Could AI Replace Specialist Yoga Teachers?
I've been reflecting on just how much technology has changed the way we run our businesses. In my 25 years of being a self-employed therapist and teacher, there has in many ways been a democratisation of business tools. Things that were once expensive, complicated or only available to larger businesses are now accessible to almost anyone, and this has enabled many more micro businesses to be successful. Ten years ago I could never have imagined that I’d have an online business running yoga teacher trainings by zoom!
Of course, there are downsides too: our attention being hijacked by constant notifications, the pressure to always be online, and the FOMO that social media can create.
All this got me thinking about perhaps the biggest technological shift of our lifetime: AI. As much as it is useful for us, is it potentially a threat too? Could it really replace a specialist yoga teacher?
I decided to find out!
I know there is widespread concern across many industries that AI will eventually render us obsolete. Perhaps one day there will be AI-generated yoga teachers delivering free classes online – there may even be some already.
And yet, personally I don't feel threatened. Yes, we may need to adapt how we work and be thoughtful about how we connect with the people who need us, but when it really matters, people still seek genuine human connection.
The importance of connection and relationship
The people I work with consistently tell me how much they value being in a live class with others who understand what they're going through. The comradeship and peer support are hugely important, but they also value building a relationship with a teacher over time – someone who gets to know them, who can hold space with compassion, sense the mood of the room and respond accordingly, notice subtle changes and improvements, adapt a practice in the moment, offer reassurance, celebrate progress, hand over a tissue when emotions arise, or simply share a smile.
When someone is facing a life-changing diagnosis that affects every aspect of their life, information alone isn't enough. What they often need most is understanding, compassion, encouragement and the feeling that someone is walking alongside them.
Technology can imitate empathy remarkably well, but it cannot build a genuine therapeutic relationship through shared human experience. The nervous system co-regulation that happens when people practise together simply isn't something that can be replicated by a machine.
Nonetheless, I was curious to see what would happen if I actually asked AI to do the job of a specialist teacher.
So I put AI to the test
I asked AI to design a home yoga practice for a woman in her forties who was four weeks post breast cancer surgery and preparing for radiotherapy.
To be fair, some of its suggestions were sensible. But there were also recommendations that I personally wouldn't have included at that stage of recovery. More importantly, it raised far more questions than it answered.
From the patient's perspective, how would they know if they were doing the movements correctly? How much should they challenge themselves? How much should they hold back? What's the right pace for breathwork?
The programme used terms such as shoulder abduction and thoracic rotation, which many people wouldn't understand, and it didn't explain in any detail how to perform the practices safely or effectively.
For me, this highlighted one of the biggest issues with AI-generated health and wellbeing information: the information might sound plausible, but how do you know whether it is actually appropriate for you? And this is where I think specialist knowledge becomes particularly important.
AI is incredibly useful... when you're already an expert
As someone who specialises in yoga for people affected by cancer, I can look at the programme AI created and quickly identify what is appropriate, what I'd change, and what important considerations are missing. I understand the anatomical language, I know how to adapt the sequence for the individual in front of me, and I can quality-check the information before using any of it.
For me, AI can be a helpful source of inspiration or a way of saving time, and I'm certainly not going to pretend that I don't find it useful. I use technology in my business all the time and I'm interested in how AI can help us work more efficiently.
But for someone living with cancer, AI-generated information may simply create more uncertainty if they don't have the knowledge or experience to judge the quality of the information they're being given.
This is where specialist teachers make such a difference.
We bring far more than a collection of yoga practices. We bring experience, judgement, discernment and the ability to adapt in real time. We notice when someone is tired before they say anything. We recognise when fear is holding someone back. We know when to encourage a little more movement and when to suggest more rest.
Within our scope of practice, we can reassure people about common experiences during recovery, encourage appropriate pacing, support confidence in returning to movement, and signpost them back to their healthcare team whenever something doesn't seem right.
But perhaps most importantly, we offer something that no technology can replace: a genuine human relationship.
Information isn't the same as wisdom
I think this is something we need to keep in mind as AI becomes increasingly embedded in our everyday lives.
AI is incredibly good at gathering and presenting information. It can give us ideas, save us time and help us do things that might previously have taken hours. But having access to information isn't the same as knowing what to do with it.
As a specialist teacher, my role isn't simply to know a list of yoga practices that might be appropriate for someone affected by cancer. It's about being able to look at the person in front of me, understand their individual circumstances, ask the right questions, recognise what I don't know, and make appropriate decisions about how I can support them within my scope of practice.
All this comes from knowledge and experience, but also from judgement and discernment. That's why I think AI is much more useful when you're already an expert.
If I ask AI to give me ideas for a yoga sequence, I can question what it gives me. I can spot when something doesn't look right. I can adapt it, discard parts of it and use my own professional judgement to decide whether any of it is actually useful. Someone without that specialist knowledge doesn't necessarily have that filter.
So, will AI replace specialist yoga teachers?
My simple answer is no.
I think AI will almost certainly become another useful tool in our toolbox, and I'm grateful to have it as part of my business. It will probably change the way we work, and we will need to adapt alongside it.
However, tools don't replace expertise, and information doesn't replace wisdom.
Your students don't simply need a list of yoga practices. They need your calm, grounded presence, your knowledge, your compassion, your discernment, your sense of humour and your ability to respond to the person in front of you.
What they need is someone to reassure them that they are practising safely, that progress isn't always linear, and that they're capable of more than they sometimes believe.
They also need connection. The feeling of being part of something, of practising alongside other people who understand something of what they're experiencing, and of having a teacher who knows them well enough to notice when something has changed.
Human beings are wired for connection. Technology will continue to change the way we work, but I don't believe it will ever replace the reassurance of another person saying, “I'm here, and we'll work through this together.”
And that's why your work as a specialist yoga teacher matters so much.
Interested in becoming a specialist Yoga for Cancer Teacher?
If you're a yoga teacher and would like to develop the knowledge, confidence and practical skills to support people affected by cancer, you can find out more about the Yoga for Cancer Academy's specialist teacher training course here:
YFCA Teacher Training Course | Curriculum & Booking Information
And if this article has got you thinking about AI, specialist knowledge or the future of yoga teaching, I'd love to hear what you think. Do drop me a line and let me know!