By leveraging AI for coaching and healthcare, wearables are setting new standards in user experience and functionality

A decade ago, wearable technology was just taking early strides. Today, generative AI — a subset of artificial intelligence — is making its presence felt across diverse domains such as fashion, health, entertainment and more.

With smart wearables gaining greater popularity worldwide, the fusing of fashion and innovative technology is permitting smart devices to function as icons of personal styling, connecting every element of users’ lives. As these aspects play out, generative AI is steadily showcasing several novel dimensions of personalisation and functionality.

Personalised Insights

The rising popularity of AI-enabled wearables is partly because of their ability to offer personalised insights and recommendations based on the user’s data. Through sensors embedded in the wearables, data is analysed to provide real-time advice and feedback that helps users improve performance, maximise productivity and prevent injuries.

In an era where most people want to stay fighting fit, generative AI goes beyond merely counting the steps taken and monitoring their heart rate. By employing AI algorithms, advanced fitness trackers analyse the user’s data to provide personalised insights and coaching. A dynamic, bespoke approach is adopted in managing the user’s health and well-being as the smart device adapts to each person’s preferences, goals and individual fitness levels.

For instance, an AI-driven coaching algorithm, Zepp Coach, offers customised guidance so its users can train and recover more effectively. A user simply needs to enter his or her physical characteristics, exercise experience level and preferred number of training days each week into the app. The app then builds a personalised training regime for every user. As the days progress, the Zepp Coach app monitors each person’s fitness level, fatigue threshold and current training status. Based on this data, it recommends a reduction (or increase) in training intensity.

Wearables in Healthcare

Besides personal training, generative AI-linked wearables are deployed in healthcare with a similar model of leveraging user data to provide personalised counsel and insights. For example, the WHOOP Coach app uses a generative AI feature to offer extremely personalised, precise advice and suggestions by using GPT-4 - the most advanced generative AI system of OpenAI. Thereby, WHOOP can discover patterns and connections in the data of users and then offer instant, conversational, customised responses to their queries concerning fitness, health and overall well-being.

Since they come equipped with generative AI, such smart wearables are revolutionising the field of healthcare monitoring. Instead, they deploy predictive analytics to forecast potential health problems based on historical data. Thanks to this proactive approach, both users and healthcare practitioners can employ preventive measures. Propelled by the power of predictive analytics, smart wearables are driving a steady shift from a purely reactive to a proactive healthcare model.

Taking these capabilities one level higher, generative AI is empowering wearables with the capability to sense and react to the emotions of users. These emotion-sensing algorithms can analyse facial expressions, monitor heart rate variability and check other physiological cues to assess the emotional State of users.

Immersive Reality

Then there is smart clothing with adaptive features that respond to environmental circumstances and user preferences. Such smart clothing offers temperature-regulating textiles and dynamically adjustable apparel tightness for maximum comfort, especially when users engage in physical activities. Or consider language translation earbuds that offer contextual understanding. Backed by generative AI, these language translation earbuds go way beyond mere word-for-word translations. Through advanced contextual understanding, these earbuds can comprehend the idioms, cultural references and nuances of a specific language.  By eliminating language barriers, this smart innovation facilitates seamless and efficient cross-cultural communication.

Another exciting wearables category is immersive AR (augmented reality) glasses. Generative AI has allowed these glasses to take a giant leap forward by delivering immersive experiences for users, seamlessly blending the virtual realm with real-world surroundings.

This is not all. Generative AI has even revolutionised navigation-aiding wearables for visually impaired people. Through AI algorithms, smart navigation devices can interpret the environmental data to offer real-time details about any obstacles, the surroundings or necessary directions. With these wearables, visually challenged users can enjoy enhanced mobility and a certain level of independence that is not possible otherwise.

(The writer is CEO of PR Innovations, brand custodian of Amazfit India, views are personal)