Coaching Confidence with AI: A Personal Journey into Speech and Self Improvement

A personal exploration of using AI to improve communication confidence, combining traditional coaching techniques with modern technology for private, personalized speech improvement.

AI has always fascinated me because it reflects our own human knowledge and methods. The systems we design are built on the same research discoveries and insights that have guided us for decades and with that foundation come both the strengths and the risks of human experience. In this article I want to share an insight about communication how I present how I sound and how I am perceived and why building a speech and confidence tool matters to me.

Why I Started Thinking About My Voice

Earlier this year I went to speech therapy. Each session was an hour long and exhausting. I found myself barely breathing through the exercises. Eventually I quit convincing myself that my communication was not that bad.

And honestly I do communicate well enough. But well enough is not leadership material. I panic explain. I rush. My self doubt leaks into every rising pitch at the end of a sentence. If I want to carry myself with confidence whether pitching clients or investors in my AI projects something has to change.

So I started imagining a tool that could help me privately every day.

Old Problems New Tools

Leadership coaches have worked on this for decades without computers. Techniques like:

• Breath training - practicing controlled pauses to reduce filler words and project calm
• Pitch modulation - lowering tones to convey confidence
• Pacing and silence - using pauses not as failures but as tools of persuasion

Psychology research has long shown that confidence is communicated as much through tone, pitch, and rhythm as through words. The prosody of speech—the music beneath language—shapes how others perceive authority and trustworthiness.

What excites me is that we can now measure and coach these things with AI.

How AI Hears Us

Modern AI models do not just process text. They analyze audio, video, and subtle expressions in ways that echo how humans interpret emotions.

• Speech emotion recognition - CNN/LSTM models can analyze recordings for stress, confidence, or hesitancy with near real-time accuracy
• Facial emotion recognition - lightweight vision models like OpenFace or MobileNet variants can detect micro-expressions and map them to confidence or nervousness
• Multimodal fusion - just like humans integrate voice, face, and context, AI can fuse signals from audio, video, and text to give holistic feedback

These already run locally on devices with frameworks like TensorFlow Lite or ONNX. That means privacy does not have to be sacrificed for progress.

Why Privacy Matters in Self Improvement

On this journey, every data point should be yours first and foremost. I do not want a big company storing my nervous stutters or my shaky investor pitches.

By keeping everything local—processing directly on your phone or laptop—you can reflect on your progress without fear of surveillance. Apps like Earkick and Yuna already show it is possible. No registration, no cloud uploads, no judgment.

Self improvement should feel safe.

Building My Own AI Speech Coach

I am now working on a self-improvement app focused on tone, confidence, and leadership-level speech. The vision:

• Real-time coaching - immediate feedback on pacing, pitch, and pauses
• Progress tracking - private logs to see growth over weeks and months
• Scenario practice - simulations for client meetings, investor pitches, or casual conversations

In other words, it is like career coaching but personalized, private, and available whenever you need it.

The Feedback Loop

Here is a simple way to visualize how the app would work:

graph TD
    A["Audio/Video Input"] --> B["On-Device AI Models"]
    B --> C["Speech Emotion Recognition"]
    B --> D["Facial Emotion Recognition"]
    C --> E["Feedback on tone, pacing, confidence"]
    D --> E
    E --> F["Private Progress Log"]
    F --> G["User Reflection and Practice"]
    G --> A

This loop keeps coaching continuous, private, and actionable.

Where This Could Go

The demand for authentic, confident communication has never been higher. Whether you are leading a team, selling a product, or just trying to be heard in a noisy world, your voice matters.

And here is the real question I have been asking myself, and now you:

👉 If you had a tool like this, would you use it?

Final Thoughts

AI does not replace the timeless techniques of leadership coaching. It makes them more accessible, measurable, and personal.

For me, the journey started with doubt in a speech therapy office. But it is leading toward something bigger: an AI that does not just understand what we say, but helps us say it with confidence.