In a dramatic move towards AI-based healthcare, Apple is set to launch an overhauled Health app with an AI-based health coach that can offer customised medical advice. The initiative, code-named Project Mulberry, is likely to use artificial intelligence to analyse user’s health information and provide personalised advice on fitness, well-being, and diet. The shift reflects Apple’s desire to make the iPhone a full-fledged health management device, with AI on board to move beyond simple health monitoring.
Apple’s AI health coach, which could be named Health+, will tap into data from iPhones, Apple Watches, and third-party health devices to deliver real-time, AI-based advice, reports Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The new version of the Health app, unlike today’s, which mostly tracks measures such as heart rate, calories burned, and blood oxygen, will examine that data and deliver useful insights, not mere numbers.
Apple is said to be training the AI model using data from internal doctors, and then bringing in outside physicians to make the health-related educational content. The company is also establishing a content centre close to Oakland, California, where health professionals will produce video content for the app. Apple is also seeking a ‘doctor personality’ to be the human face of all the AI-powered health assistants, adding a friendly touch to the service.
The Health app powered by AI follows CEO Tim Cook’s long-term vision of keeping healthcare as Apple’s largest contribution to humanity. The company has already made major advances in digital health tracking, where the Apple Watch is providing ECG monitoring, blood oxygen tracking, and fall detection. Yet the tech giant’s highly anticipated non-invasive glucose monitoring system has yet to reach development and is still years from reaching consumers.
The new Health app is set to launch with iOS 19, which Apple will introduce at WWDC 2025 (June 9-13). Assuming everything goes according to schedule, the AI doctor might be released alongside the iPhone 17 in September.
Though Apple has been criticised as late to the AI race, especially when contrasted with its competitors Google and Samsung, the company’s end-to-end use of artificial intelligence in health tracking marks a new direction. If successful, Apple’s AI-based health assistant can recast digital health, making the iPhone an active health and well-being partner and not merely a data logger.