The wearable world is progressing with devices that are now able to regard health indicators in their attempts to offer health counsel. Such advancements are transforming wearables into even better health aides.
Last week, on the same afternoon, I was browsing the Oura app on my smartphone and inquired about the reason for my tiredness despite getting ample sleep. The application recommended some moves such as walking, stretching or taking enough water to feel fresh and increase my energy levels.
The app’s AI trainer, which relies on information obtained from Oura’s smart rings, had in the previous sessions of coaching put me straights that quality of sleep is better than quantity. Such conversations illustrate the changing nature of wearables: they are going beyond being simple trackers and are becoming interpreters of health data actionable information.
In 2024, Samsung and Google announced their own integration or inclusion of certain AI tools in their apps, expanding the scope of insights provided by the applications. With AI beginning to play a role in data management on phones and in the cloud, the combination of AI and health tracking ensures better functioning and intuitive health aides on our wrists, fingers and even ears.
“This is a change from one size fits all healthcare guidance into one that is specific to ones practices and their details, Ranjit Atwal, a research director with Gartner said. Therein is this technology moving towards,” Early diagnosis, continuous health care management, individual tailoring of medicine. Atwal also says, this is a fundamental shift on how healthcare is delivered.”
To Be More Accurate, Watches’ New Role Is Expected to Contribute to the Implementation of Medicine Tech.
Thanks to AI’s recent breakthroughs, smartwatches are beginning to be more than just watches that read time. AI is now being implemented into smartwatches enabling Isswer companies to deliver meaningful information seamlessly.
Siri can now respond to health-related questions, showing advances made over the previous models of the smartwatch, and the Fitbit Watch developed by Google is capable of compiling charts as users ask it questions. Energy score from Samsung use tools and provide fitness tracking to give users information on their sleep and activity levels, while Oura offers temperate feedback besides activity metrics.
Apple and Samsung realise the potential of AI and health integration, which is why they are on the lookout for ways to combine the two technologies by integrating AI driven health coaches. Oura’s smart ring and a smart watch with Amasfit have good insights on AI focused approaches.
Reports suggest that Apple is on the verge of completing an AI smart coaches app, in addition to this a similar function was tested by Samsung which after assessing different factors makes recommendations tailored for a specific user.
Integration of AI technology into wearables has its disadvantages
An example would be how the amount of data that can be processed in a compact device like a smart watch is limited. At this moment most of the crunching gets done through either the cloud or a cellphone. If we look into the future and all the advancements being made, it is true that smartwatches do not have the capacity to process generative AI, but in the future with further advancements this capability may become very plausible. David McQueen, research director at ABI Research, notes that such efforts are underway to make AI models smaller and more efficient so that one day they can run on compact devices such as wearables. Innovations in AI Integration Hardware have the most promise, however, we are still likely quite a while away from such being added. Now moving on to the Apple watch and Samsung Galaxy watch, these watches previously had sensors to send out notifications but now these chakras can act in a remote fashion where they can monitor blood pressure and apnea.
With the increase in the complexity of AI powered health chat bots, there will more than likely be a greater emphasis on nutrition and food tracking. Samsung is taking a much more holistic approach where Oura has partnered with Dexcom to provide a better look into how metabolic health works.
The Ultimate Vision
The idea of producing a smartwatch that is capable of operating on its own without depending on a smartphone continues to be an elusive target for mobile smart wearable device manufacturers. As for 6G wireless and generative AI, these Technologies are critical for the transition, even so, these functionalities remain under construction.
The history of technological innovation in the form of hand free devices used for communicating tells of its evolution from simple step counters to smart devices capable of monitoring an array of health metrics, and this trend shows no signs of abating. While radical new parameters do take time to develop, it is already possible to imagine how wearables will contribute to health care.
With the upswing in the development of AI technologies, it is gaining more conclusive clarity that the future of wearable’s goes beyond just tracking metrics but involves a higher level of personalization with useable insights to facilitate health coaching.
