The Coaching Crisis: Why Your AI Strategy Depends on People Who Can Teach, Not Just Do

Your AI strategy might look good on paper. But who is actually ready to lead it?

In boardrooms around the world, AI strategies are being signed off, budgets approved, and pilots deployed. But behind the glossy roadmaps and high-stakes investment is a quieter issue that could derail it all: too few people can teach others how to use data.

Our 2025 Global Data Literacy Benchmark found that only 13% of the workforce qualifies as a "Coach": someone with the skills to guide and support others in working with data. Amongst managers, that number reaches 22%, but even that leaves a critical gap when AI readiness is meant to scale across entire organizations.

If your AI strategy rests on a foundation of confident doers but not capable teachers, you may be building brittle, short-term capability that can't scale or sustain.

What Is a "Coach," and Why Does It Matter?

The Databilities® framework defines Coaches as individuals who are not only competent in data skills but can also teach, support, and guide others in those skills.

In an AI-enabled world, that matters more than ever.

Coaches are the ones who validate and explain AI outputs to others, spot flaws before they scale, embed good practices into culture rather than just process, and build team-wide trust in data and systems.

Yet in 2025, the "Curious" cohort (those who still need direction) makes up 37% of the workforce, and in key competencies like data governance, data culture, and AI validation, Coaches remain the minority.

This isn't just a training issue. It's a leadership gap.

You Can't Scale AI Without Scaling Human Oversight

Too often, AI readiness is reduced to system deployment: Have we rolled out the tool? Is it integrated into workflows? Are people using it?

But true readiness isn't about usage. It's about oversight.

Oversight doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in teams through conversations, mentoring, questions asked, and answers shared. And that takes Coaches.

Without them, AI outputs go unchallenged. Biases go undetected. Cultural adoption stalls. And frontline staff, those closest to real-world implementation, remain stuck in the Curious tier - unsure how to interpret or question what AI delivers.

The Four Critical Gaps

When we examined what true AI readiness requires, the numbers became concerning:

• Governance Foundation: Only 7% can coach others across data governance, ethics, and culture simultaneously.

• Oversight Capability: Just 11% can lead others in evaluating data quality and assessing AI-driven decisions.

• Problem Solving Integration: Only 11% can guide others in identifying problems and making data-driven decisions.

• Insight Translation: A mere 12% can coach others in interpreting data and presenting findings.

  
  

These aren't abstract competencies. They're the human safeguards that stand between AI outputs and real-world decisions affecting millions of people.

How to Spot — and Grow — Your Coaches

The Coaching cohort is growing. It rose from 11% to 13% this year. But we need to accelerate that trend.

Start by asking: Who in your organization is not just good with data, but good at explaining it? Who gets asked for help by others? Who leads by example when it comes to ethical data use and sound interpretation?

Then invest in their development, not just technically, but as internal mentors. Create space for them to teach, whether through formal roles or informal team structures. Track progress using a structured framework like Databilities® to map and grow coaching capability over time.

From Confidence to Coaching: The Real Mark of Readiness

Confidence with data is not enough. In fact, it may create a false sense of security, leading organizations to believe they're ready for AI when they're simply equipped to use dashboards, not govern decisions.

AI doesn't just need competent users. It needs coaches, challengers, validators, and translators: people who can turn machine output into meaningful, ethical, human-led decisions.

If your AI strategy doesn't include a plan to grow your internal Coaches, it's time to rewrite it.