Apple Advancing AI-Powered Health Coaching System Despite Earlier Delays

Apple is pressing forward with its ambitious artificial intelligence-based health initiative, codenamed internally as "Project Mulberry," moving past earlier reports that suggested the company was scaling back the effort and pushing back its timeline.

The tech giant's latest plans still incorporate the new capabilities within its iOS 27 roadmap, according to Bloomberg's reporting. However, these features are not expected to debut simultaneously with the system's launch. Instead, Apple intends to roll them out progressively through subsequent software updates.

The centerpiece of the initiative is a "smart health coach" system that taps into data collected through the Apple Health application to assess an individual's overall health status and deliver tailored suggestions suited to their particular circumstances.

The company also intends to leverage the iPhone's camera as a tool for monitoring physical activity, offering real-time coaching cues as users perform their workouts.

Alongside these developments, Apple is enhancing heart rate monitoring capabilities in its wearable devices through watchOS 27. This update prioritizes refining system performance and stability over introducing substantial new functionality.

While specific technical specifications remain under wraps, industry observers anticipate that improvements will center on boosting the precision of heart rate detection and furnishing more granular and uninterrupted monitoring information. This advancement would strengthen how the smartwatch connects with the broader health coaching platform down the line.

The company had initially targeted a launch coinciding with an overhauled Health application design as part of the iOS 26.4 update. That timeline shifted to iOS 27 after Apple reassessed the project's scope and trimmed certain objectives.

Current expectations point to the service potentially arriving through point releases such as iOS 27.1 or iOS 27.4, with the redesigned Health application potentially appearing in the base iOS 27 version.

Bloomberg's sources indicate that the decision to postpone stemmed from an internal review where Apple determined the service had not yet attained sufficient competitive standing against existing commercial digital health offerings available in the marketplace. This assessment prompted the company to allocate additional development resources toward elevating the product's quality before its eventual debut.