AI Powered Wearables: How Smart Devices Are Redefining Wellness Tracking

Wellness Tracking: Many of you may find it hard to believe that wearables have been around for over 10 to 15 years now. However, it’s a fact that Fitbit’s first wearable tracker debuted in 2009, and the first Apple Watch was introduced in 2015. The primary applications in both these gadgets, as well as in their numerous clones, have all been health and fitness related.

Fast forward to 2024, and what we witness is an explosion of wearables. We can observe at least three trends now.

Three trends changing the wellness tracking sector

1. Firstly, nobody expects Apple or Google (which acquired Fitbit in 2019) to dominate the market anymore; it’s saturated with major players like Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, as well as niche players gaining momentum such as Atlas, Humane, Tab, and Rewind, to name a few.
2. Secondly, almost all of these next-gen wearables claim to be powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI purists criticize this marketing claim since none of them possess what scientists term as Strong AI, most of these wearables receive critical support from specialized AI programs.
3. Thirdly, and this is what I want to emphasize, even in this AI-powered generation of wearables, the killer applications are still dominated by health and fitness trackers, rather than productivity trackers or wearable chatbots.

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These range from upcoming and futuristic products like Google X Nanoparticles that you can swallow (they can be termed as swallowable rather than wearable!) and which navigate through your gut and bloodstream for diagnosis and treatment, to more conventional wearables like continuous glucose monitors (CGM), smart rings, precise movement trackers, and GenAI-powered personal health coaches.

More devices to track your health

Continuous Glucose Monitoring patches, discreetly worn on the back of your arm, and whose output you can view on your smartphone or specialized devices, are among the most popular wearable health trackers currently. And for good reason. A CGM allows you to observe real-time changes in your blood glucose levels in response to various factors such as food intake, exercise, meditation, stress, and more.

At several organizations, teams of doctors, dieticians, and fitness experts have surprised by the insights provided by CGM patches during extensive testing. For instance, it was found that consuming dessert before meals was better for glucose management, and taking a short walk immediately after a meal helped control glucose spikes. Additionally, there are significant person-to-person variations in such responses.

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Smart ring is another wearable available now in India, with various options to choose from. The medical team conducted extensive testing on some of the best international smart rings before selecting the Halo ring, which offers a wide range of health tracking functions 24/7, including heart rate variability (HRV), oxygen saturation (SPO2), temperature, and various metrics related to stress, movement, and sleep.

Other AI-powered health trackers that are immensely useful and currently available include pocket-sized devices (though not exactly wearables as they need not be worn at all times) and smartphone apps. An example of the former is KardiaMobile 6L, a pen-drive-sized 6-lead personal ECG machine capable of detecting six risky heart arrhythmias.

Conclusion

Lastly, no discussion on wearables is complete without mentioning the smartphone, especially concerning health tracking. Despite all the advancements in monitors and sensors, a smartphone is still required to analyze data from wearables to generate powerful health insights. Numerous apps with various features are available, including the upcoming Trigr super-app, which includes AI-based features such as bloodless blood tests using AI face scans, personal fitness coaching, bio-age detection, and personalized geno-metabolic lifestyle suggestions.

By Sajeev Nair, Founder, Vieroots Wellness Solutions.

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