Healthify, a health technology startup backed by Khosla Ventures, has introduced a significant upgrade to its AI assistant, Ria, incorporating real-time conversation capabilities. This enhancement allows users to interact with Ria through voice and visual input, facilitating a more intuitive approach to health tracking. The launch took place on October 13, 2023, and marks a pivotal step in the evolution of health monitoring technologies.
With advancements in artificial intelligence, health tracking companies are increasingly leveraging both structured and unstructured data to provide users with actionable insights. Healthify aims to simplify the process of logging meals and workouts, encouraging users to establish healthier habits. Ria now supports over 50 languages, including 14 Indian languages, and can even process mixed-language inputs such as Hinglish or Spanglish, broadening its accessibility to diverse user groups.
Through this new version of Ria, users can request health overviews for specified time frames—daily, weekly, or monthly. The AI assistant aggregates data from various sources, including fitness trackers and glucose monitors, delivering insights into exercise patterns, sleep quality, and glucose levels. Users can also utilize Ria’s camera functionality to identify food items and their nutritional values in real time, streamlining the logging process.
In a notable demonstration, Healthify showcased the integration of Ria with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, allowing for hands-free conversations and food logging. This feature aims to enhance user comfort and engagement by enabling multiple tasks within a single session. If a user forgets to log meals throughout the day, they can verbally describe their intake, and Ria will automatically log the information, significantly reducing the burden of manual entry.
Healthify is not stopping here. The company plans to integrate Ria as a central component of user onboarding in the coming months, gathering insights from ongoing conversations to tailor its services further. CEO Tushar Vashisht mentioned that the team trained Ria on extensive conversational data between users and coaches, ensuring that the assistant provides reliable and contextually aware advice.
In addition to enhancing user interactions, Healthify is expanding Ria’s capabilities to support conversations with nutritionists and fitness coaches. This includes real-time data retrieval and transcription of coaching calls, which can help both parties track progress and adjust strategies effectively.
The competitive landscape includes other applications such as MyFitnessPal, Alma, and Cal AI, which also offer voice and visual input options for dietary logging. However, Healthify believes its advanced conversational mode and comprehensive data integration give it a competitive edge.
The company is actively developing a persistent memory layer within Ria, allowing the assistant to maintain long-term context regarding user preferences and health changes. This enhancement aims to provide increasingly personalized suggestions for users.
Looking ahead, Healthify plans to launch a new AI-driven service in the U.S. market, with updated features for Ria, priced at $20 per month. This follows extensive testing of various plans utilizing text-based AI and certified nutrition coaches. The company also anticipates announcing partnerships related to GLP-1-aided weight loss programs and collaborating with health tracking device manufacturers to incorporate their data into Ria.
With over 45 million registered users and millions actively engaging each month, Healthify is poised for further growth. Vashisht indicated that the company is considering a new funding round to support its expansion efforts, particularly in the U.S., where adoption rates have been promising. The future of health technology appears bright as innovations like Ria continue to shape user experiences and outcomes in personal health management.
