Human vs. AI Coaching: Lessons From the Front Lines of Sales Enablement
I’ve spent years coaching sales teams, but it wasn’t until I stepped into a neuroscience study that I saw— literally on a brain scan— how people respond differently to human and artificial intelligence (AI) feedback. The research, conducted by Allego with neuroscientist Dr. Carmen Simon, compared how sales professionals retained and reacted to coaching delivered by managers versus coaching delivered by AI.
The results were surprising. Sellers said they felt more motivated, trusting, and emotionally connected to human coaches. But when it came to remembering what they learned, they retained more feedback from AI.
That paradox— humans inspire us, while AI helps us remember— revealed something deeper about how the brain processes emotion and information. And it raised a new question for sales leaders: how do we balance the empathy and trust of human coaching with the consistency and precision of AI?
Inside the Experiment: What Neuroscience Reveals About Learning and Feedback
In simple terms, the study measured two key things: emotional engagement and cognitive retention. When participants received feedback from a human coach, brain regions tied to emotion and social connection lit up—specifically those associated with dopamine and oxytocin, the chemicals linked to motivation, trust, and belonging. Neuroscience research from Harvard Business Review confirms that empathetic feedback activates these same reward systems, driving energy and confidence.
However, those emotions come with a tradeoff. When we’re emotionally engaged, our limbic system dominates, which is great for motivation but not always for memory encoding. The brain tends to remember the feeling of the moment more vividly than the specific instructions we were given.
By contrast, AI feedback triggered less emotional response but higher activity in regions tied to focus and memory—the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, which manage data processing and recall. This aligns with academic studies showing that emotionally neutral information is often retained longer because it’s processed analytically rather than emotionally.
As a coach, I noticed something similar in real life. While AI could provide more direct and consistent feedback, human connection impacted how that feedback landed. People listened longer, asked more questions, and opened up more. But they also sometimes forgot the specifics days later.
Bridging Brain Science and Sales Enablement
What does all this mean for sales enablement and sales leaders? It reinforces that memory retention doesn’t equal performance improvement, and motivation doesn’t always guarantee recall.
AI feedback helps people remember what to do, but human coaching helps them want to do it. Both are necessary for sustained behavior change.
When I coach sellers, I often tell teams, “People don’t change because they’re told what to do. They change because they feel supported and understood.” The science backs this up: emotionally intelligent coaching strengthens commitment and resilience, while structured repetition from AI reinforces accuracy and consistency.
This duality is at the heart of modern sales enablement. As organizations adopt tools like conversation intelligence software, AI role play, and AI-driven learning systems, they’re discovering that data alone doesn’t transform behavior. It’s the interpretation of that data through human empathy that drives improvement.
According to McKinsey & Company, generative AI can dramatically improve sales productivity, but only when paired with human coaching that contextualizes and personalizes insights. Without empathy and context, feedback risks becoming sterile and unmotivating.
Redefining Sales Coaching: Balancing Efficiency and Empathy
The real challenge isn’t choosing between AI and human feedback—it’s integrating them. The most effective sales organizations are creating hybrid coaching models that merge efficiency with empathy.
Here are a few emerging best practices from the field:
- Pair AI insights with human interpretation. Use conversation intelligence to identify performance trends, then have managers coach through the why behind those trends.
- Automate consistency, not connection. Let AI handle repetition, such as reinforcement exercises or skill assessments, while humans handle nuance and emotional cues.
- Train the trainers. Teach human coaches to use AI findings as a guide, not a replacement. The most successful leaders focus on empathy-driven dialogue, not data dumps.
After seeing the neuroscience research firsthand, I’ve refined my own approach. I use AI analytics to pinpoint exactly what to coach, but I make sure the coaching conversation is fully human. That means listening, empathizing, and adapting the message to how someone feels, not just what the numbers say.
This philosophy reflects a broader shift in sales enablement: AI’s role is to inform and scale, while human leadership drives connection and culture. It’s about turning artificial intelligence into authentic intelligence.
The Future of Learning in Sales: From Artificial to Authentic Intelligence
Looking ahead, the intersection of neuroscience and AI is redefining how organizations approach learning and performance. The next frontier isn’t replacing human coaches. Rather, it’s enhancing them through data-driven empathy.
As AI becomes more embedded in sales workflows, the leaders who succeed will be those who pair data-driven insights with empathy-driven coaching. Research from MITRE-Harris shows that employees still crave fairness, transparency, and human understanding in how AI is applied. That means the role of the manager becomes even more important—not as the sole source of feedback, but as the interpreter and accelerator of it.
If AI helps us remember what to do and humans help us care enough to do it, then the future of coaching lies in combining emotional intelligence with machine intelligence. The neuroscience is clear: people change behavior when their minds are focused and their hearts are engaged. The opportunity for sales enablement is to design coaching systems that do both, reminding the brain while inspiring the person.
David Ashe is senior director of global sales development at Allego. In this role, he oversees a sales team responsible for growing the company’s customer base, revenue, and profitability. Learn more about David on LinkedIn.
