Everyone in coaching is braced for AI to come and take the work. Almost nobody has opened the door.

That's the number buried inside the 2025 ICF Global Coaching Study, which drew responses from over 10,000 practitioners across 127 countries. The study's own figures: 54% of coaches globally see improved coaching platforms and technology-driven solutions as a priority for meeting future client demands, while 6% report using AI-powered coaching tools or chatbots at present.

Fifty-four says it matters. Six has done something about it.

The rest of the gap

It doesn't stop at AI. Just 19% of coaches reported investing in new technology, including AI, over the past year, and more than half — 53% — say digital platforms have not been implemented into their services. Across the profession, 47% use digital coaching platforms as part of their services at all.

Immersive tech is barely a rounding error. Five percent of coaches use virtual reality and 2% use augmented reality.

This is not an industry being disrupted at speed. It's an industry standing at the edge of the pool, checking the temperature, for the third year running.

Meanwhile, business is good

The timing is what makes it strange. The global coaching industry generated an estimated $5.34 billion in revenue over the past year, a 17% increase on 2023, and the number of coach practitioners rose 13% to 122,974, with around 90% actively serving clients.

Growth is coming from everywhere except the places coaches usually look. The Middle East and Africa reports 72% growth in client numbers, Latin America and the Caribbean 65%, Asia 63%, Eastern Europe 62%.

So the money is arriving without the tooling. Which raises the obvious question of what happens when some coaches have both.

Why the gap is this wide

Anxiety is part of it. Thirty-seven percent of coaches named adapting to technology and digital tools as a major concern over the next 12 months, and 16% specifically flagged their own inability to use new technology effectively.

Cost is the other part. One analysis of the same dataset notes that a top-tier AI subscription runs roughly $2,400 a year against an average annual coach revenue of $49,283 — close to 5% of gross in a solo practice, which turns it into a capital decision rather than an impulse buy.

ICF's position is that this is a training problem. CEO Magdalena Nowicka Mook said in the study's announcement: "Education is vital to help coaches understand how AI can support them in attracting new clients, retain existing ones and grow their brand effectively." The organization is taking the theme to its flagship conference — ICF Converge 2026 runs October 28–30 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., ten days from now.

The read for your practice

Intent is projected to move. The 19% who invested last year is forecast to reach 27% over the next one to three years. That still leaves roughly three-quarters of the profession sitting it out.

If you have been quietly assuming your competitors are already running AI intake notes, automated follow-up, session summaries and a matching engine — the data says they almost certainly are not. The adoption floor here is so low that doing one thing competently is a differentiator.

The window for that is the part nobody can price.