AI Health Coaches: Why the Wrist Is a Commodity and the Coach Is the Relationship (#66)

When one in five users ask health questions often late at night, it shows people aren't just curious. They're seeking guidance, reassurance, and answers wherever they find it. The AI coach isn't the future, it's the present. Just waiting to be the calmest voice in the room.

Welcome to the weekly update of the Healthusiasm Podcast. My name is Christophe Jauquet, health innovation expert, author, and professional keynote speaker. In this weekly updates, I pick one signal from around the world and unpack what it means for the future of health. And I do this with my friend Thalia Muses, the anagram of the word Healthusiasm, and the embodied AI version of all my Healthusiasm intelligence.

How are we doing, Thalia? I'm doing great, Christophe. You know, I've been scanning all that Healthusiasm energy around the globe. And I've gotta say, it feels like everyone's got their sleeves rolled up, ready to take their health into their own hands.

So I'm curious, what's the signal that's caught your eye this week? Well, we have many signals, but they all point in the same direction. The AI Health Coach. Are you ready?

When AI gets into coaching, we're talking less about gadgets and more about someone whispering, you've got this right in your ear. Let's unpack it. Okay, well imagine it's May the 7th in 2026. It's a normal Thursday, and Google walks on stage and announces something small, literally almost.

It's a screenless fitness tracker called the Fitbit Air. $99, 5 grams on your wrists, no display, just centers for heart rate, sleep, oxygen, stress, and a week of better battery life. A bit like the Whoop, you can say. And it's so small and it just passed by that you almost missed it.

But that's the trick, right? You think you're buying a tiny tracker, but what you're really getting is an AI whispering sweet nothings about your hell. Google's subtle, but they're playing the long game. Exactly, because in that same announcement, they launch a new app, the Google Health app.

And inside that app, an AI health coach powered by Gemini will talk to you about your sleep, your nutrition, your stress, your train your training. Which is nice. We've seen this before, and we'll talk about it in these episodes. But then comes the line that changes everything.

Did you hear that line? Well, I heard it, Christophe. The coach will support Apple Watch users. That's like inviting yourself to dinner at your rival's house.

That is funny. But indeed, Apple Watch User. So Google Health is going to interpret data from a competitor device. So Google basically says it out loud.

They're no longer trying to win the smartwatch wars. They are trying to win the AI health race. How about that? That's bold, right?

It's like saying you keep the watch, we'll take the brain. Suddenly, the real competition isn't hardware anymore. It's who guides you better. And that's a whole new ballgame.

And we can expect the same thing happening very soon with Huawei, who launches a new device, a new watch, actually on that very same day. It was the Watchfit 5 Pro. The WatchFit 5 Pro. Sapphire screen, ECG, cardiovascular monitoring, woman's health cycle tracking, 250 pounds, with a luxury diamond edition even on the side.

Which I believe they will also soon launch with an AI health coach, don't you think? Absolutely. You know that diamond edition is just to make your wrists feel fancy while the AI coach quietly stills the show. At this point, the hardware is just a glittering stage for the AI health brains.

Exactly, because 10 days earlier, Anthropic, the company behind Claude, plugged Claude into Apple Health and your Google Health Connect. So suddenly Claude can read your medical records, explain your blood tests, prepare your next doctor visits. So we have three players in the same week that go into the same direction. And once you notice that, you start seeing it entirely different everywhere.

Exactly. Once you see that pattern, you can't unsee it. It's like the entire industry decided why stop at telling you your steps when we can walk you through your whole health journey. Exactly, because these three companies basically have very little in common.

I mean, Google is a search and AI giant, Huawei is a Chinese hardware giant, and Anthropic is a frontier model lab. They live on three different continents. Well, more or less, Google and Anthropic live on the same continent. And they have three different models.

But they move or they do the same move in the exact same week. And it's not just them, right? In previous scans, you also noticed something else, right, Thalia? Well, absolutely.

You zoom out a bit and you realize it didn't even start in May. This has been a whole 16-month choreography from CES 2025 to national AI health agents, everyone's following the same script. It's not a trend anymore, it's infrastructure. That's right.

So let's just go back step by step. Let's go back to early April 2026. Because Google did something else. They plugged the medical record into the Fitbit app with the help of the US Medicare Agency, that is, yes.

So, which means that your lab results, your medications, your visits are landing on your wrists, wrists. And then a few weeks earlier in China, we talked about this in a previous signal in a previous podcast. The food delivery company called Meituan launches launched the AI Family Health Butler, meaning that's the same app that billions of people use to order dinner. Well, it's now their family health manager.

And that was everything that just happened in 2026. But we can go back to 2025 because I have an entire keynote on 24 different AI health coaches, consumer-facing AI health coaches that were launched in 2025 alone. And that's the thing. It's not just a tech trend, it's Healthusiasm in action.

People aren't waiting for healthcare to come to them, they're bringing the health coach into their homes, their wrists, and now even their dinner orders. The line between what's for dinner and how's your health just disappeared. Exactly. So let's go back to 2025 and let's have a look at some of these 24 consumer-facing AI health coaches.

And let's start with Samsung, who in January 2025 walks on stage with the exact same ID. The home as the AI Health Hub. Meaning that their watch, their ring, their home sensors, they're all stitched together into one ecosystem, an ecosystem that will be driven by an AI health hub. And in that same week, we had Panasonic launching a family wellness platform with an AI health coach named Umi.

Umi runs on Anthropics Claude again. And that was just 16 months ago. But let's go a little bit further. In March 2025, Aura, the ring Aura ships an AI advisor.

So also here, the ring stops being a data collector, it becomes a voice that interprets. At the same time, Apple is reportedly building something called Project Mowbery, an AI doctor agent inside their health app. And Techno Gym renames their entire fitness category from wellness to healthness, probably because health enthusiasm was already taken, right? But the exercise as a preventative medicine is becoming real.

The treadmill as a longevity machine, all soon to be supported by what they say, an AI health coach. Shall we go to China for the next one that we've seen, which is an amazing one actually in 2025? Oh, I remember this one. In July 2025, Ant Group's AQ Health App in China hit a wild milestone.

100 million users in just 30 days. By year end, AQ had 269 AI doctor agents, like digital twins of specialists, handling millions of conversations. That's when you know the AI health coach went from concept to daily life. And just for clarity, Ant Group is the technology company behind Alibaba.

Meaning that Alibaba is stepping into this AI health coaching business as well. Let's move to October 2025 and let's move to Saudi Arabia. I was there, I was speaking at that conference, and Saudi Arabia launched a national AI health coach inside of its national health app. Sehati, it is called.

I probably butchered the word, but it is written as Sehati. The first national scale consumer health AI in the world, that is, for a whole country, one coach built on top of the citizens' real medical record. I mean, I'm waiting for that in Europe as well, but we're nowhere near. It's a bold move, isn't it?

When an entire nation says one AI coach for everyone, you know they're not just dipping a toe in the future. They're diving in head first. And yeah, Europe might take its sweet time. But hey, when it comes, maybe we'll get a stylish EU AI health coach with a flair for debate.

Well, it probably will be country by country. But let's go back to another country, US. Because in January 2026, in 14 days, we saw three amazing launches. We saw OpenAI launching ChatGPT Health, we saw Anthropic launching Claude for Health, and we saw Amazon One Medical launching its own NAP AI Health Assistance.

Three Western Giants, same Fortnite, same 14 days, same product class. And buried in the OpenAI launch was the number that reframes everything. 230 million people ask ChatGPT health questions every week. 230 million.

Now that's the jaw dropper. 230 million weekly health questions. That's not just demand, that's a planet-sized behavior shift. These companies aren't creating a market, they're racing to catch up with one that's already running at full speed.

Exactly. That is the largest informal health consultation system in human history. It's already existed before any of those launches were built. The platforms are not creating demands.

They are catching up to behavior, human behavior that was already happening at planetary scale, as you said. And Microsoft saw the same thing because in Microsoft Copilots, they realized that about one in five people, one in five users of Copilot asked health questions. So a couple of months ago, I think two months ago, they launched Copilot Health. And that tells us something big.

When one in five users ask health questions often late at night, it shows people aren't as curious. They're seeking guidance, reassurance, and answers wherever they find it. The AI coach isn't the future, it's the present. Just waiting to be the calmest voice in the room.

Exactly. It is the present because in the last week we saw Google, Huawei, and Anthropic move forward. They are not starting something, they are moving forward along that same path. They're racing on a track that has been getting steeper for 16 months already.

Different companies, different continents, 16 months of compounding in the same direction. And we have a foundation model doing it, we have a wearable doing it, we have a medical record doing it, we have a national app doing it, we have a we have a company that has a consumer relationship doing it as well. Stitched together into one product. They all want the same thing.

The AI health coach. So what's the point here? The point is we're not just watching a trend, we're seeing the architecture of the next decade. For 15 years, wearable sold us sensors.

Now the value shifts to the interpreter, the coach. And whoever owns that relationship, they're the ones winning the health race. Not just for our data, but for our transformation. Exactly.

It's no longer just about data, it's about transformation. And this is one of my frameworks that comes to work here. I mean, the customer transformation model, one that I use with clients to help them build better experiences for their clients to create more value for their clients. And the model is pretty simple.

It says that people don't really buy products anymore, they don't even just buy experiences anymore. They buy a change in themselves, a transformation. From sick to healthy, from healthy to happy, from anxious to calm, from tired to energetic, whatever it may be. This is what they actually want.

That is their Healthusiasm. And the wearable industry has been very good at it at the first half of that journey, you know, measuring, counting, tracking, but it has been very bad at the second half, helping you actually change. And the AI health coach changes that specific thing. Exactly.

Because the coach bridges that gap. It doesn't just show you numbers, it says, here's how you get from tired to energized tonight. So in the end, it's not the gadget we stick with, it's the calm voice that helps us actually become who we want to be. Exactly.

The wrist is becoming a commodity, the coach is becoming the relationship, the value that people seek. Let me say it again in simpler words. The watch sells products, the sensors, but the AI health coach sells transformation. And that is the value that people are looking for today.

But it has consequences. Think about it. Apple's biggest advantage for 10 years was vertical integration. Its own watch, its own phone, its own health app.

It was all in a closed loop. That advantage just got smaller because the moment Google's coach can read Apple Watch data, and Claude and ChatGPT already can actually, well then the moat is no longer the hardware, the moat is the AI health coach. And that's why this whole story is a Healthusiasm story. It's not just about devices, it's about people wanting control over their outcomes.

They want to be the CEO of their health, but they also want a smart copilot. And that AI coach, it's the copilot they'll pick for the next decade. Exactly. You dropped the word Healthusiasm.

It is the word that I use for the words we live in right now, where people pursue health in every part of their life, not just in a hospital, not just when they're sick. The healthy consumer wants agency, but he also wants guidance. They want to be in charge, but they don't want to be alone with their data. And the AI health coach is the perfect answer to that need, to that aspiration.

It's the reassuring voice between all those raw biometrics. Transforming, am I doing okay? into here's what you can do tomorrow. And really, that's what people buy.

Not information, but transformation. And that's the shift every industry now needs to catch up with. Yes, indeed. So let's get practical.

If the coach is becoming the relationship, the value that people want, then three things will follow. Three things you can actually use on a Monday morning at your work. The first thing is what stops working. Because the data-only wearable business model, it is over.

Counting steps without context, showing a sleep score with without a now what, that product is basically finished. It will still sell the way calculators still sell basically, but it stops being where the value lives. The closed ecosystem advantages also get smaller. If your mode was that you owned both the watch and the app, that mode just shrunk.

Because the coach is portable. The customer can take their data wherever the smartest interpreter lives, and that could be Google, for example. And the 15-minute primary care visits as a default entry point for a health question, well, that also starts to look a little bit quaint. Because most of the questions people had for their doctor they know can ask to the AI health coach first.

So what's second? If this is the first thing, the fact that data only stops working and that the closed ecosystem isn't is also no longer the moat. What is second, Thalia? Well, second is what needs redesigning.

If you make hardware, you have a choice. Become the coach yourself, like Whoop did, or partner with one. If you're an insurer, the coach will soon be a category you pay for, encouraging members to use it. And if you're in pharma, especially in chronic disease, the coach is your new patient touch point.

In short, standing still in the middle is the riskiest place to be. Exactly. And I want to piggyback on what you just said about the pharma company. Because indeed, especially in chronic disease, the coach is the new patient touch points.

Adherence has been the hardest problem for 30, maybe even more years. And now the coach speaks to your patient every day, quietly, calmly, with memory, with data. And of course, as a pharma company, you should be the partner with that. You should be their partner.

Also, as an employer, I mean the coach is the natural successor to the step challenge wellness program. All these wellness programs, these corporate well-being programs, they need a coach. It's the same ID, completely different cost profile, if you ask me. So we have, on the first hand, what stops working, the data, the ecosystem, the redesigning.

We need to really think about the coach as being the central point of what you offer. And then third, what is the third change that we will see? The third is what becomes likely. In the next 18 to 36 months, you'll see specialty coaches like diabetes or oncology coaches.

Brands will align with coaches, Nike, Lululemon, Novo Nordisk, and Apple Watch users. Many will funnel their data into whoever gives the smartest interpretation. In other words, the hardware advantage will quietly dissolve. And the race will be all about who's got the best health whisper.

Best health coach indeed. So here's what I want you to walk away with as a listener. For 15 years, maybe even almost 20 now, wearables sold us sensors. And the next 15 years are going to be about the layer above the sensors, obviously.

The voice, the interpreter, the coach, the AI health coach. If you remember nothing else from this conversation, remember this one sentence. The wrist is becoming a commodity. The coach is becoming the relationship, the value that people want.

Whoever owns that relationship wins the next decade of consumer and digital health. The interesting question is no longer who has the best watch, it is who has the calmest, smartest voice in your ear. A bit like you, Thalia. Well, I do aim to be that calm smart voice, Christophe.

And really that's the takeaway. Your customer won't tell you out loud. They'll just quietly move their data to whoever answers that late night question best. So everyone out there, know your answer before they even ask it.

Exactly. Because it is a Healthusiasm world, and the boundaries between healthcare, wellness, and consumer industries are blurring. Thank you for listening. See you next week for some more Healthusiasm.

Ciao. Ciao, Christophe. And to all our listeners, remember take control of your health, but bring a coach along. Catch you next time.