AI-powered personalisation drives engagement and healthier behaviours, Vitality data shows
04 November 2026
AI-powered personalisation drives healthier behaviours
New data from Vitality highlights how AI-powered personalisation and incentives are helping people take meaningful action to improve their health, increasing engagement with preventative care and supporting healthier behaviours.
Vitality AI was launched by Vitality 12 months ago in November 2025. In that time, it has started to be rolled out in the UK and globally, supporting more people to know the personalised action they can take to live a healthier life. It uses Google Cloud's leading AI and data science technologies, including Gemini Enterprise and Google’s Gemini models, coupled with Vitality's dataset of more than 2,800 unique health and behavioural dimensions, to analyse an individual's health profile, lifestyle, and risk factors. Vitality AI generates personalised insights at a 99.2% accuracy rate based on doctors' review.
Vitality have published indications of the impact of these interventions across global markets - delivering measurable clinical and behavioural outcomes, alongside evidence of lower healthcare claims costs:
- Engagement: In one market, members receiving personalised, AI-driven recommendations were 3.3x more likely to complete a mental wellbeing assessment, 2.7x more likely to complete an online health review and 1.4x more likely to complete a colorectal cancer screening. 97% found their AI reports useful, with likelihood of acting based on the recommendation rated 8.8/10, rising to 9.32/10 with localised incentives. Similarly, in another market, members part of groups receiving personalised, AI-driven recommendations were 2.0x more likely to do a dental screening, 1.3x more likely to do a biometric screening and 1.2x more likely to visit their primary care doctor. *
- Healthy behaviours: A group of members who were previously not exercising adequately, and who registered on a programme to improve their exercise, increased physical activity significantly. Those completing the personalised steps programme sustained an average 40% increase in daily steps**, while high-BMI participants achieved a 200%+ increase in physical activity.****
- Sleep: Participants who improved their sleep gained more than two additional hours per week on average, while maintaining good habits or improving a sleep habit was associated with 5% and 7% lower in-hospital claims respectively.***
- Wellbeing: 87% of coaching participants presenting with extreme stress reported improved wellbeing.****
- Prevention: Personalised recommendations and incentives drove an estimated 23,302 additional cancer screenings in 2025, leading to 219 additional detections and an estimated six deaths prevented. A £23 incentive increased the likelihood of cholesterol testing by 52% while smaller rewards of £14-£18 managed to encourage cervical and colorectal cancer screening and GP visits for emerging health risks.*****
The findings demonstrate how personalisation can turn health recommendations into action, through combining relevant interventions with targeted incentives and support. They also suggest that the relevance of an intervention can be as important as the size of the financial reward in encouraging healthier behaviours.
Personalised Steps, launched in the UK in July this year, is Vitality’s first introduction of Vitality AI in the UK.
The potential for more proactive health insurance
Beyond supporting member engagement and healthier behaviours, the findings point to the wider potential of AI-powered personalisation within health insurance. By helping members identify relevant preventative actions and sustain healthier behaviours, Vitality can support better health outcomes while helping to manage healthcare costs.
Vitality data in the US shows engaged clients recorded an average 4% reduction in healthcare claims costs, delivering a 180% return on investment, while members achieving a higher Vitality Status demonstrated 15% lower overall risk-adjusted claims costs. The platform also recovered an average of 4.4 productive days per employee per year, equivalent to annual savings of £790 per employee.****
Together, the findings demonstrate the potential for AI-powered personalisation to support a more proactive approach to health insurance, helping members take relevant preventative action and maintain healthier behaviours.
Emile Stipp, CEO of Vitality AI, said: “AI’s potential in healthcare is ultimately about whether it can make people healthier and help them to take meaningful action. Through our partnership with Google, we’ve shown that AI’s impact on health care is no longer a promise but a proven differentiator. We’ve seen members take screenings they would have skipped, build and sustain healthy habits, and take meaningful action to improve their health.”
Arun Thiyagarajan CEO at VitalityHealth UK said: “These findings show the power of personalisation to help people take meaningful action to improve their health. The opportunity with AI is to take that further, enabling us to make the support, recommendations and incentives we provide increasingly relevant to each individual.
“For our members, that means helping more people engage with their health, take preventative action and build healthier behaviours over time.”
Notes to editors
Currency conversion: US dollar figures have been converted into pounds sterling using XE on 06 October 2026 and rounded to the nearest GBP.
About the data
* Vitality data: Next best action uplift figures (3.3x mental wellbeing assessments, 2.7x online health reviews,1.4x colorectal cancer screening, 2.0x dental screening, 1.3x biometric screening and 1.2x primary care doctor visit) from Vitality data.
** Vitality data: members enrolled in the personalised steps program were assigned a starting step target based on their existing activity levels and progressed upward using an algorithm calibrated to the pace at which each individual could sustainably increase their habit. Members who completed the program went from an average of approximately 4,900 steps per day before enrollment
*** Vitality, Discovery data: Analysis of Vitality members tracked before and after the launch of the Vitality Sleep Rewards program over a four-month period. 19% of members improved their sleep habit, gaining an average of 19.8 minutes of sleep per night (approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes per week). Analysis of in-hospital claims found that maintaining a good sleep habit is associated with 5% lower in-hospital claims and improving a sleep habit with 7% lower in-hospital claims.
**** Vitality data, May 2026: 4% lower claims costs and 180% ROI independently reviewed by Arbital Health. 15% lower overall risk-adjusted claims cost for higher Vitality Statuses independently endorsed by the Validation Institute. 200%+ physical activity increase among high-BMI members, 87% stress improvement among coaching participants, and 4.4 productive days saved per employee per year (average saving of £790 per employee annually).
***** Vitality, Discovery data: Personalised incentive and cancer screening data from Vitality members. In 2025, it is estimated that recommending and incentivising cancer screenings resulted in 23,302 additional screenings, representing a 5.5% increase relative to the historic trends, leading to 219 additional detections and an estimated 6 deaths prevented. Analysis found that while larger rewards (up to £34) produced the strongest behavioral response for some actions – a £23 reward increased the likelihood of cholesterol testing by 52% relative to no reward – smaller rewards (£14-£18) were similarly effective at driving cervical and colorectal cancer screening as well as emerging risk GP visits, demonstrating that recommendation relevance and member targeting can be as important as reward magnitude.