Apple plans to add ‘AI doctor’ to iPhone’s Health app: Here’s what it could do and when it may be released

Apple seems to betting big on the artificial intelligence once again with plans to completely revamp its Health app and add an ‘AI doctor’ like service within it, according to a report by Bloomberg. The move aligns with CEO Tim Cook’s belief that healthcare will be the Cupertino-based tech giant’s biggest contribution to mankind.

“If you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, ‘What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind?’ it will be about health,” the Apple CEO stated during a 2019 interaction.

Apple whisperer Mark Gurman reported that while the company’s ambitious plan to add a non-invasive glucose monitor to the Apple Watch is still many years away, the company’s health team is looking to use AI to improve the lives of its users.

Apple’s plans for AI doctor:

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple’s team is working on Project Mulberry, which will see the Apple Health app completely revamped, adding a health coach via an AI agent to replicate some of the analysis done by a real doctor.

Reportedly, Apple’s upcoming Health app will collect data from all the user’s devices like iPhone, Apple Watch, earbuds and even third-party products. The AI agent in the app will then use this data to make personalised recommendations to improve the user’s health.

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Apple is reportedly currently training its AI agent using data from doctors on its staff, with plans to bring in outside doctors. The Tim Cook-led company is also said to be opening a facility near Oakland, California, where doctors can shoot their video content for the app, and is looking for a “great doctor personality” to act as a host of sorts for its revamped Health app.

While Gurman doesn’t go into detail about this doctor personality, this could potentially be an attempt to add a human angle to the app, similar to how Google and OpenAI have used human artists to create voices for their chatbots.

The new health app is said to be a priority for Sumbul Desai, the doctor who runs Apple’s health team. The company’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, is also heavily involved in the project.

Gurman hints that development of the project is “in full steam,” and the revamped app could be released as early as iOS 19.4. Apple’s iOS 19 will be announced at its WWDC 2025 event on 9-13 June, with the stable update due to arrive with iPhone 17 sometime in September.

Apple is due to release its iOS 18.4 update on 1 April (not an April Fool’s joke), and if work on the Health app overhaul goes on as expected, we could see the company’s AI Doctor in action around the same time next year.

Apple’s love-hate relationship with AI:

While Apple has made big bets on artificial intelligence in recent times, the company has yet to see any significant payoffs as rivals like Google and Samsung continue to add new features while its own efforts hit roadblocks.

Apple first unveiled its AI efforts with iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 last year. While Google and Samsung had already rolled out many of their iconic features, such as Circle to Search, by then, Apple’s foray into AI was still met with a lot of optimism, given the company’s history of getting features right rather than rolling them out quickly.

However, Apple’s rollout of AI features, which it calls Apple Intelligence, has been patchy at best. Most of the features announced at WWDC 2024 were not available when the iPhone 16 hit the shelves last year. These features have been released in stages since then.

Even Apple’s news summary feature, which was introduced with the iOS 18.3 beta update, caused a stir when the BBC and many other news outlets criticised its inaccurate results, prompting the company to stop showing AI-generated summaries for news and entertainment apps.