A Framework for Addressing the Risks and Opportunities In AI-Supported Virtual Health Coaches

Virtual coaching has rapidly evolved into a foundational component of modern clinical practice. At a time when healthcare professionals are in short supply and the demand for low-cost treatments is everincreasing, virtual health coaches (VHCs) offer intervention-ondemand for those limited by finances or geographic access to care. More recently, AIpowered virtual coaches have become a viable complement to human coaches. However, the push for AIpowered coaching systems raises several important issues for researchers, designers, clinicians, and patients. In this paper, we present a novel Figure 1: The figure shows four main domains of a successful framework to guide the design and development of virtual coaching virtual health coach throughout a data science pipeline.