How Effective Are Tech Startups in the Fitness Industry?
The use of Artificial Intelligence in the fitness industry is tipped to grow in the upcoming decade with many tech-led startups already creating their own fitness apps with the help of AI. Their effectiveness can be two-fold with the first one concerning physical fitness and the other considering its use in the medical sector.
An advantage of using fitness apps that have AI incorporated in them, is that personal training is made accessible and costs a fraction of the fees that traditional personal trainers demand. On the other hand, customers who have sampled the use of this technology often find is less motivating than a real human. Nevertheless, the market is only growing in the amount of fitness apps being released that make use of machine learning, image recognition and some that even use motion sensors in a bid to match the service provided by traditional personal trainers.
Guy Cassidy, the founder of an app called “Gymfitty” spoke to the BBC’s “Click” and explained why he believed that these apps are just as effective as human personal trainers, as it is “able to process large amounts of information that is very specific to you”. In addition to this bespoke training routine it also has the ability to remember what happened in the previous sessions, meaning data never has to be manually logged in. Although this technology is a great alternative it lacks in the ability to motivate people the same way human interaction can lead people to push their boundaries. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing, in the long run the ability to motivate yourself may be a more sustainable way of keeping fit, especially due to the high costs of personal trainers.
The use of data collection and artificial intelligence in the fitness industry could be very effective for medical purposes; It could lead to better predictions and detect early symptoms. Overall it can also provide a better insight for customers in their own wellbeing. Like mentioned in the “Digitalisation in Healthcare” article, despite the benefits of this technology, the legal territory of this is unknown and the tech startups creating these apps will have to be specific in the way they market those technologies and even be open about what data is collected and whether it is being used for medical purposes, as this would help clarify which laws apply to that company.
by Jai Anilkumar