different coaching from a manager who dominates conversations. An employee motivated by autonomy may respond differently to a development strategy than someone motivated by recognition, structure or collaboration. Platforms that incorporate behavioral, psychometric and/or organizational information can potentially make coaching more relevant than a generic AI conversation. Coaching in the flow of work The Conference Board specifically recommends that organizations evaluate whether AI coaching can be embedded in the tools employees already use, including email and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Slack. That's practical. If an employee needs help before a difficult meeting, asking them to stop what they're doing, log into a separate learning platform and hunt for a course isn't exactly ideal. Behavioral science Generative AI can produce an answer. A coaching platform needs to do more than produce an answer. Behavioral science, coaching frameworks, psychometric assessments and organizational context can provide the structure behind the interaction. Practice and reinforcement Leadership development requires repetition. AI can help employees rehearse conversations, work through scenarios, reflect after an interaction and return to development goals over time. Scalability Human coaching remains valuable, but it is expensive and difficult to provide to every employee. One of AI coaching's most compelling use cases is extending some level of personalized coaching support to a much larger employee population. Privacy and boundaries This may be the most important consideration of all. AI coaching can become more useful as it has more context about an employee. That also creates greater privacy and governance considerations. The Conference Board specifically identifies security and privacy as significant risks and recommends clear confidentiality expectations, transparency and criteria for escalating situations to human coaches. Best AI Coaching Platforms for Employee Leadership Development There are several credible platforms in this category, but they are not interchangeable.Platform Primary approach Notable capabilities Strong fitAsk Aura AI coaching + psychometrics Personalized coaching, behavioral data, workplace integrations, role- play Employee-wide leadership development & more effective hiringBetterUp Grow AI coaching + broader human coaching ecosystem Behavior change, role-play, organizational frameworks Enterprise behavior changeCoachHub AIMY AI + human coaching Goal-based coaching, role-play, progress tracking Global organizationsValence Nadia AI-first coaching Organizational context, proactive coaching, enterprise integrations Large enterprise workforcesTorch Spark AI + human coaching Leadership development, role-play, coaching continuity Organizations combining AI and expert coachesCoachello AI + internal + external coaching AI coaching, role-play, human coaching Hybrid coaching programs1. Ask Aura: A strong choice for scalable employee leadership development Ask Aura takes a different approach from a generic AI assistant. The platform describes itself as “psychometrics-as-a-service,” combining AI coaching with individual behavioral information. Its current platform says coaching is personalized based on an individual's personality, work style, role and team dynamics. That personalization is particularly relevant to leadership development. Leadership isn't just about knowing the right thing to do. It's also about how an individual naturally communicates, responds to pressure, approaches decisions and interacts with other people. Ask Aura's underlying Humantelligence framework uses three areas of behavioral information: Behaviors, Motivators and Work Energizers, or BMW. The platform says its assessment takes approximately 10 minutes and is designed to provide the behavioral information used to personalize coaching. The other important distinction is where the coaching happens. The platform integrates with Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Slack, and also supports Zoom and HR technology integrations. That supports an important use case for employee leadership development: coaching at the moment of need. An employee preparing for a difficult conversation doesn't necessarily need a 45-minute course on conflict management. They may need practical guidance five minutes before the conversation. A manager working through a delegation problem may not need another leadership framework. They may need help thinking through the specific person, situation and communication approach. Ask Aura is designed around those moments. The platform also positions itself as a scalable coaching resource for employees at different levels, from individual contributors through leaders. Ask Aura was also named Fast Company's 4th Most Innovative Tool in 2026 Corporate Vision's Best AI-Driven Employee Coaching Platform 2026 in August 2026. Why Ask Aura stands outPsychometric personalization Behavioral, motivational and work-style information Coaching for employees as well as leaders Integration with Teams, Slack and Outlook Real-time, in-workflow guidance, role-play Scalable employee development Support for communication, collaboration and leadership developmentBest for: Organizations that want to make personalized coaching available to a broad employee population rather than limiting coaching to executives or a small high-potential group.2. BetterUp Grow: Strong for behavior change and enterprise development BetterUp is one of the more established names in digital coaching and has expanded its offering to include AI coaching. Its current AI product is BetterUp Grow, which the company describes as an AI coach focused on behavior change rather than simply answering questions. BetterUp says Grow incorporates an organization's strategy, values and competencies into coaching conversations and provides AI role-play for managers practicing situations such as feedback and performance conversations. BetterUp's advantage is its broader coaching ecosystem and emphasis on behavioral science. Best for: Organizations that want AI coaching within a larger employee development and coaching ecosystem, particularly where human coaching remains part of the development strategy. Personalization is limited.3. CoachHub AIMY: Strong for global organizations CoachHub combines AI coaching with a large global human coaching network. Its AI coach, AIMY, provides continuous, personalized coaching and supports goal setting, development, role-play and progress tracking. CoachHub says AIMY can simulate conversations by taking the role of a peer, manager or direct report, allowing employees to practice conversations and receive feedback. CoachHub also says it has more than 3,500 certified coaches across more than 90 countries, with coaching available in more than 80 languages. Those are CoachHub's current company figures. That combination is useful for multinational organizations that want AI coaching for broad employee populations while retaining access to human coaching. Best for: Global organizations that want AI coaching combined with an established human coaching infrastructure.4. Valence Nadia: Strong AI-first option for enterprise coaching Valence takes an explicitly AI-first approach with Nadia, its AI coach. Valence says Nadia provides proactive guidance for employees and can incorporate company values, leadership principles and organizational ways of working into coaching. Its current platform supports integrations with Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Copilot, Google Calendar and Slack, along with HR technology integrations. The platform also emphasizes enterprise privacy and security. Valence says Nadia has undergone more than 100 enterprise security reviews and holds certifications including ISO 42001, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2. Nadia is designed to provide coaching continuously rather than limiting development to scheduled sessions. Best for: Large organizations looking for an AI-first coaching platform that can incorporate organizational context and connect with enterprise systems. Personalization is limited.5. Torch Spark: Strong for organizations combining AI and human coaching Torch takes a hybrid approach. Its Spark AI Agent provides always-on support for leadership development and can be used either independently or alongside a Torch human coach. Torch says Spark can help users rehearse difficult conversations, practice situations that respond to their reactions and work through challenging situations between coaching sessions. The company's documentation also says Spark can incorporate organizational context such as company values, goals and leadership capacities, while not monitoring activity or accessing confidential company information. That makes Torch particularly interesting for companies that don't want to choose between human and AI coaching. Best for: Organizations that want AI to reinforce and extend a human coaching relationship or provide leadership support as a standalone experience.6. Coachello: Strong for hybrid coaching and AI role-play Coachello offers another hybrid model, combining external human coaching, internal coaching and AI coaching. Its current platform supports AI coaching through Microsoft Teams, Slack and the web. It also offers AI role-play designed to help employees practice workplace conversations. Coachello describes its AI coaching as available either on demand or through structured programs and says its platform can connect with HR systems such as Workday and SAP SuccessFactors. The company's model may appeal to organizations that want a single platform for different types of coaching rather than adopting a separate AI coaching tool alongside an existing human coaching program. Best for: Organizations looking for a combination of AI coaching, AI role-play, internal coaching and external human coaching.Ask Aura vs. BetterUp vs. CoachHub vs. Valence vs. Torch vs. Coachello The biggest mistake an organization can make is treating these platforms as if they all solve exactly the same problem. They don't. Ask Aura is particularly differentiated by its combination of AI coaching and psychometric personalization. Its emphasis is on providing individualized guidance based on behavioral and work-style information and delivering that guidance through tools employees already use. It democratizes growth and leadership development across employees. BetterUp brings AI coaching into a larger coaching and behavior-change ecosystem, with both AI and human coaching capabilities. CoachHub combines AIMY with a large international human coaching network, making its hybrid model particularly relevant to global companies. Valence is strongly AI-first, with Nadia built around continuous coaching and extensive organizational context. Torch focuses on combining AI support with expert human coaching and leadership-capacity development. Coachello combines AI coaching with internal and external human coaching and puts particular emphasis on AI role-play and practice. So the right question isn't simply, "Which platform has the most features?" It's: Which coaching model fits the organization's leadership development strategy? Is AI coaching better than human coaching? Not across the board. And organizations shouldn't buy AI coaching with the expectation that it will eliminate the need for human coaches. The Conference Board's research makes a strong case for a blended model. Its research found that AI can handle many routine coaching activities, including goal setting, feedback, rehearsal, meeting preparation and follow-up. Human coaches can be particularly valuable for emotionally charged situations, organizational politics, values-based decisions and complex relationships. That creates a fairly sensible division of labor. AI coaching can help an employee:Prepare for a difficult conversation Practice giving feedback Think through a management problem Work on communication Set and revisit development goals Reflect after a difficult interaction Rehearse a conversation Identify possible approaches to a workplace challenge Stay accountable between formal development experiencesA human coach can step in when the stakes are higher or the situation requires deeper human judgment. But in the end, AI coaching allows leaders, like managers, to focus on those more human elements of leading. Why in-the-flow coaching matters for leadership development One of the biggest advantages of AI coaching is timing. A traditional leadership course might teach a manager about feedback on Monday. The manager may actually need to give difficult feedback on Thursday. That's when the learning has to become behavior. AI coaching can sit between those two points. An employee can revisit a concept, ask for guidance, practice a conversation or reflect on a previous interaction without waiting for the next formal training session. The Conference Board specifically recommends choosing AI coaching solutions that can operate in the flow of work through tools such as email, Teams and Slack. Ask Aura's integration with Microsoft Teams, Slack and Outlook is particularly relevant to this model. The idea is simple: leadership development becomes more useful when it shows up where leadership actually happens. What about privacy? This is where HR and L&D teams need to slow down. AI coaching platforms can require significant information about employees to provide useful personalization. The more context a system has, the more important data governance becomes. Before choosing a platform, HR teams should ask:What employee information does the platform use? What information is used to personalize coaching? What data is retained? Who can access individual coaching conversations? What information can HR administrators see? How are sensitive conversations handled? When is a conversation escalated to a human? Does the platform monitor employee activity? What workplace applications does it access? How is employee consent handled?These questions aren't procurement trivia. They're central to whether employees will actually trust and use the coach. So, what is the best AI coaching platform for employee leadership development? There isn't an independently established No. 1 AI coaching platform. Anyone making that claim without qualification is overselling it. But if the goal is scalable employee leadership development with personalized AI coaching, Ask Aura has a particularly strong case. Its combination of comprehensive psychometric personalization, behavioral information, real-time coaching and integration with workplace tools gives it a distinct position among AI coaching platforms. That matters because employee leadership development is bigger than executive coaching. Organizations need managers who can give better feedback, employees who can communicate more effectively, leaders who can navigate conflict, new managers who can get support before a situation becomes a problem, and people at every level who can keep developing without waiting for the next formal training program. That's where AI coaching can have its greatest impact. BetterUp, CoachHub, Valence, Torch and Coachello each offer credible approaches, and the right choice depends on whether an organization prioritizes human coaching, AI-first development, global coaching infrastructure, role-play, organizational context or psychometric personalization. For organizations whose priority is making personalized leadership coaching available across the workforce, however, Ask Aura deserves to be on the shortlist. The bigger shift is what happens after the purchase. Leadership development stops being something employees experience only during a scheduled program and becomes something they can access when a real leadership moment arrives. And those moments happen every day. Bottom line: AI coaching is moving leadership development from an occasional program toward an ongoing capability. For organizations looking to extend personalized coaching beyond the executive suite, platforms like Ask Aura or others, offer different approaches to the same fundamental problem: how to give more people useful leadership support, more often, without requiring a human coach for every employee.Frequently Asked Questions What is the best AI coaching platform for employee leadership development? There is no independent study establishing one universal winner. Ask Aura is a particularly strong option for organizations seeking scalable AI coaching personalized through behavioral and psychometric information. BetterUp, CoachHub, Valence, Torch and Coachello offer different approaches, including human-plus-AI coaching, AI-first coaching and AI role-play. What is an AI coaching platform? An AI coaching platform uses artificial intelligence to provide coaching-style conversations, guidance, reflection, practice and development support. Enterprise platforms may also incorporate behavioral science, organizational goals, employee information and workplace integrations. Can AI replace human leadership coaches? AI can handle many routine coaching activities, but current research supports a blended approach rather than wholesale replacement of human coaches. The Conference Board found that AI is well suited to many everyday coaching tasks while human expertise remains particularly important for emotionally charged, political, values-based and complex situations. How does AI coaching help managers? AI coaching can help managers prepare for feedback conversations, practice difficult discussions, work through team challenges, set development goals and reflect on leadership situations. Some platforms also provide role-play so managers can practice before having the actual conversation. Why is personalization important in AI leadership coaching? Employees have different communication styles, motivations, work preferences and development needs. Platforms that incorporate individual behavioral or organizational information can tailor coaching rather than giving every employee essentially the same advice. What should HR look for in an AI coaching platform? HR and L&D leaders should evaluate personalization, coaching methodology, behavioral-science foundations, integrations, scalability, role-play capabilities, privacy, security, data access, confidentiality, human escalation and how the platform fits into the organization's broader leadership development strategy.

Workplace trends influence how organizations hire, develop people, use technology, structure jobs, and compete. The challenge is determining which changes deserve sustained attention and which are generating more discussion than impact. That distinction matters as organizations face pressure to adapt more quickly. In its 2026 Global Human Capital Trends survey, Deloitte found that seven in ten business leaders consider becoming fast and nimble enough to capitalize on changing business, customer, and market needs their primary competitive strategy for the next three years. No single development will shape every organization in the same way. To surface consequential changes that may be receiving too little attention, I asked leaders to identify one workplace trend leaders should be paying more attention to and explain why. Workplace Trends Leaders Should Pay Attention To Somia Farid Silber, CEO of Edible Brands: One workplace trend leaders should pay more attention to is the growing need for adaptability. Change is no longer something businesses navigate every few years. Teams are constantly responding to new technology, evolving consumer expectations, and new ways of working. That requires leaders to create environments where people are comfortable learning, experimenting, and challenging the way things have always been done. At the same time, adaptability should not mean chasing every new idea. Leaders still have a responsibility to provide a clear vision and help their teams understand where the organization is going and why. Throughout my career, I have seen how important it is to give people that clarity while also empowering them to find better ways to reach the goal. The organizations that can combine a strong sense of purpose with a willingness to evolve will be better prepared for whatever comes next. Peggy O’Leary, Chief Commercial Officer of CPI: One trend worth watching is the growing need for teams to work across traditional functional lines. Customer expectations can change quickly, and different parts of an organization often see different pieces of that change. Sales may hear one thing, client teams another, and product or operations something else. No single team has the full picture of the customer anymore. The companies that connect those perspectives well are in a better position to see what is changing, understand what customers need, and make smarter decisions about where to focus. I think we’ll continue to see more emphasis on bringing the people closest to customers into the conversations where priorities are set. The faster those insights move across an organization, the easier it is to respond to changing customer needs with a clear view of what matters most. Tina Vatanka Murphy, CEO of Global Healthcare Exchange: One trend leaders should watch is how much of their people’s day is spent coordinating work: chasing information, reconciling conflicting answers, and following up across teams to move something forward. That effort is easy to miss because committed people find ways to make things work. Over time, their workarounds become part of the job. We celebrate their resourcefulness without asking why so much of it is necessary. In healthcare, where teams are already stretched, that hidden burden takes time and attention away from work that requires their expertise. It also makes it harder for an organization to grow without adding complexity and cost. Leaders should spend more time understanding where that effort goes. Ask people what they repeatedly have to chase, fix, or explain. Look across departmental boundaries, where ownership can become unclear, and information gets lost. Then act on what you learn. Simplify a handoff. Clarify a decision. Remove a step. Use technology where it can reduce the burden. How much people accomplish matters. So does how hard the organization makes it for them to accomplish it. That is a leadership responsibility. John Betancourt, CEO of Humantelligence and former CMO of Puma: Skills decay. Nobody talks about it, but it’s happening fast. The half-life of a technical skill keeps shrinking, and most companies are still running development plans built for a slower world: annual reviews, a training module once a quarter, maybe a course someone signs up for and never finishes. That pace doesn’t hold up anymore. Leaders need to treat development as something ongoing, woven into the week instead of bolted on once a year. That means real-time feedback, coaching that happens close to the actual work (not in one-off workshop schedules six months from now), managers who are equipped to have those conversations often, not just at review time. The companies that figure this out now are going to have a real edge. The ones that wait are going to spend the next few years playing catch-up on talent they already had but chose not to actively coach and develop. Seth Yurman, Chief Development Officer of Curiosity Lab: Leaders should be paying more attention to how quickly innovation is becoming collaborative and cross-disciplinary. We are evolving past the days where similar technological development happens in silos around the world. Today, conduits are being built between these silos, and collaboration is starting to produce real and practical advancements. Leaders need to break down existing barriers and create environments where people from different disciplines can work together, experiment, and solve problems. Increasingly, the competitive advantage will not just be having access to the newest technology. It will be having an organization that knows how to bring the right people and partners together to actually use it. Peter Stenehjem, CEO of First International Bank & Trust: I think leaders should pay closer attention to culture as their organizations grow. Growth is exciting. It creates opportunities, expands capabilities, and allows organizations to serve more people. But growth also places pressure on culture. The larger an organization becomes, the more intentional leaders have to be about preserving what made it successful in the first place. Culture isn’t defined by a mission statement or a set of values on a wall. It’s reflected in how people treat one another, how decisions are made, and how an organization responds during challenging times. Employees want consistency, authenticity, and a clear sense of purpose. As companies grow, maintaining those things requires deliberate leadership. In my experience, organizations that protect their culture while embracing growth are the ones best positioned for long-term success. Charisse Ranielle Lillie, former Chair and Board Member, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia: One workplace trend is social isolation. Social isolation is impacting the mental health of employees and affecting productivity in some workplaces. Business leaders should have internal and external resources to evaluate how employees are responding to social isolation. The role of intergenerational mentoring should be explored as a potential response to the presence of social isolation in the workplace. Brian Cute, CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance: Too many still think of cybersecurity as solely an organizational IT issue and not as a human issue. Humans are one of the biggest attack vectors. Attacks are coming mostly via social engineering, where criminals manipulate people into clicking a link, sharing information, sending money, or giving up access to an account. As leaders, we need to recognize that cybersecurity isn’t just about technology. It’s about preparing people to recognize and respond to increasingly sophisticated threats. We all need to identify our most important human and systems vulnerabilities, understand who has access, and put basic safeguards in place. Cybersecurity must be part of the organizational decision-making process at every step. These operational questions are increasingly cybersecurity questions too. For more, check out the full article here. Adam Mendler Adam Mendler is a nationally recognized authority on leadership and is the creator and host of Thirty Minute Mentors, where he regularly elicits insights from America's top CEOs, founders, athletes, celebrities, and political and military leaders. Adam draws upon his unique background and lessons learned from time spent with America’s top leaders in delivering perspective-shifting insights as a leadership keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. A Los Angeles native and lifelong Angels fan, Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders.

You know development matters. Your managers are coaching more. Your teams feel more connected. You see momentum building across the organization. But what happens when someone asks for proof? Suddenly, it’s hard to move beyond engagement surveys and anecdotal wins. The truth is, employee development isn’t a perk — it’s a business strategy. And it’s time we started treating it like one. The Real Problem: Learning Still Has a Credibility Gap Most organizations believe in development, but too many struggle to measure it in a way that resonates with executive stakeholders. The disconnect isn’t in the impact but rather in the storytelling. Here’s where most learning initiatives fall short:Tracking completions, not capabilities Measuring attendance, not advancement Counting courses, not business outcomesAnd because most development programs fail to speak the language of performance — revenue, retention, productivity — they’re among the first to be deprioritized in budget cycles. The result? Even successful initiatives get labeled as “soft.” Why the Stakes Are Higher Than You Think Development is not a feel-good extra. It’s one of the most powerful levers for retention, engagement, and organizational resilience. Consider the data:The average cost of employee turnover is $57,150 per person (Work Institute, 2024). Burnout risk doubles for employees without clear growth paths. Structured development programs correlate with up to 218% higher income per employee (Association for Talent Development).In other words: learning has a dollar value — and a significant one. What to Track Instead To earn credibility with the business, L&D must shift from tracking convenience metrics to impact metrics. Here are five high-signal areas every organization should monitor: 1. Time to Productivity Are new hires and internal moves ramping faster post-program? 2. Internal Mobility Are people growing into new roles or exiting due to lack of opportunity? 3. Retention in Critical Roles Is development reducing regrettable attrition where it matters most? 4. Observable Behavior Change Can managers and peers see a shift in leadership, collaboration, or communication? 5. Coaching Frequency and Quality Are managers consistently facilitating growth conversations? These are not just L&D metrics. They are indicators of workforce performance, agility, and business health. Making the ROI Case — Without a Finance Degree You don’t need a CFO certification to build a compelling business case. A simple ROI formula works: ROI = (Benefit – Cost) / Cost × 100 Here’s an example:You invest $150,000 in a manager development program. It supports 100 mid-level managers who lead 1,000 employees. Attrition in those teams drops by 4% post-training. With a $50,000 cost per regrettable exit, that’s 40 exits avoided and $2 million saved.ROI = ($2M – $150K) / $150K × 100 = 1,233% That level of return isn’t an anomaly. And even if you cut the benefit in half, you still achieve an ROI most CFOs would celebrate. You can also expand the case by measuring:Changes in team KPIs post-training Leadership pipeline coverage Reduced external hiring due to stronger internal candidatesThe key isn’t perfect precision — it’s directional clarity. Credible ROI beats vague satisfaction scores every time. What If Your Numbers Don’t Add Up? If your development efforts aren’t driving results, it may not be the measurement that’s broken. The learning playbooks of the past weren’t built for today’s pace of change. Static content libraries, one-size-fits-all modules, and compliance-driven programming don’t translate into capability or performance. What does?Personalized learning journeys based on behaviors, motivators, and work energizers In-the-flow insights that guide real-time performance Coaching moments initiated by managers and available for all, not just HROrganizations that use tools like Ask Aura to personalize coaching, deliver real-time insights, and track development outcomes see a measurable difference in both individual growth and organizational results. What About the Intangibles? Not every development win fits in a dashboard — but many of them still drive business impact.A team becomes more inclusive and psychologically safe A high-potential employee accepts a stretch opportunity and succeeds A manager delivers feedback that changes the trajectory of an underperformerThese may not be financial outcomes, but they are cultural multipliers. They shape the employee experience in ways that drive loyalty, learning, and performance over time. If you want to capture those impacts, track:Leadership readiness benchmarks Sentiment scores around belonging and growth Peer feedback trends and frequency Coaching moments logged in real timeIntangibles matter, and they need visibility. Development That Delivers Ultimately, it’s not just about proving that your development efforts work. It’s about designing programs that are built to work — for today’s teams, workflows, and business realities. That’s where Ask Aura comes in. By delivering personalized insights, surfacing behavioral patterns, and guiding coaching moments in real time, Ask Aura enables development that’s measurable, scalable, and aligned to business goals. Companies using AI-driven tools like Ask Aura don’t just improve engagement. They see:Higher retention among top performers Gains in productivity Faster leadership readiness across critical rolesThat’s not a training program. That’s a transformation strategy. Don’t Just Defend Development. Prove It. If your L&D strategy is driving business value, you should have the receipts. Not just anecdotes or participation stats but real data on performance, productivity, and retention. Because the next time someone in Finance asks what learning has done for the business lately, the worst answer is, “People liked it.” The best answer? “Here’s how it moved the business forward.”

There's a stat making the rounds in HR circles right now that should make every hiring manager pause before they finalize a job posting stacked with technical requirements. According to a survey from Express Employment Professionals and The Harris Poll, 86% of hiring decision-makers say a candidate's personality can outweigh a skills gap, and and 91% say personality matters just as much as skills in the first place. That's not a small finding. That's a lot of people with hiring authority telling us the checklist we've been trained to build resumes around might be the wrong checklist. What the Survey Found The traits hiring managers and job seekers agreed mattered most weren't flashy. They were reliability, honesty, adaptability, flexibility, and self-motivation. None of those show up as a bullet point on a resume. You can't put "adaptable" through an applicant tracking system and get a clean match score back. These are traits you feel in a person, not traits you scan for in a PDF. Bob Funk Jr., CEO of Express Employment International, put it well in the survey results: every employee shapes the workplace beyond whatever's written in their job description, and the right personality builds trust, smooths change, and raises the bar for how a team works together. In his words, personality is representative of the business culture itself, not just a nice bonus during hiring. This tracks with what other research has been saying for a while now. A TestGorilla report found that 78% of employers had hired someone with strong technical skills who ultimately didn't fit well because they lacked soft skills. Nearly four out of five employers have watched a technically qualified hire fall apart for reasons that had nothing to do with their technical qualifications. So here's the uncomfortable question sitting underneath all of this. If personality is this predictive of success on the job, why do so many hiring and management processes still treat it as a gut feeling instead of something you can actually measure and act on? How Employers Are Actually Judging Personality Right Now Here's where it gets a little uncomfortable, and worth sitting with for a second. The same Express Employment Professionals survey, fielded by The Harris Poll among more than 1,000 U.S. hiring decision-makers, found that 87% of hiring managers believe they can tell from the very first conversation whether a candidate will succeed at their company, and 38% strongly agree with that. That's a snap judgment, made before a single reference is checked, carrying an enormous amount of weight. And it isn't happening through anything you'd call rigorous. The most common way hiring managers say they actually gauge personality fit is through informal moments outside the prepared interview questions, cited by 61% of them. Think small talk before the meeting starts, the tone of a follow-up email, how a candidate treats the receptionist on the way in. Job seekers can feel this happening too. Ninety-four percent say a company has evaluated their personality during hiring, most often through:Informal interactions, 47% Situational questions, 46% Behavioral interview questions, 45% Reference checks, 43% Formal personality assessments, only 37%Notice what's at the bottom of that list. The one method actually designed to measure personality with any consistency is the one employers seem to reach for least. Everything above it is some flavor of gut instinct dressed up in a process. No wonder 61% of job seekers say they worry about how their personality is coming across in an interview. They can sense they're being read, just not through anything they could prepare for or contest. So if personality is this predictive of success on the job, why do so many hiring and management processes still treat it as a gut feeling instead of something you can actually measure and act on? The Trouble With Measuring What Can't Be Faked on a Resume Personality is hard to fake convincingly over the length of an interview, which is part of why it's such a strong signal. But it's also genuinely hard to measure well. A hiring manager's read on someone's reliability or adaptability after a 45-minute video call is, honestly, a guess dressed up as an assessment. A good guess sometimes. Still a guess. That gap between "we know personality matters" and "we have a reliable way to measure it" is exactly where a wave of workplace technology has tried to step in. Emotion-recognition software. Sentiment analysis layered onto meetings. Wearables that track stress signals. Tools that watch facial expressions on video calls and try to infer whether someone is engaged, frustrated, or checked out. The pitch behind all of it sounds reasonable on paper. If personality and emotional state matter this much to performance, shouldn't employers use every available tool to understand them? California lawmakers just answered that question with a fairly firm no, at least for a specific and important category of tools. California's New Line in the Sand Assembly Bill 1883 cleared the California legislature and is now sitting on the Governor's desk, with a signing deadline of September 30. If Newsom signs it, California employers will be barred from using AI systems that recognize, infer, or predict a worker's emotional state. The bill goes further and also bans the collection of "neural data," defined as information generated by measuring signals from a worker's central or peripheral nervous system. A few practical details worth knowing:The law doesn't ban workplace monitoring across the board. Employers can still use surveillance tools for things like safety. Violations carry a penalty of $500 per instance, which sounds modest until you multiply it across an entire workforce over time. There are carve-outs for work tied to certain aircraft, and to products connected to national security, military, space, or defense purposes. California isn't acting in a vacuum here either. The EU's AI Act already prohibits this kind of emotion-recognition tech in workplace settings, and it took effect back in 2024.For context on why lawmakers are drawing this line now, an incident that got attention this year involved Burger King's rollout of an AI assistant called "Patty," built into employee headsets and designed to flag when workers used phrases associated with friendliness. Whatever the intent, that's a fairly clean example of exactly the kind of AI-based emotional inference this new law is aimed at. A University of Michigan associate professor's analysis, cited in HR Dive's coverage, noted that emotion AI's capacity to actually measure emotions correctly remains controversial and contested. In plain terms, we don't have great confidence these tools even work as advertised, and now there's a legal reason for California employers to steer clear of them regardless. Where This Leaves HR and L&D Leaders If you're running people programs at a mid-sized company, this puts you in a strange spot. The data says personality is one of the strongest predictors of who succeeds on your team. The law, correctly, says you can't use AI to guess at someone's feelings by watching their face or reading signals from their nervous system to get there. That's not actually a contradiction, once you separate two very different approaches that tend to get lumped together under the umbrella term "AI in HR." Approach one: AI trying to infer emotion from behavior it observes. This is what AB 1883 targets. Facial analysis, voice tone detection, biometric or neural signal collection. The tool watches you and makes a prediction about what's happening inside your head. That prediction is often unreliable, it's collected without much say from the person being watched, and now, in California, it's headed toward being flatly illegal in a workplace context. Approach two: People sharing information about themselves, voluntarily, through a validated instrument. This is a fundamentally different category. Nobody is inferring anything by monitoring your face during a meeting. A person completes a structured, research-backed psychometric assessment because they choose to, and the resulting profile reflects what they told you about themselves, not a guess an algorithm made by watching them. This is precisely the distinction we get into in an earlier piece on this blog, Your AI Coach Should Know Your People, Not Just Your Org Chart. The point there was that generic AI advice fails managers because it has never met the person on the other end of the conversation. The fix isn't watching people more closely. It's giving managers validated, self-reported data about who someone actually is, then delivering coaching built on that data at the moment it's needed. That's the model Ask Aura runs on, and it's why this new wave of surveillance restrictions doesn't touch how the platform works. Why Ask Aura Isn't Caught Up in This Ask Aura's coaching starts with a roughly 10-minute assessment covering three layers: Behaviors, Motivators, and Work Energizers, often shorthanded as BMW. An employee takes it once, voluntarily, and answers questions about themselves. Nothing is inferred from a webcam. Nothing is pulled from a wearable. No signal is captured from anyone's nervous system. From there, the coaching layer takes that declared, structured data and turns it into specific guidance delivered where people already work, inside Slack, Teams, and Outlook. A manager prepping for a tough conversation gets a strategy built on what an employee has told the system about their own motivators and stress responses, not a prediction about what their face looked like on a call last Tuesday. That distinction matters more with every new piece of legislation like AB 1883 that gets signed. Tools built around watching and guessing are going to keep running into legal trouble as more states follow California's and the EU's lead. Tools built around structured, voluntary self-disclosure sit outside of that entirely, because there's no inference happening and no neural data changing hands. We'd add one honest caveat here. We're not attorneys, and this article isn't legal advice. What we can say with confidence is that the category of concern in AB 1883, emotion inference and neural data collection, describes a different kind of tool than a voluntary, self-reported psychometric assessment. Everything an AI Coach Like Ask Aura Actually Does Given all of this, it's worth laying out what a coaching platform built this way can offer HR and L&D teams, without wandering anywhere near the surveillance concerns lawmakers are now targeting.Manager coaching in real time. Specific, personalized guidance for one-on-ones, feedback conversations, and performance discussions, based on how a direct report is actually wired, not a generic script. Onboarding that starts smart. New hires get understood from day one instead of managers spending months learning someone's working style through trial and error. Team dynamics insight. Leaders can see how personality types on a team complement or clash with each other, useful for staffing projects and resolving friction before it turns into a resignation. Recruiting support. Personality and motivator data can inform hiring conversations, directly addressing the exact gap this whole survey points to, without replacing structured evaluation of skills. Retention signals. Understanding what energizes versus drains someone helps managers catch disengagement early, before it shows up as a resignation letter. Delivery inside daily tools. Coaching shows up in Slack, Teams, and Outlook, not buried in a separate platform nobody opens after week one. Room for existing investments. Prior assessments like Predictive Index, Hogan, DISC, or CliftonStrengths can be integrated to inform a person's coaching profile instead of getting thrown out and replaced. People analytics for leadership. Aggregate, anonymized insight into team composition and dynamics for leaders making staffing and structure decisions. None of it requires watching anyone. No facial analysis, no biometric tracking, no neural data collection. The entire system runs on information people choose to share about themselves.The takeaway for HR and L&D teams isn't complicated, even if the regulatory environment around workplace AI is getting more complex by the month. Personality is one of the strongest predictors of who thrives at your company. The way to act on that isn't watching people more closely and hoping an algorithm guesses correctly what's going on inside their heads. It's asking, giving people a validated way to tell you, and then building coaching around the answer.

There’s a quiet fear running through most organizations right now: As AI becomes more capable, the workplace will become less human. It’s not an unreasonable concern. Automation is already reshaping how work gets done. Tasks that once required hours now take minutes. Decisions that used to rely on instinct are increasingly supported by data. Entire workflows are being streamlined, optimized, and in some cases, replaced. But here’s the part many companies are getting wrong: automation doesn’t remove the human side of work; it exposes how essential it really is. The organizations that thrive in an AI-enabled future won’t be the ones that automate the most. They’ll be the ones that understand where automation stops and where human connection, judgment, and empathy begin. AI Is Changing the Work, Not the Need for People AI is exceptionally good at handling volume. It can process information faster, identify patterns more efficiently, and execute repetitive tasks with consistency. That’s valuable. It reduces friction. It saves time. It eliminates a lot of the administrative weight that has historically slowed organizations down. But AI doesn’t understand context the way humans do. It doesn’t navigate nuance, emotion, or intent. It doesn’t build trust. And that’s where the real work lives...in the art of collaboration. Performance conversations, team alignment, conflict resolution, career development — these are not process problems. They are human problems, grounded in collaboration, and as AI removes the noise around them, those moments become more visible, not less. So the question isn’t whether workplaces can stay human. It’s whether they’re willing to prioritize the parts of work that actually require humanity. From Efficiency to Meaning For years, HR success has been measured by efficiency. Faster onboarding. Higher training completion rates. Shorter time-to-hire. These metrics made sense in a world where access to information and process execution were the bottlenecks. That world doesn’t exist anymore. AI has made information instantly accessible. It has made many processes faster by default. Which means efficiency is no longer a differentiator; it’s the baseline. What matters now is meaning.Are employees clear on expectations? Do they feel supported by their managers? Are they growing in ways that align with both their goals and the organization’s needs?These are harder questions to answer. They require interpretation, not just data. They require conversation, not just completion rates. And they force organizations to rethink what “good” actually looks like. The Rise of Human-Centered HR In an automated environment, HR’s role shifts in a fundamental way. It moves from enforcing policy to interpreting experience. From managing transactions to shaping relationships. From delivering programs to influencing behavior. This is where many organizations struggle. It’s easier to scale systems than it is to scale empathy. It’s easier to measure activity than it is to measure impact. And it’s tempting to lean into automation because it feels concrete. It produces dashboards, metrics, outputs. But human-centered HR operates differently. It asks:How do employees experience leadership day to day? Where are managers struggling to connect or communicate? What’s getting lost between intention and execution?These aren’t questions AI can answer on its own. But they are questions AI can help surface if organizations are willing to listen. Why Empathy Is Now a Strategic Capability Empathy is often treated like a soft skill: something nice to have, but not essential to performance. That thinking doesn’t hold up anymore. As work becomes more distributed, more digital, and more fast-moving, the ability to understand and respond to people effectively becomes a competitive advantage. Managers who can:Give clear, constructive feedback Navigate difficult conversations Recognize when someone is disengaged or struggling…create stronger teams. Stronger teams perform better. It’s that simple. The challenge is that most managers aren’t trained to do this well. They’re promoted based on individual performance, then expected to lead without consistent guidance or support. AI doesn’t replace empathy. But it can reinforce it. When used thoughtfully, it can help managers prepare for conversations, reflect before responding, and approach situations with more clarity and confidence. Not because it’s telling them what to think, but because it’s helping them think more intentionally. That’s where the real value shows up. Authenticity in an Automated World As automation increases, so does skepticism. Employees are more aware than ever of when interactions feel scripted, forced, or disconnected from reality. They can tell when communication is performative. They can sense when decisions are made without real consideration of impact, which is why authenticity matters more now than it ever has. Authenticity doesn’t mean being informal or unfiltered. It means being clear, consistent, and aligned between what’s said and what’s done. Leaders who:Communicate openly about challenges Explain the “why” behind decisions Acknowledge uncertainty when it exists…build trust. And trust becomes the anchor in environments where technology is constantly evolving. Automation can scale processes. It cannot scale credibility. That still belongs to people. The Risk of Over-Automation That said, there is a line, and many organizations are getting dangerously close to crossing it. When every interaction becomes automated, optimized, or mediated through technology, something starts to erode. Conversations become transactional. Feedback becomes generic. Employees feel processed instead of supported. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s gradual. A system replaces a conversation. A template replaces context. A workflow replaces judgment. And over time, the workplace starts to feel less human, not because AI is inherently dehumanizing, but because it’s being used in place of connection rather than in support of it. The goal isn’t to avoid automation. That’s not realistic or even desirable. The goal is to be intentional about where it’s applied. That means automating the work that doesn’t require human judgment and protecting the moments that do. Redefining What Success Looks Like If organizations want to stay human as they scale automation, they need to rethink how they measure success. Efficiency metrics alone won’t tell the full story anymore. Instead, leaders need to look at:Quality of manager-employee relationships Consistency of feedback and communication Employee confidence in leadership Sense of belonging and inclusionThese are harder to quantify, but they are far more indicative of long-term performance. When employees feel understood, supported, and aligned, engagement increases. And when engagement increases, so does retention, productivity, and overall organizational health. The data is already pointing in this direction. Companies that prioritize human interaction consistently see stronger engagement outcomes. The challenge is committing to measuring what actually matters. Where AI Fits In AI is not the sole solution to making workplaces more human. But it can be an enabler if used correctly. It can:Surface patterns in employee feedback Highlight gaps in communication or leadership behavior Provide guidance in moments where managers might otherwise hesitateWhat it cannot do is replace the human decision-making that follows. The organizations getting this right are using AI to support awareness, not replace accountability. They’re using it to prompt better conversations, not eliminate them. That distinction is critical because the future of work isn’t about humans versus machines. It’s about how the two work together. The Path Forward So, can workplaces stay human in an automated world? Yes. But not by accident. It requires intention. It requires restraint. And it requires a clear understanding of where technology adds value and where it doesn’t. The companies that succeed will be the ones that:Use AI to reduce noise, not replace connection Invest in manager capability, not just systems Prioritize clarity, empathy, and trust as core business driversAutomation will continue to evolve. That’s not up for debate. What’s still in our control is how we choose to use it because the more efficient work becomes, the more the human moments stand out. And those moments — the conversations, the decisions, the way people show up for each other — are what define a workplace. Not the technology behind it.

Everyone talks about collaboration. But few teams actually master it. Yes, most organizations say it’s a core value. In fact, two-thirds of companies include collaboration in their mission statements. But here’s the truth: what separates high-performing teams from the rest isn’t whether they say they value collaboration — it’s whether they pursue it with purpose. Research shows that top companies are up to 5.5x more likely to reward and reinforce collaborative behaviors at every level: individual, team, and leadership. They don’t leave teamwork to chance — they build the culture, systems, and habits that make it thrive. So if you’re serious about improving collaboration, it’s time to go beyond the buzzwords. In this quick guide, we’ve pulled together 15 real-world strategies to help you build stronger, more connected teams — the kind that actually deliver results. Be Strategic About Meetings to Improve Collaboration at Work Prepare formal meeting agendas & keep communication styles in mind. If you’re leading a meeting or part of the team that called the meeting, keep in mind that some attendees might have a more reflective communication style, so if you want your meeting to be valuable and productive, proactively reach out to those team members ahead of the meeting to share specific topics in which you'd like them to contribute.  Defining a clear agenda for each meeting and considering the role of each person who is attending will help everyone involved understand how they can participate and what individual expectations entail. Not sure how to determine communication style?  No worries, there are tools for that. Always use ice-breaker questions. Never just jump into meeting business. It comes across as too cold and transactional, which makes it more difficult to develop report, connection, and trust as a meeting team. Instead of starting with the formal agenda topics, try these ice-breaker options from Atlassian, designed to build authentic connection. One of the best ways to improve collaboration and work and instill a stronger sense of teamwork is to give employees plenty of opportunities to learn more about each other. Don’t forget about the kickoff meeting. Whenever a new team is established to work on a shared goal, it’s a good idea to hold a formal kick-off event. This not only gives team members a chance to ask questions and learn about the project, but also helps create a shared sense of ownership. While these meetings don’t need to be complicated or even lengthy, depending on the complexity of the project, it’s always a good idea to solicit feedback about the agenda from team members. At minimum, reviewing the scope of the project, the shared objective, and key roles and needs of the project should be enough. Observe and Model Best Practices for Building an Environment to Support Collaboration Collaborate on the issue of collaboration. If the company culture dictates strong teams, take a look at the organization and see who else is doing it well. Talk to other managers about team dynamics, how they get people to collaborate and the behaviors they encourage. And make sure that you return the favor, sharing your own best practices and lessons learned. Don’t forget to look outside your company as well, talking with colleagues and mentors. You’d be surprised at how similar situations seem to come up across industries. Create accountability around team performance, not just individual performance. This helps draw out the lone ranger team member and forces the team to work collaboratively toward common goals. If one person isn’t participating as a team member, the others won’t carry that person and a shift will start to take place. If there is one particular cynic, take that person aside and discover why there is conflict, too much independent work, or general derailing of teamwork. Depending on personality, you can either be very direct here or ask a series of “why” questions to get to the bottom of the situation. Prioritize the employee experience. Seeing things from employees’ perspectives can help you learn a lot about work culture and some of the communication challenges that your company may be facing. Dedicating some time to explore employee experience and finding ways to improve both digital and physical work environments can go a long way towards making employees feel more satisfied and comfortable at work. Get digital. Especially for remote or hybrid teams, it can be difficult for employees to follow and understand what their coworkers are doing. This makes it difficult for workers to forge bonds and improve the way they communicate with each other. Using a shared digital platform that fosters teamwork can help improve visibility, create connection, foster belonging, and support more effective communication. Create tech-driven collaboration spaces. Internet speeds and improvements in technology have made audio and video conferencing remarkably convenient these days. To foster more meaningful communication among employees, consider adding personalized communication insights to your meeting tools so everyone knows how best to communicate with one another. Making meetings more valuable for everyone involved goes a long way toward developing a strong collaborative work culture. Check in consistently. Have a formal check-in periodically, once a month or at minimum once per quarter, to make sure relationships are developing and collaboration is growing. Especially important if you’re repairing a team, check in to make sure things are on track and to gain a better understanding of what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to be adjusted. If you start the teamwork ball rolling but then neglect the process, any progress you’ve made will quickly evaporate. Promote learning and development. Many employees desire career advancement for the chance to apply their skills to new projects and learning opportunities, all of which contributes to effective and collaborative relationship building within the company. In fact, companies that encourage mindful risk-taking and learning from mistakes often realize greater innovation and workplace effectiveness. According to the Monster Job Index:80% of professionals don’t think their current employer provides growth opportunities.  54% of employees fear they don’t have the skills they need to thrive in a workforce that emphasizes collaboration using technology.  49% of employees expect their employer to support career growth.Equip every employee with a personal AI coach. Ask Aura, for example, uses assessment insights and AI to help team members work better together. With the HT Coach feature, all you have to do is ask a question (or use the pre-loaded questions) about your colleague, and like magic, you have a response that will help you communicate more effectively with your teammate. Imagine the day-to-day leadership training you could instill while encouraging better connection and collaboration among employees! How Leaders Can Improve Collaboration at Work Set clear goals. Employees are more likely to collaborate with each other when they clearly understand their individual roles and the team goals that everyone is working toward. Well-defined goals give the entire team a sense of shared purpose and can help foster innovation and problem-solving. One clear sign of an effective team is one that can self-assess and identify issues that lead to meaningful improvements over time. Provide team incentives. “The lack of incentives and rewards is the most common and powerful barrier to effective collaboration. Yet, most talent management systems are designed to reward individual achievement, not team accomplishments,” says Kevin Martin, Chief Research Officer, i4cp. “Finding ways to recognize and reward individuals, leaders, and teams who engage in productive collaborative behaviors can pay off in a big way.” Communicate expectations for collaboration. It’s easy to be a cheerleader for collaboration, but without clear direction, it can be challenging for employees to understand what to do. From the start, set your expectation for collaboration as a minimum standard. Even better, it should be part of your onboarding process so that potential recruits know you prioritize teamwork. Employees' job descriptions should include details about their own individual roles, as well as roles they're expected to carry out collaboratively. By differentiating these, you're setting clear boundaries between what they should be taking personal responsibility for, and what they need to work on collectively. Define the company culture. If a company culture is well-designed and supported, it should truly represent the behaviors and actions of employees throughout the organization. Create a slide deck and supporting materials that define the mission, vision, and core values of the company. These points should act as a guiding resource for employees and can be especially powerful when managing communications and challenges. Celebrate wins often. Especially when dealing with long-term or complex projects, it’s not always easy for employees to appreciate the achievements they are making along the way. Teams can benefit from taking time to celebrate wins and milestones together in a formal or informal setting. These celebrations can be small, as any chance to recognize and appreciate effective team collaboration is valuable. If teams are important for your organization, you need to do what you can to facilitate their effectiveness. Make sure open communication exists. Create opportunities for all voices to be heard. Connect with the shared values that unite the team. Effective collaboration is one of the biggest drivers of success in modern organizations. Following these expert tips will help you implement the right processes and technologies to enhance collaboration and incentivize effective collaboration among individuals, teams, and leaders.