What personal trainers can offer in the age of AI

By Dr. Francis Quinn, PhD

Now we’re in the age of AI, supposedly we won’t need people anymore because AI can/will do everything. As a psychologist who investigates exercise, it got me thinking what personal trainers can still offer when tech can create an exercise plan, help you set goals, monitor how active you are and even “coach” you through a program. The answer is that only a human relationship with a human PT can offer certain ingredients that promote growth; these work because of what happens in a relationship with a person who knows you, who you trust, in which you have confidence in each other. In my opinion, while AI coaching will expand reach and still transform many lives, it will never be able to offer all that a human PT can.

Throughout much of the mid-20^th century, one of my favourite psychologists ever, Dr. Carl Rogers, argued that personal growth best takes place within a relationship between two people – but a special kind of relationship featuring empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard¹. By cultivating a relationship where a person could become open to new directions in living that they themselves had chosen, healing and personal growth are triggered. That insight is a key foundation of counselling and much psychotherapy, and influenced life coaching and coaching psychology. Personal trainers are all about growth – growing fitness, skills and exercise habits, plus sometimes growing psychological strengths such as confidence as a side effect. To a psychologist like me, that human relationship is the ace the human PT will always have, whether in the year 2025 or the year 3000. Indeed, I think many successful PTs already know this and that’s why many even think of themselves as a “coach”.

Here are just four things that can happen when working with a (skilful) human personal trainer, within a human relationship, to raise up their client in ways it seems unlikely a tech system like a chatbot could ever do. These aren’t even all of them. Of course, not all these will happen in every trainer-client pairing, and might depend on the trainer’s core human skills:

• Borrowing the trainer’s confidence: Confidence in doing an activity (known to psychologists as self-efficacy) is one of the most powerful forces that let us do it well, and make us want to keep doing it. When a coach or other professional is confident that their client can do it, and the client gets the message, that can boost the client’s own self-efficacy. For example, one study² showed that the more a PT had confidence in their client’s abilities, the more the client’s own self-efficacy. PTs could communicate their confidence verbally (e.g. “I think you’re ready for barbell squats”) or through their non-verbal communication, or the goals they set for the client (e.g. “Our goal should be to reach 50kg on three sets of barbell squats of ten reps twice a week”). Two researchers, Lent and Lopez, referred to this as RISE (relationship-inferred self-efficacy). And if the PT does not have that confidence in their client, maybe they will if they make the exercise easier and build up slowly.
• Client developing an inner coach: When I was a PhD research student, you work with two or more mentors known in the UK as a supervisor. Over time and numerous meetings with them, I learned key points to focus on in the psychology work I was doing that I found coming to mind, often in their voice, as I worked. And when I trained at Body Pump class twice a week, the instructor emphasised good posture (“Remember, we’re training for good posture”) and that became part of my self-talk when exercising. The same can happen with a trainer and client; when the trainer emphasises aspects of form/technique, or how to set effective goals, or how to be compassionate to yourself, or listen to the signals your body is giving about when to work harder or rest, the client can develop an inner PT that they use on their own and take into their future exercise life. I’d argue this is more likely when the trainer-client relationship is strong.
• Accountability: When I exercised most, it was when a friend would message me daily asking if I had worked out. Among the many activities and goals we have in life, the priority for an extra like exercise can slip down the list in importance. While this could be provided by a friend (but like my friend who stopped messaging about it, how long can they do it?), knowing you have an upcoming session scheduled with a PT, who will feel disappointed in you that you didn’t do any exercise all week, can keep the importance of exercise higher in the rankings of life’s activities than it otherwise might, with all the many things that come at us in daily living. One study showed that online coaching from a PT with cancer survivors as clients provided structure and accountability that helped them keep active.³
• Infectious passion: We know from research that passion for an activity helps keep it up over time, better overcoming setbacks, as well as drawing great pleasure and personal growth from it. Research has shown that passion for an activity can be transferred, such as from a teacher to a student, or from an entrepreneur to their employees⁴. Authentic passion for exercise is something I’ve noticed in most of the personal trainers I’ve met. Research suggests transfer of passion happens via a process called emotional contagion. When a trainer is living that passion for their work, and it is spilling out of them around clients, there is a good chance clients will pick up on that good feeling about exercise they get, and they in turn will start to feel good about exercising and pushing their fitness higher. It might then become their passion too.

What this means is that the real advantages of working with a human PT in the age of AI aren’t about getting an exercise programme, no matter how tailored, nor about teaching exercises, nor about nutritional education. Instead, it’s all about the relationship and skilful coaching. To do this well, it takes those core human skills of building a relationship, valuing a person no matter how different from you or how much they are struggling, having faith in your client, and being the living embodiment of your passion for exercise and personal growth. I believe the best trainers are good at these core skills, as well as the knowing how to do the work and demonstrating they can by showing a high level of fitness. And by the way, even if a PT was never taught them, these core human skills are ones that anyone can develop (that’s a future post) – it starts with wanting to.

References for further reading

1. Rogers, C. R. (1980). A Way of Being. Houghton Mifflin.
2.  Hill, C. R., Smith, A. L., Myers, N. D., & Feltz, D. L. (2022). Tripartite efficacy and behavior of clients working with a personal trainer. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 34(4), 846–861. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2021.1894507
3. Gilal, F. G., Channa, N. A., Gilal, N. G., Gilal, R. G., & Shah, S. M. M. (2019). Association between a teacher’s work passion and a student’s work passion: a moderated mediation model. Psychology research and behavior management, 12, 889–900. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S212004
4. Weemaes, A. T. R., Sieben, J. M., Beelen, M., Mulder, L. T. M. A., & Lenssen, A. F. (2025). Determinants of physical activity maintenance and the acceptability of a remote coaching intervention following supervised exercise oncology rehabilitation: a qualitative study. Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice, 19(1), 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01455-5