Tech giant Apple is moving forward with its health initiatives with an artificial intelligence assistant that will provide customized health advice, recent Bloomberg News reports. The initiative, code-named “Project Mulberry,” is a major step for Apple in the health and wellness space.
The new AI fitness coach was based on a previous idea referred to as “Project Quartz,” which aimed to apply artificial intelligence to help users improve exercise habits, diets, and sleep. Development has been said to speed up, with a potential release timed to be alongside Apple’s iOS 19.4 operating system update to arrive next spring or summer 2025.
Apple’s AI Health Push: Personalized Care and Expert Insights
Effectively, the system would draw from information that the Health app collects from various Apple devices. The AI coach would then translate the information to offer users personalized recommendations for improving their health outcomes.
To build the system’s knowledge hub, Apple is training its AI on the experience of physicians already working for the company while also bringing in outside experts in fields like sleep medicine, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health, and cardiology.
These external professionals would create video explanations of many health conditions to complement the education side of the platform. Market observers call it a sophisticated scheme of health monitoring and advice above and beyond what Apple already offers.
Food tracking seems to be a high priority of the overhauled Health app, something Apple has avoided in the past, according to Bloomberg. To do so would place Apple in opposition to well-established nutrition and fitness tracking apps such as MyFitnessPal and Noom. Apple’s own history with health efforts has not been without its detours.
Apple last year removed a blood oxygen monitoring feature from its smartwatch following a lengthy patent war with medical technology company Masimo. The about-face is a reminder of the complex regulatory and competitive landscape Apple must navigate as it moves further into health services.
The timing of Apple’s increased focus on health aligns with industry trends. A recent PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Healthcare Companies Going Long on GenAI Investment,” states that there is significant momentum for AI adoption in healthcare. Based on surveys of C-suite executives at healthcare companies with revenues of more than $1 billion per year, the report states that there is significant confidence in the potential of generative AI.
90% of Leaders Expect ROI, Healthcare Leads the Charge
According to the report, 90% of business leaders anticipate positive returns on investment in generative AI. The confidence has prompted most leaders to plan greater investments in AI technologies next year, putting the healthcare sector at the top of cross-industry positives.
Apple’s entry into AI-driven health coaching is at the forefront of this interest in artificial intelligence in medicine, and implies that the company is confident both in the market opportunity and in the potential for profound health impact.
Though accurate details on the specifics and price of Apple’s health coaching service are limited, the creation of the project marks the company’s continued push to move beyond hardware into more comprehensive services that are engaged in the lives and well-being of consumers.
If launched as proposed, Project Mulberry could be one of the most ambitious health initiatives ever undertaken by Apple, with the potential to transform the way millions of iPhone and Apple Watch users engage with health data and get recommendations about their own health.
