307: In Whose Service? Duty of Care in an AI-Augmented Coaching World with Dr Benita Mayhead

In the second episode of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, Smaranda Dochia talks with Dr Benita Mayhead, an executive coach, coach supervisor, researcher, and author of Duty of Care in Coaching, whose empirical research moves duty of care out of the realm of abstract codes and into the lived reality of practice: how coaches actually make decisions, hold ambiguity, set boundaries, use supervision, and account for the wider system around them. Benita's research found that most coaches' understanding of duty of care doesn't come primarily from formal training. It's shaped by personal values, life experience, and professional background, and by the sense-making that happens when practice gets genuinely uncertain. Codes, law, and standards offer necessary scaffolding, but they can't make the hard call for you; when a real dilemma arises, coaches tend to reach for another person - a peer, colleague, or supervisor - rather than a rulebook.

The conversation traces how duty of care plays out across the whole coaching relationship: in contracting and re-contracting, boundary-setting, endings, reflective practice, and supervision, as well as in the ripple effect coaching has on people the coach may never meet. Ethical maturity, Benita argues, is an ongoing capacity to sit with silence, ambiguity, notice when values collide, question your own motives, say no when needed, and actively seek challenge rather than certainty.

They also discuss AI's growing presence in coaching, where Benita neither dismisses AI nor treats its adoption as inevitable. Clients may arrive with AI-generated interpretations already in hand, use general-purpose tools between sessions, or take part in AI-enabled organizational programmes, while coaches and supervisors themselves increasingly use AI for preparation, reflection, or documentation. Benita asks the profession to engage with this critically and collectively, in service of the client rather than in step with the technology by default. Her question: in whose service is this? - becomes the ethical test for the rest of the series, reframing the conversation from "can we use AI?" to why it's being used, who benefits, and who remains accountable. Fluency with a tool, she makes clear, does not remove the need for human judgment or responsibility.

You will learn:

· Duty of care is a foundational concept in coaching, but its meaning extends far beyond legal definitions. Benita's research reveals that, for most coaches, duty of care is not just about contracts or compliance—it's about lived experience, personal values, and the impact of every interaction. · The coach has the responsibility to be informed and develop understanding of AI, even if they don't use it in their practice, because their client may be. · AI shifts the central question from "can we?" to "in whose service?" Whether a client brings AI-generated insights into a session or a coach uses AI for their own preparation, the technology introduces new actors, unclear permissions, and new routes to foreseeable harm.

'If we are taking a position of no I'm not going to enter into any AI understanding and awareness. I think that we're perhaps missing something within there because our clients are. So, I think there's a responsibility - even if we're not using it in our own practice, to build our own awareness and understanding.'

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content.

For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-duty-of-care-supervision