The Silent Partner: How AI Coaching Tools Help Support Leadership in Performance Conversations

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved quickly from a theoretical prospect to a working tool across financial services, where it increasingly shapes how leaders make decisions and engage their teams. This Dissertation in Practice examines how business leaders engage with and perceive an AI coaching tool, grounded in transformational leadership principles, as they prepare for and conduct employee performance conversations. The purpose of this study is to explore how leaders perceive, interact with, and consider applying such a tool in developmental, employee-centered conversations. The aim is to inform leadership practitioners and human resources professionals as AI coaching tools enter leadership development, rather than to prescribe a solution. The project is informed by literature on transformational leadership, the limits of traditional leadership development, and the emerging use of AI in coaching and performance management. A qualitative pre/post-intervention design is used to examine how mid- and senior-level leaders at a large U.S. financial institution engage with a custom generative AI coaching tool configured around the four dimensions of transformational leadership. Data are drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted before and after an engagement period and are analyzed using a hybrid deductive-inductive thematic analysis. The DIP has three components: a proposal grounded in relevant literature, a submission-ready manuscript reporting the empirical study, and a practitioner recommendation plan informed by the study. The document concludes with a reflection and the development of a leadership philosophy.Keywords: transformational leadership, AI coaching, performance conversations, leadership development, financial services