Tech firms move into AI-powered healthcare

Chinese tech giants are doubling down on the fast-developing artificial intelligence-powered healthcare sector to accelerate the commercial application of AI and address the growing medical demands of a rapidly aging population.

Ant Group recently announced that its AI health app AQ has been rebranded as "Ant Afu" and released a new version of the app, upgrading its three major functions — health companionship, health Q&A and health services.

The company said "Ant Afu" focuses on the "health plus" strategy, positioning itself from an AI tool to an AI friend providing healthcare services and helping users manage their own as well as their families' health problems.

Currently, the number of its monthly active users has surpassed 15 million, becoming China's largest AI healthcare app by users. It answers more than 5 million health questions from users every day, with 55 percent of users coming from third-tier cities and below.

Zhang Junjie, vice-president of Ant Group and president of the company's health business unit, said the biggest change in the new version is the addition of a health companion function, which aims to help users develop good health habits in their daily lives.

Zhang said users can record their health status, upload their information by taking photos and uploading images, while the app can access smart devices such as Apple, Huawei, Vivo and Omron to synchronize users' daily health data and let users view their exercise volume, heart rate and sleep time.

Moreover, they can create health records for their family members, and set multiple health goals such as exercise, diet and living habits. Afu will act like a "personal coach" to customize a personalized plan for users based on their goals and provide daily reminders.

"The professionalism and usefulness of the answers are the foundation of an AI tool," Zhang said, adding that the health app should be able to have a real one-on-one dialogue with users and provide a personalized solution for each individual.

However, Afu's responses are not medical diagnoses and will never replace real doctors, the company said.

According to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's elder care industry is expected to surpass 20 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion) by 2030.

"AI has become a key engine for improving efficiency and driving innovation in the health sector. The core competition among tech giants in the health industry has shifted from simple traffic acquisition to a contest centered on the building of comprehensive capacities covering data, application scenarios and ecosystem," said Jiang Han, a senior analyst at market consultancy Pangoal.

Jiang said the enterprises — which can integrate various links like health management, diagnosis, payment and pharmaceutical delivery and create a user-centered service loop — will gain an upper hand in the fierce competition. "This involves the ability to combine medical resources, ensure regulatory compliance, and foster cross-industry collaboration."

Baidu Inc recently announced the official upgrade of its AI-powered health assistant. Yang Minglu, general manager of Baidu Health, said,"We aim to provide every family with a one-stop service for disease prevention, knowledge acquisition, and health management through an intelligent, reliable and always-available AI partner."

Yang said the company's vision is to integrate professional healthcare into every aspect of users' daily lives.

Currently, the total order volume of its healthcare services has exceeded 47 million, she added.

Lu Mei, head of Baidu Health's AI application products, said the app depends on a multi-agent human-machine collaboration system and covers a full range of services from light symptom consultations to complex disease planning and comprehensive health management. It can accurately process multiple input forms, with a recognition accuracy rate of over 95 percent.