What Does the Future of Coaching Businesses Look Like?
AI is coming for your job. It’s coming for all of ours.
We’ve all heard it — from our dad over dinner, from work colleagues, or maybe just from that little voice in our head. And I’ll admit, it’s something I’ve thought about too — not just as a marketer, but also with my coaching hat on.
I turned 31 recently, which of course meant I obviously took up running. Like most of us, I need structure, so I subscribed to Runna. For the price of a few coffees a month, I entered my 5K time, goal, target race date, and weekly training availability. Seconds later, I had a plan. You could debate the quality, but I’ve taken 7 minutes off my 5K and after struggling to even run a 10km in an hour, just yesterday I ran a 48:02 — using that same AI-generated program. For most consumers, that’s good enough.
Which got me thinking — how long before this level of automation shows up everywhere in fitness and performance? When AI is able to pull live data from our Whoops and Stravas, digest the latest research in seconds, and generate a fully personalised strength and conditioning plan that adapts in real time, how far off is that, really?
Based on current projections, not far at all. The global AI personal trainer market is already worth over $14 billion, and is expected to more than double by 2030. And it’s not just investors getting excited. Around 70% of fitness app users now prefer AI‑generated workouts, and nearly half of coaches are already using AI tools in some form — whether for planning, tracking, or client feedback. In the UK alone, the AI fitness sector is forecast to hit £1.9 billion by next year, and 60% of gym-goers say they’re open to using AI-powered tools in their training.
Strava recently acquired Runna, and the combination of the two allows for a even higher level of ‘coaching’ personalisation
The go-to counterpoint is that coaching still needs a human touch — that clients want that interaction, that relationship, that intuition that doesn’t show up on a dashboard. But do they? Or is that just what we like to believe?
At PerformX a few years ago, I heard Steven Bartlett say: “Every year from now on will be the equivalent of the last 40 in terms of innovation.”
It’s happening. And coaching businesses — especially online — risk becoming redundant if they don’t adapt.
From a growth perspective, this is the point where positioning, brand, and customer experience matter more than ever.
Yes, product is still essential. But commoditisation is accelerating — the “what” you offer is becoming less unique by the day. From a marketing lens, the key lever now is differentiation. And not the kind that sits on a slide deck. The kind that people can feel instantly when they hit your landing page, watch your video, or scroll your feed.
Your brand is now your moat — and your top-of-funnel is your battlefield.
Personal branding gets thrown around a lot, but it has to go beyond storytelling. It needs to operate as a full-funnel asset: attracting attention, converting interest, and compounding over time. Your audience is overloaded with choice, and AI is making the product layer flatter. That means the only true edge left is you — your tone, your worldview, your experience, your ability to build trust at scale.
As high-quality programming becomes a commodity, the top of your funnel becomes less about educating and more about resonating. The shift is from “value first” to “person first.” People don’t just want knowledge anymore. They want perspective. And they’ll choose the coach, founder, or business that they relate to over the one that’s simply more informative.
The new growth stack looks different:-
Top of funnel: personality, distribution, emotional connection.
Mid funnel: proof, positioning, unique frameworks.
Bottom funnel: results, community, systems that drive LTV.
I think slowly but surely, the old playbook of hyper-educational content is losing its edge. If you want reach and revenue, you have to build a marketing strategy where your human identity isn’t just present — it’s foundational.
You are different. Your product? Maybe not — and definitely not in 12 months’ time.
Sell yourself. Build a marketing engine around your edge. Because in a world where AI is scaling sameness, the only thing that still converts is what can’t be copied.
