Apple’s reportedly prepping a brand new Well being app for subsequent yr, presumably dropping alongside Siri’s long-awaited makeover. The combo might lastly make the Apple Watch really feel actually hands-free, with Siri built-in extra deeply into every day well being monitoring. However Apple’s greatest check will not be the options: it’s going to be discovering the fitting steadiness. One incorrect transfer, and the replace might do extra hurt than good.

As somebody who’s had a front-row seat to this AI well being coach craze, I am torn on whether or not Apple even wants one. In its race to maintain up with the Joneses (and the Googles), it dangers shedding what’s all the time set it aside: privateness and ease. Apple’s subsequent transfer might outline its place within the AI well being race, and I, for one, hope it finally ends up being greater than only a Siri icon slapped on the Well being app.

Final week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple could also be nearing a billion-dollar take care of Google to make use of a customized model of its Gemini AI to beef up Siri. The corporate’s been shedding prime AI engineers to Meta and different large spenders, and constructing its personal system could not be sensible. Teaming up with Google could be an costly gamble, however Apple is aware of it should both sustain or threat getting left behind.

A number of studies (together with Gurman’s) additionally recommend Apple is engaged on a redesigned Well being app underneath the code identify Challenge Mulberry. The rumored “Well being Plus” service would closely depend on AI (and doubtlessly the brand new Siri) to create a extra cohesive well being expertise, turning the flood of biometric information from Apple Watch and different linked gadgets into actionable insights, much like the brand new Coach function Google recently debuted on the Fitbit app. 

Apple appears to be at a vital pivot level in terms of AI, one that would have lasting results on its well being ambitions. On one hand, it must show to traders that it will possibly sustain with rivals like Fitbit (Google), Oura, and others providing concierge-style AI chatbots to investigate well being information. Alternatively, none of those early examples has proven an actual use case that makes them indispensable to individuals. Apple’s implementation and its timing might in the end make or break client confidence within the model.

The panorama

There is no stopping the AI wave. Beforehand, it principally labored within the background — powering passive alerts, akin to irregular heart-rate notifications, or mechanically detecting if you began a run. Now, it is shifting entrance and middle, prepared for individuals to work together with instantly on the phone or watch through voice instructions.

Android phones have Gemini baked in with a camera-powered Google Lens that may analyze the world round them, whereas Apple has relied on ChatGPT for a few of its Apple Intelligence options on the iPhone. Google just lately debuted Gemini on its Put on OS watches, including pure language capabilities to the wrist. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s mother or father firm, in April filed a lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI programs.)

On the well being entrance, the holy grail tech corporations appear to be chasing is the one-stop-shop wellness concierge that ties collectively all of your gadget information and turns it into actionable suggestions that really improves your well being.

Google jumped in early with its Fitbit app redesign in October. The brand new Gemini-powered Fitbit Coach (nonetheless in beta) can whip up customized coaching regimens, weight loss plan plans and sleep schedules. Oura’s “Advisor” affords related steerage, translating your information into plain-language insights. Garmin and Samsung are already pushing AI-run coaches that promise to get you race-ready. And even Meta appears to be getting in on it with its AI-powered Oakley glasses that may pull from Strava or Garmin metrics to teach you in actual time.

It is too quickly to know if these AI coaches will truly ship on their guarantees. Fitbit continues to be months away from prime time, whereas others are barely out of beta. However after testing plenty of them, I can inform you this a lot: they’re going to want to indicate actual worth earlier than anybody trusts them with their well being information.

How Apple matches into the equation

Apple hasn’t precisely been dormant on the AI entrance; if something, it has been cautious and calculated. A few of the most impactful well being options on the Watch, like irregular heart-rate notifications, sleep apnea detection, hypertension alerts, and fall detection, all use AI, and in lots of circumstances have been life-changing for Apple Watch homeowners. 

The important thing is not simply the AI itself; it is that individuals do not have to recollect to make use of it to reap the advantages. Most of those options run within the background and solely floor when one thing’s off and wishes your consideration. That simplicity is what makes them so efficient, and including a distinguished AI element for individuals to work together with might find yourself being extra complicated than useful. Anybody who’s used a big language mannequin–primarily based chatbot is aware of that the way you phrase a query will be the distinction between a useful perception and a pile of hallucinated slop. Apple’s method works as a result of it anticipates what you want earlier than you even suppose to ask.

With WatchOS 26 (paired with Apple Intelligence–enabled iPhones), Apple additionally debuted an AI-powered Workout Buddy. Whereas it is technically extra of a cheerleader providing motivational suggestions in actual time throughout exercises, it offers main “coach” vibes, and I do not suppose it is far-fetched to see it as Apple’s testing floor for a full-fledged well being coach down the road.

As a working mother of three, I used to be skeptical about including a Exercise Buddy to my routine. Micro-workouts are all I can handle, and I want much less of a cheerleader and extra of a drill sergeant to ensure I am wringing each drop out of the 25-minute window I’ve carved into my day. However after testing it for some time, I began to get a way of the place Apple could be headed with it.

All the pieces from the voice and inflection to the timing of the suggestions felt spontaneous and unscripted (for essentially the most half). It was far much less jarring than the canned, robotic prompts I’ve discovered to tune out on different gadgets. And if that is what Apple envisions for a “Well being Siri” down the road, then perhaps this Buddy might finally work its method as much as coach standing in my e-book.

A tenuous path ahead

Apple’s strolling a tightrope with AI. Play it too secure and it dangers arriving late to the sport; transfer too quick and it might stumble laborious.

Privateness may very well be the most important hazard — not only for Apple, however for everybody on this area. It is one factor to ask Gemini to put in writing an e mail or ChatGPT to summarize an article, however giving it entry to your well being information is a complete new HIPAA nightmare.

The disclaimers I needed to wade by whereas organising Meta’s Oakley glasses had been sufficient to make me sweat  (from nervousness, not cardio), and the thought that my Garmin information could be used to “enhance” some mannequin would’ve been a deal breaker if testing it weren’t a part of my job.

Apple’s dedication to privateness and on-device processing is among the causes I belief its Well being app with every thing, together with hospital well being data. Would I would like that very same information used to coach future fashions? Completely not. Would I really feel snug handing it off to a Gemini-based Siri? Honestly, I am undecided. Apple would have plenty of convincing to do on that entrance to get me on board.

Relating to Apple’s Well being Plus ambitions, a easy Siri icon slapped onto the underside of the app for Apple Watch homeowners to work together with will not reduce it. To actually stand out on this area, Apple must placed on the blinders and double down on what it does greatest: drawing significant connections for individuals in methods they did not know they wanted. Moderately than depend on me (or anybody else) to fabricate cleverly composed prompts in regards to the metrics that matter, how about utilizing the coach to proactively flag recommendations and draw these connections for me. 

And most significantly, construct the privateness scaffolding first earlier than it goes wherever close to my well being data. As a result of that is the one type of AI “coach” I might ever let into my life.