Personalising Healthcare with Vitality AI
Discovery Group and Google have partnered to launch Vitality AI, a platform that shifts healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive, personalised support at scale. Adrian Gore, Discovery Group's founder and Group Chief Executive, says the combination of Google's AI capabilities with Vitality's data and behaviour-change insights will help people act on their health with precision.
"This is transformational, both for the individual and the insurance market as a whole," Gore says, pointing to the gap between the clear benefits of prevention and a system still centred on treating illness after it occurs.
Why this matters for payers and providers
Non-communicable diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes account for roughly 75% of global deaths, most of which are influenced by lifestyle and long-term habits. That's where data-driven, personalised guidance can make a meaningful dent in risk and cost.
WHO data on NCDs underscores the scale of the problem and the opportunity for prevention-focused models.
How Vitality AI works
Vitality AI runs on Google Cloud's advanced AI stack, including Vertex AI and Gemini models, to generate actionable, context-aware recommendations. Vitality's de-identified datasets span over 2,800 dimensions-lifestyle, behaviours, medical history, propensity for illness and risk factors-allowing for precise, individualised guidance.
The platform flags risks, explains the drivers behind them, and prompts the next best action. The goal is simple: motivate timely screenings, smarter daily choices, and adherence to care plans that reduce avoidable claims and improve outcomes.
Early results and expected impact
Vitality's existing insights have already increased screening rates by 5.5x, contributing to a 19% rise in early cancer detection. Vitality AI is expected to deliver the biggest benefits for older adults and people living with chronic conditions, where consistent nudges and targeted interventions can move the needle.
For insurers and health systems, this can translate to fewer acute events, lower hospital costs, and higher member engagement in preventive care.
Data, privacy, and scale
The partnership deepens a decade-long relationship between the companies. Vitality will expand use of Google Health Connect and strengthen integrations with Fitbit for richer, consented activity data. A dedicated collaboration with YouTube Health will support credible wellness content that educates and nudges healthier habits.
Google becomes Vitality's AI market partner, helping scale Vitality AI into new markets and product lines. "By integrating Google Cloud's advanced AI capabilities, including Gemini models, with Vitality's data and understanding on driving healthier habits, this partnership poses an exciting opportunity to deliver hyper-relevant healthcare at scale," says Maureen Costello, Vice President at Google Cloud.
What insurers and health systems can do now
- Map your prevention thesis: Prioritise high-burden conditions (cardio-metabolic, oncology) and define target cohorts and metrics.
- Audit data quality and consent: Identify the signals you can reliably use today (claims, labs, wearables, pharmacy) and tighten consent and de-identification workflows.
- Prototype with a single journey: Stand up an AI-assisted pathway (e.g., diabetes risk reduction) with clear triggers, messages, and outcomes.
- Embed into benefits and incentives: Tie recommendations to screenings, rewards, and care navigation so members actually act.
- Measure what matters: Track screening uptake, early detection, gaps in care closed, and event rate reductions-then attribute savings.
- Invest in enablement: Upskill product, clinical, and data teams on modern AI tooling and governance. For structured learning, see AI courses by leading providers.
- Choose scalable tooling: Align on a platform approach for model development, monitoring, explainability, and rollout. Learn more about Vertex AI.
The shift to proactive care
Vitality AI brings together high-signal health data, proven behaviour-change design, and enterprise-grade AI to meet people where they are. The promise is simple: earlier detection, smarter prevention, and personalised guidance that patients actually follow.
For healthcare and insurance leaders, the path forward is to operationalise this model-safely, measurably, and at scale-so prevention stops being a slide in a deck and starts showing up in claim curves and clinical outcomes.
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