Exclusive: 'We want to keep people away from doctors': Why Samsung has gone all-in on AI health, according to its executives but do users trust it?

Date:
Sun, 26 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Description:
'Once you lose trust, nothing else matters': AI is here for Samsung Health users, but if it's going to work, its executive team needs two things: data, and user trust.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter AI is everywhere, which is exciting for some and concerning for others and nowhere is this dichotomy more prevalent than health. AI has the ability to enable huge leaps in healthcare, both at home on your phones and smartwatches, and in the medical industry advancing tools and research using vast corpuses of training data. However, given that AI relies on harvesting data to train the next generation of models, its use of sensitive personal information is under intense scrutiny.

Samsung , unsurprisingly, is all-in on AI. On 22 July during Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, we saw how AI was being used across Samsung's ecosystem, especially on the Samsung Health app and wearables like the Samsung Galaxy Watch . It's crunching the data you give it to help notify you of problems such as sleep apnea, irregular heart rhythms, and even common illnesses such as a cold.
It's not the only big tech company to dive head-first into AI health: Google 's done it too with the revamp of its Google Health app, retooling its
premium tier into a Chatbot called the Google Health Coach. Latest Videos
From TechRadar Watch full video here:

Some people don't trust AI with their health information, as our writer David Nield illustrates , and some AI companies' cavalier use of user data has clearly got users worried. Is the pivot to AI in health happening too
quickly? Do we have appropriate safeguards in place yet? And is your data being mined without your consent?

It's all about user trust, it seems. Samsung made headlines earlier this
month for the wrong reasons, as a claim hit the internet stating that Samsung Health will delete your data unless you allow the app to access your
sensitive health information for AI training purposes. Samsung later
clarified this was not the case in a statement to 9to5Google . While the
rumor was apparently false, it does demonstrate how worried people are when
it comes to AI harvesting their health data. You may like Samsung Galaxy
Watch users are getting a completely redesigned, AI-first app for a 'personalized experience' Google Health has taken over from Fitbit but I
still don't trust AI We got a first look at Samsung Intelligent Eyewear, the smart glasses entering a fraught market worried about privacy Trust and Privacy (Image credit: Future) During Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, I got to conduct a one-on-one interview with Annika Bizon, VP of Product and Marketing for Mobile Experience at Samsung, and ask her about Samsung's strategy when
it comes to AI and healthcare including how it's intending to safeguard
their user's valuable data.

"The user is in control, right?," she tells me, "you opt-in to decide what
you want something to understand around your health. You're in control
through your fame and through the Samsung health app. That's number one. AI
is there to assist you and make your experience better." Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Bizon and her team also clarified that all Samsung Health features are usable whether you choose to share your data or not. This attempt to reassure
Samsung users about trust and privacy echoed all throughout the Unpacked conference: when I approached someone to talk about Samsung's new Intelligent Eyewear smart glasses, the first bit of sales spiel I got was centered on privacy and transparency features. Clearly, Samsung and its partners at
Google are keen to avoid the growing backlash against smart specs . (Image credit: Samsung) This continued during a Health Forum attended by
journalists. Speaking about medical advances powered by Samsung and AI, Rohit Ali, Head of the Technology Incubation Lab at Samsung R&D Institute UK, said during the panel, "as long as we ensure that data is private, trust can be viable. We at Samsung completely believe that data belongs to the user, and
we are just custodians."

Bizon said Samsung's approach is "if it's got AI involved in it, you're in control," with the ability to toggle the data you share and the data you don't. However, she did then go on to say that when users start to use these features, that "you realize you don't want to 'not opt-in' because it's
giving you better understanding of your health situation." Without opting in to using the AI features, you're not getting everything Samsung Health has to offer. What to read next I've been using Google Health's new AI Coach for a week here's 3 things I liked about the Fitbit Premium revamp (and 2 I really didn't) Google's future for healthcare has AI for both the clinician and the patient How healthcare practices should evaluate AI vendors 'We want to keep people away from doctors' Annika Bizon VP of Product and Marketing for Mobile Experience Watch: Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 / Watch9 hands-on Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 & Watch 9 hands-on: better in every way - YouTube Watch On "Gone are the days of 10,000 steps and eight hours' sleep," said Bizon, telling me that old-fashioned blanket advice was never suitable for everyone. "We're in a space of 'your health, your way', and that's where AI and incredible sensor technology innovation brings those two together.

"We want to keep people away from doctors. We want to give people small
nudges so they can make their lives better."

Bizon is talking about AI picking up on your body's trends and seeing things before they happen, with preventative health features ensuring people don't necessarily need doctors and when they do, they're catching things like
heart problems early.

The new Vitals feature is the key to this, which tracks five different metrics, many of them based on heart health, while you sleep with a Samsung watch or Galaxy Ring on. "Through things like understanding how your respiratory system is working, it might tell you that might be coming down with a cold," says Bizon, "and therefore, you can manage that. You might go, 'I need to have more vitamins' or 'I need to sleep a bit more', or 'I might not go to the gym tomorrow'.

"Little triggers and little nudges, right the way through to understanding your heart health in way more detail. Your ECG is taken while you're
sleeping. And then that is, you know, even endorsed by the MHRA [the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency], which means that you
can send that directly directly to your doctor." (Image credit: Samsung) An
AI nutrition tracking feature will also be launching in beta on Samsung
Health very soon, which allows you to take a photo of your plate and it'll
log an estimation of your macros like Google Health and Garmin Connect does. These coupled with the Antioxidant Index on watches, which Bizon says help users "understand what you're putting in your body, so that you can manage your overall health in a better way", have the potential to become quite a powerful set of nutrition features across the Samsung ecosystem.

This preventative health design is part of Samsung's desire to keep people away from doctors, as Bizon puts it, and empower its users to lead healthier lives. It just might work, too as long as that all-important trust and faith in Samsung's ability to keep its user's health data private is maintained.

During Samsung's Health Forum, Samsung's Head of Digital Health Dr Hon Pak said "whether it's data or the insights we derive, someone has to trust this is right for them. And then there's the issue of what we're doing to store
and use that data appropriately, because once you lose trust, nothing else matters."

Samsung is being very careful and conscious with all its trust-first messaging, and it's paying attention to controversies involving other companies like Meta. The success of its plans for AI health all depend on this. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/health-fitness/exclusive-we-want-to-keep-people-away -from-doctors-why-samsung-has-gone-all-in-on-ai-health-according-to-its-execut ives-but-do-users-trust-it


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