The role AI plays in health & wellness marketing

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the health & wellness industry, changing not only how consumers manage their well-being but also how marketers connect with their audiences.

How consumers use AI in health & wellness

The use of AI in the health & wellness industry has been steadily growing over the years. What started with the increased use of fitness trackers and wearable technology has now expanded considerably. From nutrition apps and virtual health assistants to sophisticated chatbots – advancements are even moving towards personalised medicine and genetic testing!

The expansion of AI does not just stop at the introduction of new technologies, it’s also changing how people seek, and prefer to receive, health information. Today, individuals are frequently turning to AI-powered search engines to ask personal health questions, research symptoms, and explore various treatment or management options. This shift stems from a greater need for personalised information, tailored precisely to their specific ailments or needs. Consumers seeking health advice often want quick, rapid responses – something AI search excels at providing, unlike traditional search engines where they would typically need to browse several links to find specific answers.

Impact on marketing strategies

For digital marketers in the health & wellness space, this widespread adoption of AI presents a powerful opportunity to revolutionise and personalise digital strategies. The rich data available from wearable technology, for instance, offers the ability to craft hyper-personalised messaging and highly targeted campaigns. This means you can create content and outreach that genuinely resonates with an individual’s specific needs and health journey.

Beyond personalisation, brands would significantly benefit from performing an AI audit on their current digital marketing strategies. This helps identify where optimisations can be made to ensure content is being pulled as a source for AI-generated data, both increasing brand visibility and authority.

Informational preferences

The health & wellness audience has been using AI technology almost subconsciously for several years, resulting in a consumer base increasingly reliant on digital solutions. Consequently, marketers must adapt their strategies to accommodate this shift:

• Digital-first approach: Health & wellness marketers need to adopt a digital-first strategy, such as mobile-first optimisation, and improving page speed. This not only improves user experience, but acts as a signal of high quality content for search engines. This significantly increases the likelihood of this content being used as a reliable source for AI-powered search results.
• Data integration: With the correct permissions, marketers can use the data gathered from fitness apps to provide their audiences with more personalised campaigns, and tailored outreach that resonates with their unique needs.

Changes in search behaviour

Using conversational and specific language has increased in consumer search behaviour. This shift comes from more consumers using generative search engines to ask complex, personal health questions, and the increase of AI-based snippets on traditional search engines. To accommodate, digital marketers should:

• Optimise organic search: Move beyond keyword optimisation to optimising for natural language queries and long-tail keywords.
• Content creation: Create content that answers specific questions and addresses common health concerns, such as in-depth FAQs, tutorials, and guides (more on this below).
• AI overviews: Aim to have your content referenced and sourced in AI-powered features on traditional search engines such as AI overviews, by providing clear and concise answers to health questions.

AI optimised content

As mentioned above, with increased use of AI-powered search, content needs to be optimised to appear on these platforms. Brands would benefit from conducting an AI audit to assess whether the following is optimised for AI-platforms:

• Content quality: is your current content high-quality and evidence-based? Does it provide genuine value for your audience?
• Expert validation: Seek input from medical professionals or experts to ensure accuracy and build trust.
• Transparency: Be transparent about sources and methods, cite research, and avoid making unsubstantiated claims.
• Build authority: Establish thought leadership by publishing in reputable health journals or collaborating with established authorities. Specifically, focus on demonstrating Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) on search engines, as these are key signals that AI algorithms use to evaluate content quality and reliability. Content that reflects strong EEAT is more likely to be sourced and recommended by AI-powered search engines and platforms.

Future trends and predictions

Even more personalisation!!!

Health & wellness marketing already has the potential to be personalised, but as AI continues to advance – and treatments and medications can be developed and tailored to individual needs – the level of personalisation will continue to deepen.

The possibilities are endless.

• Individualised content: Marketers will leverage AI to create highly personalised content that resonates with individual patient needs, preferences, and health journeys. This goes beyond basic personalisation to tailoring messages based on medical history, current conditions, and even emotional states.
• Real-time engagement: AI will enable real-time personalisation, allowing marketers to adjust messaging instantly as new data becomes available (e.g., after a doctor’s visit or lab result). This means delivering information at the most valuable moments.
• Predictive marketing: AI will predict patient behaviours and preferences, allowing marketers to proactively engage individuals with relevant services, treatments, or preventive measures before they even realise they need them. For example, promoting a specific screening to someone at high risk based on their data.

From treatment to prevention

AI will be key to developing preventative healthcare, shifting the focus from treating illness to actively maintaining wellness.

• Content as a service: Marketing will shift from direct selling to providing valuable, educational content that empowers individuals to take charge of their health. AI can help to generate and curate this content efficiently.
• Highlighting preventative benefits: Marketing campaigns will focus on the long-term benefits of preventative care enabled by AI.
• Empowering self-care: Marketing will promote AI-powered tools and apps that enable self-monitoring, personalised coaching, and proactive health management, positioning brands as partners in wellness.

Conclusion

The role of AI in health & wellness marketing is not just a trend, but a shift that will continue to redefine the industry. As AI capabilities expand, we’ll see increasingly personalised, predictive, and preventative approaches to care, driven by data and technology.

For digital marketers, this means moving beyond traditional tactics and embracing a future where content is a service, engagement is real-time, and personalisation reaches levels once unimaginable. Those who adapt and leverage AI effectively will be best positioned to empower consumers, build strong brands, and lead the way in this exciting new era of health & wellness.