Vitality, Google, team up for AI health coach

Insurance has become one of the great proving grounds for artificial intelligence. From pricing models to fraud detection, it’s an industry built on data – and now on prediction. The latest move comes from Discovery Health and its Vitality rewards programme, which has partnered with Google to create Vitality AI, a new platform designed to bring personalised, data-driven health insights to millions around the world.

Built on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and Gemini models, the system combines Vitality’s deep well of health and lifestyle data with Google’s machine learning tools. The goal is to offer individuals clear, personalised advice on how to live longer and stay well – not as general guidance, but tailored to their actual habits, sleep, activity levels and health risks.

Adrian Gore, founder and group chief executive of Discovery, says the partnership changes how health and life insurance work: “Despite the clear benefits of preventative care, health systems and the insurance market as a whole remain focused on treating illness when it happens. Our partnership with Google transforms this.

“By bringing together Google’s technology and AI capabilities, and our unique datasets and understanding of behaviour change, we will have a never-before-seen capability and understanding of a person’s health, coming together in a way that personalises and empowers millions of people to take control of their health.”

He calls it “transformational – both for the individual and the insurance market as a whole”.

The collaboration will allow Vitality to analyse more than 2,800 dimensions of de-identified health and lifestyle data, ranging from exercise and sleep patterns to medical risk factors and how people respond to incentives. Using that information, Vitality AI will generate insights on everything from the probability of chronic disease to the impact of everyday lifestyle decisions.

Maureen Costello, vice-president for the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa at Google Cloud, says the implications are far-reaching. 

“The potential of AI in healthcare is profound – from accelerating the pace of scientific progress, to enhancing early detection of diseases, improving treatment planning, better supporting healthcare professionals and giving more people the right tools and information to live healthier,” she says. “By integrating Google Cloud’s advanced AI capabilities, including Gemini models, with Vitality’s data and understanding of driving healthier habits, this partnership poses an exciting opportunity to deliver hyper-relevant healthcare at scale.”

The partnership stretches well beyond analytics. It strengthens Vitality’s long relationship with Fitbit, expands integration with Google Health Connect, and launches a global YouTube Health content channel to share credible health and wellness advice.

As Gore put it, “By bringing together Google’s technology and AI capabilities, and our unique data sets and understanding of behaviour change, we will have a never-before-seen capability and understanding of a person’s health, coming together in a way that personalises and empowers millions of people to take control of their health.”