Apple is reportedly working on an AI health coach
Apple is reportedly working on a health coaching service powered by artificial intelligence. The report, which comes from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, would be a big advancement in Apple's efforts to make its devices indispensable through health and wellness features.
The service, which is codenamed "Quartz," would be used as a motivational tool for exercise, healthy eating, and sleep quality. AI would be used to make suggestions and design custom health plans based on biometric and behavioral data from Apple Watch. The service, which reportedly involves health, Siri, and AI teams at Apple, would be a standalone app with a subscription-based payment model.
In recent years, Apple has been heavily focused on developing health and wellness features, grounded in Apple Watch's biometric capabilities. Last year's Apple Watch Series 8 came with a body temperature sensor to monitor ovulation cycles, and a blood pressure monitor and glucose monitoring are reportedly in the works. Apple Watch also has features like blood oxygen level measuring, electrocardiogram readings, and crash detection.
If the AI health coach comes to fruition, it won't be released until next year. But Apple also has short term plans for health features. According to Gurman, Apple plans on releasing an iPadOS 17 version of the health app for iPads (which already exists for iOS) later this year. The health app, which monitors health data like ECG readings and body temperature, will soon include "tools for tracking emotion and managing vision conditions, such as nearsightedness." iPadOS 17 and iOS 17 health app updates might be announced as a soon as June at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Also expected to launch at WWDC is Apple's highly-anticipated XR headset, which also ties in to the company's health and wellness strategy. The headset is rumored to have a meditation feature and Apple Fitness Plus. With all these new features in the pipeline, the fantasy of perfect health is coming until focus. Once the AI health coach is released, we promise we'll start taking care of ourselves.