What does artificial intelligence (AI) have to do with health? Think about it. Nutrition and fitness apps like HealthifyMe, Fitelo, and Fitterfly have been using AI for years already.
HealthifyMe uses AI to analyze data from a user’s continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and developed a virtual CGM that predicts rises and falls in blood sugar levels. Fitelo leverages AI to create data-driven, personalized solutions. Fitterfly also uses AI to help clients manage lifestyle diseases like diabetes.
“AI creates engaging wellness programs for users by delving into individual user data,” said Sahil Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Fitero.
Companies are also developing AI-powered chatbots to answer questions, and fitness practitioners are using tools like ChatGPT to create personalized diet and exercise plans, said Fitterfly CEO and CEO. said co-founder Dr. Arvinder Singhal.
However, these applications are relatively simple. AI has the potential to do even more. Tushar Vashsht, co-founder and CEO of HealthifyMe, says AI is poised to transform healthcare through personalized coaching and multimodal engagement.
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Early signs are already showing: activity tracker Whoops! is partnering with Open AI to launch its own AI coach, and Google-owned Fitbit’s AI-powered devices are also coming soon.
“Most of these products are one-dimensional, focusing only on heart rate, sleep, and steps. There is a real possibility that someone will build an AI coach,” Vashisht said.
AI for wellness
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As the amount of data available increases and expansive language learning models learn more, AI will not only analyze steps, sleep, and heart rate, but also performance, nutrition, dietary restrictions, health parameters, and disease history. You will evolve into a coach to consider. , stress and emotional states.
“Imagine a coach who knows your nutrition, fitness, stress, sleep and responds to your data vectors in a highly personalized way. We take into account not only structural data, but also whether there are any injuries, mental considerations, etc. We are certainly working on developing such a coach who can act as your co-pilot in your lifestyle. ” Vashisht added.
“With personalized coaching, we want human coaches to be able to give us feedback and hold us accountable. AI can help in that regard by enabling and empowering human coaches. It can play a big role. We are working on developing co-pilots that will allow human coaches to do their jobs very efficiently,” Vashisht added.
Health monitoring and rapid diagnosis using AI
According to Fitterfly’s Singal, the amount of data generated by reports, CGM devices, fitness trackers, etc. exceeds what the human brain can handle. The biggest advantage that AI has over humans is that it can analyze the huge amount of data that comes in and is collected at an incredible speed.
“AI’s real-time monitoring capabilities will help redefine how health metrics are tracked. AI continuously monitors health data and dynamically adjusts plans for optimal results. is up to 500% faster than traditional manual methods, allowing us to take a proactive approach to personal health progress,” said Fitello’s Bansal.
The world has already begun to move beyond text-based AI to AI that includes audio, images, and video. “We expect to move to voice-based interactions within the next two years. In addition, AI will generate humanoid videos and create emotional interactions with people battling chronic disease or aspiring to increase their fitness.” We are ready to establish this connection,” said Singhal.
Vashisht pointed out that AI is using photos for things like calorie counting and nutrition tracking. “We launched Snap a while ago. It allows automatic nutrition tracking…as long as you give gallery permission, you can track your (food) photos. into nutritional value for,” Vashisht added.
The role of human health care providers
As AI evolves, Singhal argued, it is expected that it will become so advanced that end users will not be able to recognize the existence of the AI in the background.
Recent trends indicate a positive change in user attitudes. “People are increasingly embracing AI, as evidenced by the use of tools like ChatGPT for weight loss, knowing that it operates on AI principles. It has the potential to expand and increase the involvement of AI models in various fields,” said Singhal.
Bansal acknowledged that some users may not feel comfortable sharing their personal data, as it is used to analyze health and improve wellness plans. India is among the top five countries in terms of investments received by AI startups. However, the country faces particular challenges in harnessing the full potential of technology. “AI systems can be biased if they are trained on data that is not representative of the population used for the service,” Bansal said. To make this work long-term, people need to share data, which requires data protection protocols, encryption, anonymization of data, and compliance by organizations with privacy laws, he added. .
Singhal added that while AI cannot replace highly skilled professionals such as doctors and nurses, “its integration could lead to improved diagnosis and outcomes.” . Tasks such as coaching are also becoming automated. In this scenario, the role of the human coach will be to empathize, nurture, and guide patients toward better outcomes, an element that AI may not be able to fully replicate. ”
