We’re not going back to the old way of working.

Even in industries pushing for more in-office time, few professionals want to and are returning five days a week. According to Gallup, nearly 60% of remote-capable employees prefer a hybrid arrangement, and only 20% say they want to be fully on-site. For knowledge workers, flexibility is no longer a perk; it’s more so an expectation.

But that shift has a cost. With fewer face-to-face interactions, we’ve lost the organic face-to-face moments that build trust, enable learning, and foster team connection.

As Tom Keenan, Co-Founder of Relate, shared:

“So much of my early career learning came from being in the room - hearing how people spoke, how they handled meetings, how they presented themselves. That kind of ambient learning is nearly gone in remote work.”

And when those subtle learning opportunities disappear, so does something more profound: our ability to coach, connect, and grow as teams.

Coaching was never easy, even when you could grab a coffee and talk through challenges in person. In hybrid and remote settings, it’s significantly harder. Managers often feel disconnected from their team’s day-to-day realities, while employees, especially younger professionals, can feel unseen or adrift.

“The go-to answer has always been that they need to come into the office more,” says Keenan. “But that’s not happening. So how do we fill the gap?”

The old model of learning through osmosis simply doesn’t work when everyone’s on Zoom. If we’re going to help employees grow in a hybrid world, we need a new model of coaching, one that’s continuous, objective, and embedded into the places where people are.

That’s where AI analysis and coaching tools come in.

The Rise of AI Coaching Tools in Hybrid Work

At its core, coaching is about feedback. But in remote environments, feedback is often vague, delayed, biased, or absent altogether.

This creates what Keenan calls a feedback desert, especially for rising talent who haven’t yet built the confidence or relationships to seek it out. And when feedback does happen, it’s often perception-based, riddled with unconscious bias, and filtered through poor memory.

Relate’s AI analyst and communication coach, Sandi, is designed to step in where traditional coaching struggles. It provides behavioral feedback after every meeting focused not on just what was said, but how it was delivered.

That means surfacing signals like:

• Are you actively listening?
• Are you building clarity or causing confusion?
• Do you follow through on commitments?
• Are you creating space for others to contribute?

These are the behaviors that build or erode trust in a meeting. And until recently, they were invisible. Now, AI makes them measurable and actionable.

“AI gives us the ability to create a feedback loop around the skills that matter most and the ones that remote work tends to suppress,” Keenan explains. “It’s not replacing coaching. It’s unlocking it.”

Today’s managers face a paradox. You’re expected to coach your team, drive performance, and support well-being, yet you might not even see your team members in person more than once a month.

That distance creates blind spots. Without the benefit of in-person cues, managers often miss early signs of disengagement, burnout, or misalignment. And performance reviews become disconnected from the reality of how people show up day to day.

AI analysis and coaching tools like Relate offer a solution: a behavioral data thread across meetings. This gives managers new visibility into:

• How often are employees contributing
• Whether they’re building clarity or confusion
• Signs of rising engagement or subtle withdrawal
• Trends in trust-building behaviors over time

Importantly, this isn’t about surveillance, it’s about support. It enables managers to lead with more empathy, objectivity, and precision.

“It’s the difference between guessing and guiding,” says Keenan.

A feedback culture isn’t just about giving advice or praise; rather, it’s about creating a loop of learning that helps people improve over time. But in remote settings, that loop often breaks down.

Younger employees, in particular, suffer. They get less exposure to strong communicators. They receive less feedback on how they show up. And they often feel uncertain about how they’re being perceived.

AI coaching tools create a daily rhythm of feedback, giving employees micro-insights that compound over time. Instead of waiting six months for a performance review, they get real-time coaching on:

• Listening more than speaking
• Showing up with curiosity
• Following through on commitments
• Managing tone and presence in meetings

This shift from perception to behavior helps remove bias and helps every employee grow, no matter where they’re working from.

In the past, rising talent developed through mentorship, observation, and proximity. In remote settings, they’re often left without the cues, feedback, or support they need to grow.

With tools like Relate, coaching becomes continuous and democratized. Young professionals can track their own progress, spot areas for growth, and get insights that help them improve from every meeting.

For managers, it means they no longer have to guess who needs support, or how to deliver it. They have the data and the platform to lead with clarity and understanding.

This isn’t about micromanagement. It’s about micro-feedback insights that help individuals stay on track, and help teams thrive together.

The future of leadership won’t be about who works harder, it’ll be about who learns faster, leads with empathy, and adapts to change. AI coaching tools give modern leaders a competitive edge by delivering the kind of visibility, insight, and consistency that traditional methods lack.

Whether you're leading a distributed team, onboarding a new class of graduates, or building a culture of coaching at scale, tools like Relate are helping forward-thinking organizations stay ahead.

And the best part? You don’t need to overhaul your systems to get started.

Ready to learn more?

If you found this post helpful, dive deeper by reading our white paper:

The modern trust crisis: how to rebuild connection and performance in a hybrid world

Inside, you'll get:

• Data on what’s causing the trust gap in hybrid work
• A breakdown of the 4 traits that create trust (and how to improve them)
• A leadership playbook with practical tips for coaching in a remote-first world
• Real-world insights from Gallup, PwC, and SWEET Institute
• An introduction to how Relate helps you measure and improve trust-building behaviors

Want to coach your remote team with the power of AI?
Request early access to Relate