As educators and coaches working with young people, we stand at a pivotal moment in history. The AI revolution is transforming how we learn, work, and connect—and our role as caring adults has never been more crucial. This guide will help you understand AI’s impact on youth and equip you with the knowledge to lead confidently in this new landscape.
Many of the young people we serve are already using AI daily. Are we prepared to guide them? Let’s explore how coaches can not only adapt to this change but become essential leaders in helping youth navigate an AI-enabled future.
Artificial Intelligence represents “a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with the environment, problem-solving, and even exercising creativity” (McKinsey & Company, 2024, para. 4). But for coaches, what matters most is understanding how AI affects the young people we serve.
Recent research reveals striking patterns in youth AI usage:
Educational Integration is Widespread
According to Quizlet’s 2025 How America Learns report, 85% of students and teachers now use AI, with 89% of students incorporating it into schoolwork. They’re using AI primarily for summarizing information (56%), research (46%), and generating study materials (45%).
Adoption Varies by Demographics
The Pew Research Center found that ChatGPT usage for schoolwork has doubled from 13% to 26% among teens in just one year between 2023-2024 (Sidoti, Park, & Gottfried, 2025). However, this growth isn’t uniform—31% of Black and Hispanic teens used ChatGPT for schoolwork compared to 22% of White teens, and usage increases with grade level and household income.
Social Connection Concerns Emerge
Perhaps most concerning for coaches and parents, the recent Common Sense Media (2025) Talk, Trust, and Trade-offs report indicates that 72% of teens have used AI companions, with 33% using them for social interaction. While 67% find AI conversations less satisfying than human interactions, 10% find them more satisfying.
These statistics illuminate a critical truth: Young people are actively engaging with AI technology, but they need guidance on using it safely and effectively while maintaining essential human connections.
Here’s where your role becomes irreplaceable. Despite AI’s advancing capabilities, humans are social creatures. Social connection is a basic health need—socially connected people live longer, healthier lives than the socially isolated.
AI cannot replace the human attunement, relatedness, belonging, or sense of mattering that directly impacts young people’s biological and psychological health. While AI can process information and provide responses, it cannot offer the genuine empathy, understanding, and emotional resonance that come from human connection.
Think of this transition like the advent of the internet. Just as the internet transformed how we access information without eliminating our need for teachers and mentors, AI will enhance our capabilities while making human guidance more valuable than ever.
To guide young people effectively, we must first understand AI basics ourselves. Let’s break down the key concepts:
Traditional AI handles specific, rule-based tasks like Netflix recommendations or email spam filters.
Predictive AI analyzes historical data to forecast future outcomes, helping with everything from weather predictions to academic performance trends.
Conversational AI powers communication between humans and machines, enabling chatbots and virtual assistants.
Generative AI creates new content and learns from human guidance—this is what students primarily interact with through tools like ChatGPT.
AI systems require large amounts of data to learn effectively. Large Language Models process billions of pages of text, while Multimodal Models handle text, images, audio, and video. The quality of input directly affects output quality—a principle that applies both to the data used to train AI and the prompts users provide.
Importantly, AI outputs are based on probability patterns, not true awareness or understanding. This is why human oversight remains essential.
Developing AI literacy involves understanding how to work with AI tools effectively while maintaining critical thinking. Here are essential skills to develop:
Learning to communicate effectively with AI requires similar skills to effective coaching—asking clear, specific questions and providing appropriate context. Basic prompting principles include:
AI can “hallucinate”—produce confident-sounding but inaccurate information. Coaches must model and promote critical evaluation skills, including:
AI offers numerous opportunities to enhance coaching effectiveness while maintaining the human-centered approach that defines quality social support.
Use AI to quickly identify evidence-based strategies for specific challenges your clients face. Tools like SciSpace can search databases of scholarly research and generate literature reviews, helping you find relevant interventions efficiently.
AI can assist with creating educational materials, writing prompts, or discussion guides tailored to your students’ needs. However, your expertise in understanding youth development and individual needs remains crucial for ensuring appropriateness and effectiveness.
AI can help with task automation, scheduling, note organization, and other administrative functions, freeing more time for direct client interaction and relationship building.
While embracing AI’s benefits, coaches must also address its risks thoughtfully:
Help students understand appropriate AI use in different contexts. While 54% of teens believe using AI to research new topics is acceptable, only 18% think it’s appropriate for essay writing (Sidoti, Park, & Gottfried, 2025). These decisions require awareness of how to find a school’s AI policies and operate within them.
Research shows that anxiety and depression can predict AI dependence, not the reverse (Huang et al., 2024). This highlights the importance of addressing underlying mental health needs while teaching balanced AI use.
AI systems can inherit human biases from their training data, leading to the unfair treatment of certain groups. To address this, it’s essential for humans to critically evaluate AI outputs and apply sound judgment when making important decisions.
The World Economic Forum’s (2025) Future of Jobs report identifies core skills for 2030 that align perfectly with coaching competencies: analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership, social influence, curiosity, lifelong learning, and systems thinking.
These skills cannot be replicated by AI—they require human wisdom, emotional intelligence, and the ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics. Your role as a coach becomes more valuable, not less, as AI handles routine information processing tasks.
Complete our AI Literacy for Coaches lesson for a primer on AI and how to use it as a tool for coaching.
Consider pursuing formal AI literacy training through programs like:
These programs can help you stay current with AI developments while maintaining your focus on human-centered coaching principles.
The AI revolution presents both opportunities and responsibilities for coaches. Here’s how to move forward effectively:
Start Small and Learn Continuously
Begin by experimenting with one AI tool that addresses a specific need in your coaching practice. Focus on learning how to use it effectively while maintaining your coaching standards.
Model Critical Thinking
Show your clients or students how to evaluate AI-generated content critically. Demonstrate the process of fact-checking, source verification, and thoughtful analysis.
Prioritize Human Connection
Remember that your greatest value lies in your ability to form genuine relationships, provide emotional support, and offer the kind of nuanced guidance that comes from lived experience and professional training.
Stay Informed About Youth AI Use
Keep learning about how young people use AI, both productively and problematically. This knowledge will help you guide them more effectively.
As AI continues to evolve, the most successful coaches will be those who learn to work alongside these tools while never losing sight of their core mission: nurturing young people’s growth, resilience, and potential. Your expertise in human development, emotional intelligence, and relationship building becomes more precious, not less, in an AI-enhanced world.
The young people we serve need coaches who understand both the possibilities and pitfalls of AI technology. They need guides who can help them use these powerful tools responsibly while developing the uniquely human capabilities that no machine can replicate.
Your role in shaping the next generation’s relationship with AI—and with each other—has never been more important. By developing AI literacy while maintaining your commitment to human-centered coaching, you’ll be prepared to lead young people confidently into their AI-enabled future.
