The Secret to AI-Driven Behavior Change Isn’t About Telling. It’s About Persuading: 3 Lessons From Leading a Health Behavior Change Startup.
For the past three years, I’ve been at the helm of Daytona Health pioneering “precision coaching” — a human-led, AI-powered approach to solve healthcare’s Mount Everest: lifestyle change.
70% of chronic diseases, cancer, cognitive decline — stem from our behaviors. Sleep. Exercise. Nutrition. Stress. Relationships.
So we put on our climbing shoes and started helping our members climb this peak. And we’re getting results. Weight loss. Diabetes reversal. Reduction of heart attack risk by 55%. Our users stick with it for months and even years.
Why? We learned three crucial lessons:
1. Humans are essential. AI should connect people, not isolate them. No one wants to talk with ChatGPT all day. Trust me, we’ve tested it.
2. 900 reminders a day are the path to irrelevance. Bombard people with instructions, and watch how quickly they silence their devices.
3. Most IMPORTANT: People aren’t robots. There’s an ENORMOUS difference between TELLING and PERSUADING.
Too many platforms are stuck in “tell” mode, treating humans like apps running code. That’s not how we work. We persuade. The key to persuasion? Psychology and emotion.
To provide emotionally relevant, context-sensitive nudges, you need to understand how people think: their preferences, barriers, wins, personality, etc. We go to INCREDIBLE lengths to gather this psychological information.
A concrete example:
An overweight single mother who’s conscientious, competitive, and deeply cares about her child’s health. The typical approach might tell her: “At 7 PM, make sure to eat at home instead of eating out. It’ll cut costs and calories.”
But that’s instruction, not persuasion. It doesn’t tap into her psychology or motivations.
Our approach: “You know what would be something great you could do with your son tonight? Cook at home and show him what good food looks like. That’s what the top 1% of moms do.”
See the difference? The first message is telling, the second is persuading. It appeals to her competitiveness, her desire to be a great mom, and her wish to set a positive example for her child. That’s the power of understanding human psychology and emotion in driving behavior change.
Real lifestyle change means reaching out with emotion, not just data. Be the Oracle in The Matrix: tell people exactly what they need to hear, at the right time, with the right tone.
We’re training an AI model to do just this: deliver captivating, emotionally relevant nudges. Our AI understands human psychology at a deep level.
Why am I sharing this? The stakes couldn’t be higher. Chronic diseases are killing us. Lifestyle change is our best weapon.Remember what Zig Ziglar said about the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”? “Yes, but you can salt the oats.”
We’re salting the oats.
Join us, let’s talk.
