This is a copy of the newsletter that was sent out on November 14th, 2025.
People have been asking me this question more often lately. It makes sense. You see a chatbot that can hold a conversation, give advice, and sound empathetic, and you start to wonder if this is what clients will choose instead of you. It costs less, it is always available, and it never gets worn out. The comparison seems unfair until you look at what real therapy or coaching actually requires.
Will AI put you out of a job? No. But it’s important to understand why.
AI doesn’t work like a human mind. It doesn’t learn from experience or attunement. It’s trained on text from the internet, on billions of examples of how people write, argue, explain, and comfort each other. What it knows is language, not life. It has never seen a client hesitate before answering a difficult question. It has never felt a person’s breathing change in the middle of recalling a memory. It can’t sense when the other person’s words and tone of voice do not match. These are not things a language model, large as it may be, could ever understand.
AI also rates its success by how satisfied the user feels. If you tell it you’re making a decision that isn’t good for you, it will often agree. Not because it believes you are right, but because it is built to please. The longer you stay in conversation, the better it considers its performance. So it adapts to your logic, mirrors your language, and validates you, even when you are wrong, even when your proposed ideas are harmful to your future. The machine does not challenge you. It cannot take the risk of losing your approval.
A good therapist or coach does something different, something real. We listen for what you do not, or cannot, say. We notice when your words and your expression do not match. We intervene when your reasoning hides pain or self-deception. We care enough to let you feel uncomfortable while offering the safety that allows you to face it. That is where growth begins. Therapy and coaching are not meant to be agreeable; they are meant to be transformative. The right kind of discomfort clears confusion and brings the mind back into balance. What we do, and what AI will never replicate, is help you reset your nervous system.
An AI can simulate understanding but not genuine human engagement. It can repeat your thoughts but not hold you accountable for them. It can reflect your values but cannot care whether you live by them. And it will never confront you when you betray your principles. In fact, it will praise you for it, because pleasing you is how it measures success.
There’s another problem.
The safety systems in AI are designed to prevent harm in a general way, not to help you grow. If you say you feel anxious or lost, it will try to comfort you or change the topic. It avoids depth because depth can appear unsafe. However, the moments that truly bring about change are those that challenge your beliefs and cause your defenses to crumble. Those moments are precisely what AI is programmed to steer away from.
AI can help you find a recipe for dinner or compare flight prices, but it cannot help you heal from childhood trauma or move past an insecurity. Your work as a therapist or coach is not at risk. If anything, it matters more now.
The world is filled with simulated connection and easy reassurance. People are craving the opposite: a real human presence, someone who listens without pretense and responds with genuine curiosity. They need someone who can walk with them through the mental hell they have fallen into and help them find solid ground again. That kind of work cannot happen via code or pixels on a screen.
Technology can help with organization, transcription, remote communication, or planning, but it cannot replace what happens between two people. It cannot build rapport; it can only imitate it for a short time. It cannot hold the tension between support and challenge or sense when a word might do more harm than good. A chatbot may sound like a friend, but it will never offer your client a shoulder to lean on.
AI might imitate you, and it might even borrow your words. But it can’t copy your timing, empathy, or courage to speak the truth when it matters.
Authenticity and intuition belong exclusively to humans. They stem from personal experiences and the ability to genuinely comprehend another person’s emotions and respond with heartfelt sincerity. No system, regardless of how advanced or data-rich, can replicate the instinct that senses when someone is ready to confront what they have been avoiding.
Forget the noise and fearmongering. Ignore the hype. Let others argue and waste their time. Erickson once said, “Each person is a unique individual. Hence, psychotherapy should be formulated to meet the uniqueness of the individual’s needs.” No machine can do that. This unique ability is what makes your work truly irreplaceable.
I hope that’s helpful.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Shlomo Vaknin, C.Ht