The heat coming off the AI rocket streaking over the health care landscape is stoking a fundamental fear on the ground: inviting more technology into the patient experience will further dehumanize care. The concern is understandable. Nothing is more personal than health, and for health and wellbeing programs, nothing motivates behavior change like personal engagement. But there's a paradox – actually two – riding inside the rocket's skin. To begin with, AI has the potential to make individuals' health journeys more personalized, rather than less.

Secondly, we've been tapping the roots of AI to solve patient problems for a long time. In clinical areas like cancer care, AI is informing providers and their patients to make more personalized therapeutic recommendations. In my area of health – improving physical and mental wellbeing through holistic health management and lifestyle changes – how the technology will be used will determine the answer to a key question: Can we design AI data and insights to be human-centered, so they better motivate and equip people to take greater agency over their health? If AI can do for health and wellbeing programs what it is beginning to do for clinical intervention, it can expand personal engagement in preventative behaviors, driving more positive outcomes.