Insights
AI strategic planning software for business coaches: what it should do
By Pamela Requena, Chief Strategy Officer
· 7 min read
AI strategic planning software for business coaches It should do the groundwork a coach would otherwise do by hand: draft a client's plan from what is already public, tie every KPI to what makes the company worth more, give each number an owner and a target, and keep the client's team running the plan between sessions, while the coach stays the one who decides.
Key takeaways
- The software drafts; the coach decides.
- A plan only works if the client's team runs it every week.
- The coach should see what changed between sessions without asking for a report.
- The AI should work in the coach's method, not a generic one.
- The client relationship, and the fee, stay with the coach.
What is AI strategic planning software for business coaches?
It is software a business coach uses to build and run a client company's strategic plan, with AI doing the drafting and the preparation. It is different from strategy-execution software, which a company buys to run its own plan, and from framework tools, which help in a workshop but stop when the session ends. Software built for coaches is organized around the coach: the coach sets the plan up, the client's team runs it, and the coach follows along.
What should it do? Eight things to look for
1. Draft the plan from what is already public
A coach's first sessions often go to collecting the basics: what the company sells, to whom, and how it is organized. Most of that is on the company's website. The software should read it and produce a first draft of the strategic plan, the KPIs and the roles in minutes, so the first session starts with something to react to instead of a blank page.
2. Tie every KPI to what makes the company worth more
A list of metrics is not a plan. Each KPI should answer to something a buyer or a bank would value. Catipult groups them into six drivers, its Valuation First method: Leadership, Employees, Customers, Financial Partners, Cash and Growth. A plan with nothing under one driver shows the coach where to look. Read about the six drivers.
3. Give each number an owner and a target
A KPI without a name next to it is a wish. The software should make it easy to assign every KPI and every action item to one person, with a target and a date, and make it obvious when one has neither.
4. Let the coach edit everything, in their own words
The AI's draft is a starting point. The coach should be able to rename, cut and add the one thing only they would know about the client, then hand over a client-ready document.
5. Put the client's team to work every week
Plans fade between sessions when they live only in the coach's files. The client's own team should log in, update their numbers and run the weekly meeting in the software: the numbers first, then action items with owners and due dates.
6. Show the coach what happened between sessions
Every KPI update and every meeting should show up where the coach can see it, across all their clients. The next session then starts from what happened, not from a status report someone had to write.
7. Work in the coach's method
Every coach has principles and frameworks. The AI assistant should use them, so what it suggests to the coach and to the client's team sounds like the coach and not like a generic chatbot. Catipult calls this the coach's Coaching DNA.
8. Keep the client relationship with the coach
The coach is the one the client hired. The software should support that relationship: the coach subscribes, the client's team joins without a bill of its own, and the coach can put their own brand on what clients see.
What should it not do?
- Replace the coach's judgment. AI drafts and prepares, and it can be confidently wrong. A person should review every plan before the client sees it.
- Invent numbers. Targets come from the company's own data and the coach's conversation with the owner. A draft only proposes them.
- Become one more place to report into. If updating a KPI takes longer than talking about it, the team stops updating it.
How do the main kinds of planning tools compare?
| Kind of tool | Built for | Where it helps | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy-execution software | A company running its own plan | Goals, KPIs and meetings inside one company | Built around one company. Check how a coach would follow several clients at once. |
| Framework and workshop tools | A strategy session | SWOT, canvases and matrices, on a shared screen | The work stops when the session ends. Nothing tracks the numbers afterwards. |
| General AI chat assistants | Anyone | Brainstorming and drafting text | No memory of the client's KPIs, no team and no weekly follow-through. |
| AI planning software built for coaches | A coach and several client companies | Drafting the plan, running it weekly and following it between sessions | Check that it works in your method and that your clients are not billed. |
What should a coach ask before choosing one?
- Can it draft a usable first plan from information I already have?
- Is every KPI tied to what makes the company valuable, with one owner and a target?
- Can my client's team run their weekly meeting in it?
- Can I see every client's progress in one place, without asking for reports?
- Does the AI work in my method, or in its own?
- Who pays: me, or my clients?
- Can my clients see my brand instead of the vendor's?
- Does it work in my clients' language?
How does Catipult do this?
Catipult is AI strategic planning software built for business coaches. Paste a client's website and Catipult drafts the strategic plan, KPIs across the six Valuation First drivers with owners and targets, and the roles. You edit it in your voice and export a client-ready PDF.
Your client's team logs in free and runs the weekly meeting inside Catipult. Every KPI update and every meeting shows up in your coach portal. One AI assistant works in your Coaching DNA, for you and for your client's team from their dashboard. Catipult runs in English and Spanish. Simulation, to test a plan's targets before committing to them, is coming soon.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI build a strategic plan without a coach?
It can draft one. A draft is not a plan a team commits to. That takes someone who knows the company asking the hard questions, choosing what matters and holding people to it, which is the coach's job.
How long does it take to draft a client's plan with AI?
With Catipult, a few minutes from the company's website. The coach's review and the first session with the client take longer, and should.
Do clients have to pay for the software?
Not with Catipult. The coach subscribes, and the client's team joins free.
What are business value drivers?
The parts of a business that decide what it is worth. Catipult uses six: Leadership, Employees, Customers, Financial Partners, Cash and Growth. Every KPI in a Catipult plan belongs to one of them.
Does Catipult work for coaches outside the United States?
Yes. Catipult runs in English and Spanish and serves coaches in the United States and Latin America.