Adriemily Rigo was not feeling well. “To tell you the truth, I was sedentary, didn’t play a lot of sports, and didn’t take much care of myself,” she says.
She had gained weight, felt fatigued, and developed chronic migraines. Doctors then told her she had fatty liver disease. This is a serious metabolic disease that can lead to liver failure if left untreated.
Rigo was scared. So when her boss asked her if she wanted to try out the company’s new health and wellness app, she signed up. After following healthy eating advice and starting an exercise program, her symptoms were under control and she felt better than she had in years. “It was great for me,” Rigo says. “Now I’m challenging myself more and more every day.”
Rigo is prioritizing his health with the help of an AI-powered generative app called RadarFit. The Brazilian tech startup, launched in 2020 by three female entrepreneurs, has already attracted more than 1 million users with its unique gamification strategy designed to encourage healthy habits. I am.
Although RadarFit also serves individuals, it focuses on providing comprehensive health and wellness programs to corporate customers. “For companies, it solves the problem of the high costs of employee health issues and the need to invest heavily in health benefits,” said CEO Jade Uzzi Filizzola. states.
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Like many countries experiencing rapid urbanization, Brazil suffers from high rates of heart disease and metabolic diseases such as diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, also known as steatohepatitis. According to the Global Burden of Disease Database, the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Brazil is estimated at approximately 35.3%, the highest in Latin America, compared to 25% worldwide. According to the Journal of Hepatology, many chronic diseases, including NAFLD, can be prevented or even reversed through proper diet and exercise, although treatments can be expensive and potentially fatal. This is one of the reasons companies like Rigo are signing up to RadarFit. In the coming years, RadarFit has signed up more than 60 corporate customers and plans to have 80 commercial customers by the end of this year.
Powered by Microsoft Cloud, RadarFit runs on Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service and uses Microsoft Copilot Studio to automate marketing and analyze data and user feedback.
RadarFit’s impact on employee health “was a big surprise to us,” says Samuel Lopes Fontes, who oversees finance and human resources at Rigo’s employer, Cooabriel. After persistent but friendly prompting from the RadarFit app, López-Fontes said, “People who claimed they didn’t have time to go to the gym were encouraged to exercise and wake up early so they could take care of themselves. It has become.” In a further change, colleagues are calling on companies to stock employee kitchens with more fresh fruits and vegetables.
Two years ago, 27 of Cooabriel’s 470 employees signed up for RadarFit. López Fontes said word got out and 59 people are now participating, and health complaints have been cut in half in the first six months of this year.
Thanks to RadarFit’s AI-generated app, López Fontes, who like Rigo also developed fatty liver disease (although he discovered it a long time ago), improved his diet and started running more, after which his doctor told him he was sick. He was declared to be in remission.
Of course, there are thousands of apps and websites offering health advice, and millions of people who want to live a healthier lifestyle but aren’t able to.
This is where gamification comes in. “The root cause of the difficulty in achieving a healthy lifestyle is the lack of immediate results,” Filizzola says. Even if a person does 60 minutes of exercise or eats a healthy diet, “you’re not going to get the health and body you want right away,” she says. “The lack of immediate rewards is a trigger for decreased motivation.”
“For companies, it solves the problem of high costs associated with employee health issues and the need to invest heavily in health benefits,” said Jade Ucci, CEO of RadarFit in Brazil.・Mr. Filizzola says: Photo courtesy of Avener Prado.
That’s why RadarFit uses generative AI in conjunction with a points system to encourage healthier choices. Anonymized user data captured from uploaded images of meals and other activities generates “tags” or labels that generate personalized recommendations based on each healthy habit the user has registered. used to. The avatar “learns” from user input and makes dietary and physical activity recommendations tailored to individual health goals. Points awarded for healthy choices can be exchanged for donations to social or environmental causes, or for products such as appliances and electronics.
Different point categories recognize that some tasks are more difficult than others. For example, a 15-minute workout can earn you 3 points, while a 60-minute workout is worth 9 points. Healthy eating can earn you 31 points, highlighting the importance of healthy eating. On the other hand, important but simple tasks like drinking a glass of water can earn you 5 points.
The RadarFit app also allows users to track their progress compared to their peers. This kind of friendly competition has been shown in research to act as an additional stimulus to behavior (after comparing one’s score with other learners on a popular learning tool, one learns more Well known to those who have practiced) language apps). Users may also choose not to participate in company contests.
Tatiany Duarte, chief technology officer at RadarFit, who designed her first video game at age 15, says the combination of generative AI and gamification makes what could be a scary task fun and engaging. He says it will change. That “makes it more playful,” she says.
