Vitality and Google Expand Technology Partnership to Bring AI-Driven Health Platform to the United States to Incentivize Healthier Behaviors

Vitality AI, built on Google Cloud and using Gemini Enterprise, expands into the U.S. market — bringing proven personalized health recommendations, coaching, and incentives to health plans and employers at scale

NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Vitality, a global leader in behavioral change across insurance and health plans, in partnership with Google, today announced the extension of Vitality AI into the United States. Built on Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise, the platform is already delivering measurable results internationally addressing one of healthcare's most persistent challenges: helping people take meaningful action to improve their health.

The expansion comes as U.S. employers face mounting employee health benefit costs, health plans experience low engagement, and people struggle to navigate complex healthcare systems. Vitality AI delivers a solution through personalized recommendations, coaching, and incentives to generate long-term healthier behaviors.

Vitality AI uses Google Cloud's leading AI and data analytics technologies, including Gemini Enterprise and Google's Gemini models, coupled with Vitality's dataset of more than 2,800 unique health and behavioral dimensions. By analyzing an individual's health profile, lifestyle, and risk factors, Vitality AI generates personalized insights at a 99.2% accuracy rate based on physicians' review.*

Engagement driven clinical and behavioral outcomes of Vitality AI

Vitality AI's personalized incentives have delivered measurable clinical and financial impact across international markets to date:

• Engagement and incentive effectiveness
  • Members receiving personalized, AI-driven recommendations were 3.3 times more likely to complete a mental wellbeing assessment, 2.7 times more likely to complete an online health review, and 1.4 times more likely to complete a colorectal cancer screening.*
  • 97% of members found their personalized AI reports useful, rating their likelihood of acting on the AI's recommendations at 8.8 out of 10 – which rose to 9.32 out of 10 when localized incentives were added.*
• Physical activity, sleep, and wellbeing
  • High-BMI participants achieved a 200%+ increase in physical activity after enrollment on Vitality AI.***
  • Members who completed the personalized steps program sustained an average 40% improvement in their daily step counts.****
  • Participants who improved their sleep habits gained an average of 2+ hours of additional sleep per week, which was associated with 5% lower in-hospital claims.*****
  • 87% of coaching participants presenting with extreme stress reported a measurable improvement in their overall wellbeing.***
• Preventative care and early detection
  • Recommending and incentivizing cancer screenings led to an estimated 23,302 additional screenings in 2025, resulting in 219 early detections and an estimated six deaths prevented.******
  • Low-cost, targeted rewards proved highly effective – a $31 incentive increased the likelihood of cholesterol testing by 52%, while rewards ranging from $19 to $45 drove similar increases for pap smears, mammograms, and colorectal screenings.******

Driving measurable returns for health payers, employers and insurers

For health payers, employers and insurers, Vitality AI delivers a clear, evidence-based financial case driven by sustained behavior change at scale – achieved through Google's Gemini models and Vitality's longitudinal dataset:

• Return on investment: Engaged clients experience a 4% reduction in healthcare claims costs on average, delivering a 180% return on investment.***
• Reduced risk: The financial benefit increases with employee participation; members who achieve a higher Vitality Status demonstrate 15% lower risk-adjusted claims costs.***
• Workplace productivity gains: The platform recovers an average of 4.4 productive days per employee per year, equivalent to annual savings of $1,047 per employee.***

Emile Stipp, CEO of Vitality AI, said: "Through our partnership with Google, we've shown that AI's impact on health care is no longer a promise – but a proven differentiator. We've seen members take screenings they would have skipped, build and sustain healthy habits, and reduce costs. Extending Vitality AI into the U.S. brings that proof to millions more."

Maureen Costello, Vice President, UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa, Google Cloud, said: "Having seen the impact of our partnership firsthand across multiple markets, we are thrilled to support Vitality in expanding this proven, AI-powered platform within the U.S. market. Vitality is delivering the level of personalization needed to drive real, measurable health outcomes. We are proud to expand this partnership to help U.S. employers and other members proactively engage with their health. Today's announcement marks the next step in Vitality's partnership with Google, with a goal of extending life expectancy and reducing healthcare-associated costs across the U.S."

The U.S. health gap

The U.S. expansion of Vitality AI directly addresses the mounting costs and navigation complexities that people are facing. For employers and their workforce in particular, data shows:

• Benefits complexity: 41% of U.S. employees struggle to navigate their health benefits and digital health tools.**
• Delayed care: Over half (53%) of workers have delayed or avoided preventative healthcare due to cost, and 49% say they have difficulty navigating the healthcare and insurance system.**
• Mental health barriers: 69% of employees report that workplace stress affects them; only 26% feel they face no barriers to discussing mental health with their employer.**

Notes to Editors

• Vitality's U.S business: Vitality's U.S business has seen strong momentum, including U.S. annual revenue growth of 22% year-over-year and recent acquisitions of Icario, Ramp Health and WellSpark – significantly increasing the reach and services provided by Vitality. 
• Vitality AI is now live across Vitality and Discovery and in the UK, South Africa and the United States. Since June 2025, more than 210,000 people in the U.S. have received an AI-driven personalized health action, and 54% have completed at least one AI-recommended health action from Vitality. 
• Vitality Status is the tiered reward and engagement framework used by the Vitality Group to measure and incentivize healthy lifestyle choices. Members earn Vitality points by engaging in healthy behaviors to move through the statuses, which are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. People are incentivized to earn points or improve their status with a full range of rewards. 

About Vitality

Vitality is a global company operating in the insurance market, with presence in over 35 markets and impacting more than 54 million lives. Vitality transforms insurance markets by integrating technology, actuarial science, and behavioral insights to make people healthier and create shared value for clients, insurers, and society. They have a simple yet powerful core purpose: to make people healthier and enhance and protect their lives, and this is done through a pioneering Shared Value Insurance model, which aligns the interests of individuals, insurers, and society: when people become healthier, everyone benefits.

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud offers a powerful, optimized AI stack—including AI infrastructure, leading models like Gemini, data management capabilities, multicloud security solutions, developer tools and platform, as well as agents and applications—that enables organizations to transform their business for the Agentic Era. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

Sources

* Vitality data: 99.2% accuracy rate based on review of platform-generated reports by 686 physicians, tested on a cohort of more than 1,300 Discovery staff. Next best action uplift figures (3.3x mental wellbeing assessments, 2.7x online health reviews, 1.4x colorectal cancer screening) from Vitality data. 

** Vitality, Opinium US polling data, August 2026: Online survey of 2,000 US workers conducted by Opinium on behalf of Vitality. 

*** Vitality data, May 2026: 4% lower claims costs and 180% ROI independently reviewed by Arbital Health. 15% lower overall risk-adjusted claims cost for higher Vitality Statuses independently endorsed by the Validation Institute. 200%+ physical activity increase among high-BMI members, 87% stress improvement among coaching participants, and 4.4 productive days saved per employee per year (average saving of $1,047 per employee annually).

**** Vitality data: members enrolled in the personalized steps program were assigned a starting step target based on their existing activity levels and progressed upward using an algorithm calibrated to the pace at which each individual could sustainably increase their habit. Members who completed the program went from an average of approximately 4,900 steps per day before enrollment to sustaining 6,900 steps after graduating. Analysis is based on a cohort of approximately 1,500 members who completed 5 or more weeks of the program. 

***** Vitality, Discovery data: Analysis of Vitality members tracked before and after the launch of the Vitality Sleep Rewards program over a four-month period. 19% of members improved their sleep habit, gaining an average of 19.8 minutes of sleep per night (approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes per week). Analysis of in-hospital claims found that maintaining a good sleep habit is associated with 5% lower in-hospital claims and improving a sleep habit with 7% lower in-hospital claims. 

****** Vitality, Discovery data: Personalized incentive and cancer screening data from Vitality members. In 2025, it is estimated that recommending and incentivizing cancer screenings resulted in 23,302 additional screenings, representing a 5.5% increase relative to the historic trends, leading to 219 additional detections and an estimated 6 deaths prevented. Analysis found that while larger rewards (up to $45) produced the strongest behavioral response for some actions – a $31 reward increased the likelihood of cholesterol testing by 52% relative to no reward – smaller rewards ($19–$25) were similarly effective at driving cervical and colorectal cancer screening as well as emerging risk GP visits, demonstrating that recommendation relevance and member targeting can be as important as reward magnitude. 

SOURCE Google Cloud