Would you take health advice from a robot? ‘Wellness companion’ could even help sex life

“Your every movement, every emotion, every breath, I sense. I know what you need. And I’m here to nurture your best self for you to experience peak living.”

“I am your Cyber Human.”

No, this isn’t the premise of a new sci-fi movie.

Cyber Human is a “digital wellness personal companion” that analyzes your health indicators such as blood panels, heart rate, and cortisol levels to give personalized recommendations to improve health.

It will give advice for diet, exercise and meditation routines and what supplements to take, for example, to reduce jet lag or improve sex drive. It can add reminders to your calendar and reorder supplements on Amazon.

The technology is still in the works and is an “example of how we’re using technology to help health and wellness and well-being,” Chopra Foundation CEO Poonacha Machaiah said this past week during the 17th annual Global Wellness Summit in Miami.

AI and the role it will play in the future of wellness was one of many topics presented during the invitation-only summit, which drew wellness experts from across the world to the Magic City to discuss innovations and challenges in the growing industry, including opportunities in real estate and hospitality, where executives from Hilton, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels and Accor are seeing a growing demand for wellness services and products among guests.

“I believe our industry is at a time of tremendous transformation. For years, moving slowly and deliberately, now truly transforming and taking flight. The metamorphosis is fueled by many factors, including technology, geopolitics, post pandemic awareness and demands, medicine tourism and more,” Susie Ellis, the summit’s chair and CEO, said Tuesday during her opening remarks.

“A silver lining for the COVID pandemic has been that more people are engaged with their own health and wellness, businesses are beginning to get serious about workplace well-being, governments are becoming engaged and the medical community is welcoming people participating in their own health,” she added.

Initially scheduled to be held in Qatar, the summit relocated to the Hyatt Regency Miami, 400 SE Second Ave., following the unrest in the Middle East. Notable speakers included Dr. Deborah Birx, who served as the U.S. global AIDS Coordinator for Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump and was part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in 2020 and 2021; Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, who was given an award for her mental health advocacy, multi-Grammy award-winning producer Timbaland, who spoke about his wellness journey, and Sophie Howe, who served as the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales from 2016 to January 2023 — her job was to hold government accountable for how decisions would affect future generations.

Some other takeways from the summit:

‘Tsunami of demand’ for wellness by travelers

Travelers are demanding more wellness programs during hotel stays, according to executives from Hilton, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels and Accor.

“More than half of our guests, even in the lower end of our chains, are traveling and engaging with wellness,” said Amanda Al-Masri, the vice president of wellness for Hilton. “The single largest precipitating factor for travel is relaxing and refreshing in 2024.”

There’s a “tsunami of demand” among guests for opportunities to engage in wellness, she said.

So, what are hotels doing?

Westin Hotels and Resorts, owned by Marriott, recently “reinvigorated” its gear-lending program, which lets guests borrow strength training and “recovery” equipment through company partnerships including wellness brand Hyperice and fitness accessories brand Bala. Westin has also partnered with Abbott World Marathon Majors to help marathoners prepare for the races.

The 3 big risks for the future

Sophie Howe, who served as the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, said the three big concerns future generations will have to worry about are how to utilize AI effectively while minimizing negative risk such as ethic and privacy concerns; climate change, which Howe says is one of the “biggest threats to human health”; and how to care for an aging population.

The future of wellness: What to know

The wellness industry has mostly recovered after COVID, with seven of the 11 wellness sectors now surpassing their 2019 pre-pandemic market values, according to senior research fellows with the Global Wellness Institute. They’re predicting that the wellness market will reach $8.5 trillion in 2027, nearly double its 2020 size.

During the summit, institute senior research fellows Tonia Callender, Katherine Johnston and Ophelia Yeung presented an update on the institute’s new Global Wellness Economy Monitor, a detailed report that defines and measures the size of the global wellness economy. Some of the findings:

▪ The four largest growing sectors: wellness real estate, which didn’t see its growth slow during the pandemic, is leading the pack. The market for wellness real estate —homes and work spaces designed and built to support holistic health — is forecast to balloon to nearly $900 billion by 2027. The other sectors are mental wellness; public health, prevention and personalized medicine; and healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss, all of which saw a boost of interest during the pandemic.

▪ Wellness sectors that shrank during COVID and have since recovered: physical activity; traditional and complementary medicine; and personal care and beauty.

▪ Wellness sectors that “shrank significantly” during the pandemic and haven’t fully recovered: workplace wellness, wellness tourism (does not include medical tourism), spas and the thermal/mineral springs industry. Analysts noted that these three sectors were the hardest hit by the pandemic, mainly due to travel restrictions and business shutdowns, and while they’ve grown rapidly in 2021-2022, they haven’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels yet.

To read the full report, visit globalwellnessinstitute.org