Artificial intelligence company OpenAI is considering launching consumer-oriented health products, including personal health assistants or health data aggregation platforms, marking its expansion into vertical areas beyond its core business. This will be OpenAI’s most ambitious commercialization attempt to date, aiming to overcome the medical data integration problem that has long plagued technology giants.
In June this year, OpenAI appointed Nate Gross, co-founder of the doctor social platform Doximity, as the company's head of medical strategy. In August, it hired former Instagram executive Ashley Alexander as vice president of health products. Gross revealed at the HLTH conference in October that ChatGPT attracts approximately 800 million active users every week, many of whom seek medical advice.
OpenAI's entry into the health data field means a return to the medical "battlefield" where technology giants have repeatedly failed. Microsoft's HealthVault (2007-2019) and Google's Google Health (2008-2011) both failed due to low user stickiness and data fragmentation; Amazon will also close the Halo health hardware business in 2023.
However, competition is heating up quickly. Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, will launch "Verily Me" in October 2025, providing personalized health advice generated by the AI companion "Violet" and a team of doctors, which highly overlaps with the potential direction of OpenAI.
Unlike Google’s self-built ecosystem, OpenAI prefers a cooperative approach. The company has cooperated with Eli Lilly and Sanofi in drug research and development. Gross said at the meeting: "The way we achieve the greatest value is through a strong partner ecosystem."
GPT-5, released by OpenAI in August 2025, has strengthened its medical capabilities. Company CEO Altman said it is "the most suitable model for medical treatment so far." In addition, CPT-5 also achieved the highest score in the HealthBench test. Although the company has not publicly confirmed its health product plans, the industry generally believes that OpenAI is paving the way to officially enter the medical technology field.