AI and the Human Coach: Presence, Ethics, and What’s Next

Join ICF High Country for an afternoon of connection, conversation, and learning as we explore one of the most important emerging topics in coaching: artificial intelligence.

We’ll begin with our regular 30 minutes of connection, networking, and chapter updates, giving members and guests time to reconnect, meet other coaches, and hear what’s happening in the chapter.

Then we’ll shift into an interactive fireside conversation with Susan Caesar, Director of Artificial Intelligence at the International Coaching Federation.

AI is rapidly changing the coaching landscape—but what does that mean for the human coach?

Susan will help us explore how coaches can thoughtfully and responsibly engage with AI while keeping the client, the coaching relationship, and human connection at the center. We’ll discuss how AI can support coaches in becoming more present and effective with clients, where technology can add meaningful value, and where distinctly human judgment and connection remain essential.

We’ll also explore important ethical considerations as AI becomes increasingly integrated into coaching, including confidentiality, consent, privacy, bias, transparency, and client agency.

The second half of the conversation will open to attendee questions, creating space to explore the topics you’re most curious about—whether that’s practical applications, ethics, emerging trends, or the evolving role of AI in professional coaching.

This is not a session about mastering the latest AI tool. It’s a conversation about how we navigate what’s next thoughtfully, ethically, and in service of our clients.

Program Schedule

12:00–12:30 PM MT — Connection, networking, and chapter updates

12:30–1:30 PM MT — Fireside conversation with Susan Caesar

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

• Identify ways AI can support coach effectiveness and presence while maintaining the human relationship and client-centered nature of coaching.

• Recognize key ethical considerations when incorporating AI into coaching, including confidentiality, informed consent, privacy, bias, transparency, data use, and client agency.

• Evaluate where AI can appropriately augment a coach’s work—and where professional judgment, presence, and human connection should remain central.

• Consider emerging applications and implications of AI for professional coaching and identify questions or practices they want to explore further in their own work.

Attendance at this program earns you 0.5 Core and 1.0 RD CCEUs.

Susan Caesar is a strategist, storyteller, and systems leader working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human development, and the living world. She serves as the Director of Artificial Intelligence at the International Coaching Federation (ICF), where she leads the responsible integration of AI across a global community of more than 60,000 coaches. Susan guides ICF’s AI strategy for 2026 and beyond, ensuring that emerging technologies strengthen human capability, elevate professional standards, and uphold the dignity, agency, and wellbeing of people worldwide.

Susan is also the Founder of humain.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit advancing life-centered leadership and innovation. Her work at humain.org champions two core commitments: women leading with life and innovation that regenerates the natural world. Through applied research, thought leadership, and cross-sector partnerships spanning technology and conservation, she is helping to redefine progress in service of both humanity and the planet.

She hosts two podcast shows one for coaches and another for leaders featuring global voices who are reimagining how technology, nature, and society can flourish together. As a writer and speaker, Susan explores ethical innovation, regenerative futures, and the cultural transformations needed to usher in a truly life-centered era.

In addition, Susan is the co-founder of the Lead With Purpose movement, created with Donna Potts McKenzie, which delivers leadership programs for community colleges (including Harper College) and future-of-work pathways for organizations navigating rapid transformation. Across her work in strategy, storytelling, and systems change, Susan’s purpose is clear: to help people, organizations, and technologies lead with wisdom, so that human potential, innovation, and the living planet can thrive together.