{"id":239864,"date":"2026-01-15T18:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/239864\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:42:07","slug":"ai-as-a-life-coach-experts-share-what-works-what-doesnt-and-what-to-look-out-for-well-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/239864\/","title":{"rendered":"AI as a life coach: experts share what works, what doesn\u2019t and what to look out for | Well actually"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re like a lot of people, you\u2019ve probably ditched your new year resolutions by now. Setting goals is hard; keeping them is harder \u2013 and failure can bring about<\/a> icky feelings about yourself.<\/p>\n

This year, in an effort to game the system and tilt the scales toward success, some people<\/a> used<\/a> AI<\/a> for their 2026 resolutions. It\u2019s the latest step in an ongoing trend: in September 2025, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, released findings<\/a> showing that using the AI chatbot for personal guidance is very common.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s interpretation<\/a> of this was that \u201cpeople value ChatGPT most as an adviser rather than only for task completion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just because you can ask AI for life advice, should you? And is there an art to it? Here\u2019s what experts say are the dos and don\u2019ts.<\/p>\n

The pros and cons of chatbot guidance<\/p>\n

AI-driven goal-setting isn\u2019t inherently good or bad, explains Zainab Iftikhar, a Brown University PhD candidate, whose research<\/a> examines artificial intelligence and users\u2019 wellbeing. Artificial intelligence can lower the barrier to self-reflection and be genuinely empowering for some, she explains. For people who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of where to begin, prompts \u201ccan act as a scaffold\u201d for expressing and understanding your ideas, says Iftikhar.<\/p>\n

If the AI has access to information you\u2019ve either shared or asked it to generate, it\u2019s also an efficient tool at synthesizing that information, explains Ziang Xiao, an assistant professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University. The compilation and interpretation of your previous data could help you efficiently organize the thoughts that initiate your goals.<\/p>\n

But there are also drawbacks to using AI for goal-setting, says Iftikhar. Navigating the potential harms can come down to how well you know yourself \u2013 and how well you can navigate bad AI advice.<\/p>\n

The risks of using AI for personal growth<\/p>\n

Because large language models (LLMs), the type of AI that drives these systems, are trained on large-scale human-generated data, they can reproduce assumptions about success, self-improvement and relationships, Iftikhar explains. LLMs are also predominantly trained<\/a> on English text and tend to exhibit a bias<\/a> toward western values.<\/p>\n

AI-suggested goals risk being over-generic, reinforcing \u201cdominant cultural narratives, rather than what is meaningful for a specific individual\u201d, says Iftikhar.<\/p>\n

It can be very difficult to detect this bias. AI chatbots can be persuasive in a way that individuals may have difficulty detecting if they are being nudged toward mismatched goals, says Xiao. These tools may \u201cinappropriately affirm goals that may not actually be a great fit for you\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

Even if you use a chatbot frequently and request that it specifically base its responses on previous conversations, there\u2019s still a chance that the chatbot\u2019s replies will incorporate insights that have nothing to do with the information you\u2019ve already shared, he explains.<\/p>\n

During her research, Iftikhar noticed that the people who are routinely correcting or ignoring bad AI responses are at an advantage in using AI itself. Those who are not, for a variety of reasons, including technical expertise, are \u201cmore likely to suffer from incorrect or harmful responses\u201d, she explains.<\/p>\n

AI can also reflect the bias of the user asking it for guidance. In a 2024 study<\/a>, Xiao and colleagues observed that LLM users were more likely to become trapped in an echo chamber, compared with those who use traditional web searches.<\/p>\n

AI chatbots are designed to make us happy, explains Xiao. In a 2025 paper<\/a> published in the journal npj Digital Medicine, researchers show LLMs often prioritize agreement over accuracy. These tools are typically optimized<\/a> with human feedback that rewards agreeableness and flattery.<\/p>\n

In turn, chatbots engage in sycophancy, or excessive agreement, with users. (In May 2025, OpenAI announced<\/a> it was rolling back an update that made ChatGPT too sycophantic.)<\/p>\n

How to be better at goal-setting with AI<\/p>\n

Iftikhar says it\u2019s worth being wary of tools that skip self-reflection or emotional processing in favor of tidy action plans.<\/p>\n

That said, AI can help brainstorm the actionable goals we want to set for ourselves, says Emily Balcetis, an associate professor of psychology at New York University. She recommends prompting AI to consider what obstacles you might face as you attempt to accomplish these goals, as well as back-up plans you might need.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave it be a collaborator in how you\u2019ll track your progress and monitor performance along the way,\u201d says Balcetis.<\/p>\n

Xiao recommends critically analyzing the chatbot\u2019s responses \u2013 and then giving it feedback. Does this plan actually fit with your life? Is it aligned with your priorities and hopes?<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to give informative, quality feedback to the AI just as you would give feedback to another person,\u201d says Xiao. \u201cThis process will help AI generate a more personable, realistic goal and help you consider the things that you really want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good goal-setting also includes a review of why you haven\u2019t pursued these goals already, explains EJ Masicampo, an associate professor of psychology at Wake Forest University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it feels like we\u2019re failing at a goal, it\u2019s often that we\u2019ve just prioritized the other things we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d says Masicampo. Multiple goals are difficult to juggle, he explains. It can be more productive to examine one ambition and what\u2019s obstructing your motivation to achieve it.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, chatbots may work best as reflective partners, albeit partners that don\u2019t actually care about your success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tools sound very human-like, but by design, they can\u2019t take responsibility for your actions,\u201d says Xiao.<\/p>\n

For better or for worse, that is up to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re like a lot of people, you\u2019ve probably ditched your new year resolutions by now. Setting goals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-239864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}