Consumers want smarter digital health tools: This will push providers, insurers, and tech players to align with consumer demand for greater personalization, intuitiveness, and accurate health insights.

Google Health app will use device data and medical records to deliver health insights, intensifying competition among consumer health wearables and AI tools.

93% make short- and long-term health changes from tracker data, outpacing older cohorts and redefining what effective apps must deliver.

Finance and health apps top day-30 retention, suggesting habit-driven experiences drive growth, per our Industry KPI data.

Tech and AI players must prove accuracy, privacy, and real clinical value if they want users to trust them with their medical record data.

Most consumers give health apps a try, but just 3% stay after 30 days. AI features may be the fix, but only if brands don't overhype their value.

Health apps are mainstream, but brands are having trouble keeping users engaged. Actionable, value-added AI features will be essential for many health apps to stay relevant.

New AI capabilities add clinician-vetted, empathetic guidance for women—the predominant segment of its user base.

Apple isn’t abandoning AI-powered health guidance, but it’s likely holding back until the tech is useful enough to deliver real value.

ChatGPT Health lets users upload medical data for personalized wellness advice—a feature likely to gain traction as folks trade in data privacy for AI-powered health insights.

Consumers without experience using digital health tools—like wearables, health apps, or devices to manage a condition—say they’d try one if recommended by a doctor or insurer, according to a recent report from Merge. Direct-to-consumer marketing isn’t the only effective way to drive digital health tool adoption. When it comes to their health, many consumers trust medical professionals over brands—giving health tech players a chance to further prove to insurers, employers, and doctors that their tools deliver real value.

Alphabet subsidiary Verily is launching a free health app offering personalized guidance from clinicians. The Verily Me app will also have an AI agent to answer people’s health questions based on their medical records. Verily’s competitive advantage over bigger companies with brand-name is that it has clinician partners and access to some medical record data. The company should leverage its network of doctors to endorse Verily Me to their patients, using real-world examples to demonstrate the benefit of combining a person’s health history with a medical expert’s view for individualized guidance.

Google will soon unveil an AI-powered personal health coach for the Fitbit app. Powered by Gemini, the health coach will be available to Fitbit Premium subscribers. Google will roll out a preview in October with the latest Fitbit trackers, Fitbit smartwatches, and Pixel Watches. Our take: The AI arms race has hit the health app and wearables space, and Google/Fitbit beat rivals to the punch with an AI personalized health coach. Highly customized health recommendations will be a must-have in the next iteration of digital health tools. Players in this space must ensure their AI-delivered guidance is reliable, while not turning off consumers with pricey subscription requirements.

Technology is now at the center of patients’ health journeys. To improve the consumer experience, healthcare providers and marketers must gain a better understanding of how digital health tools differ across platforms and populations.

Patients use digital health tools, but don’t trust tech: Consumers say they don’t trust the very companies whose digital health tools they’re using. What gives?

Business Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes and eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Andrew Lipsman discuss how Amazon tripled its revenues during an economic recession. They then talk about how Pinterest posted such strong Q3 growth, Walmart converting some stores into ecommerce labs, and Under Armour selling its smartphone app MyFitnessPal.