OpenAI plans to healthcare sector to take on Google, Amazon, and others

OpenAI

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is reportedly preparing to enter the healthcare sector — a space where tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have all stumbled. According to Business Insider, the AI pioneer is exploring consumer-facing health applications that could give users more control over their medical information, including a potential personal health assistant and a health data aggregator.

The idea isn’t new. Big Tech has been trying for nearly two decades to revolutionise digital health records and patient data access, only to fall short. Microsoft’s HealthVault shut down in 2019 after 12 years of limited adoption, Google’s first attempt at a health record platform died in 2012, and Apple’s Health Records feature remains constrained by complex, hospital-by-hospital data agreements.

What makes OpenAI’s effort different is timing, technology, and scale. ChatGPT now attracts around 800 million active users weekly, many of whom already use it for medical information or wellness queries. This enormous user base, coupled with OpenAI’s advanced conversational AI capabilities, gives the company a real chance to deliver what others couldn’t — a truly intuitive, accessible, and scalable health assistant.

The company has also made key hires that signal intent. In June, OpenAI appointed Nate Gross, cofounder of the healthtech platform Doximity, to head its healthcare strategy. Two months later, it brought in Ashley Alexander, formerly of Instagram, as vice president of health products.

Investors believe OpenAI has the right formula to crack healthcare’s consumer side. “Consumers have historically gone to Google to ask their health questions, and it’s clear they’re now shifting those questions to LLMs,” said Greg Yap, a partner at Menlo Ventures. With recent US regulations banning “information blocking” and new data intermediaries like Health Gorilla and Particle Health simplifying record aggregation, the barriers that doomed previous attempts may finally be fading.

If OpenAI moves forward, it could go head-to-head with Alphabet’s Verily, which launched its own AI-powered health record app in October. Yet many analysts see OpenAI as a far more credible challenger, with deeper AI expertise, faster iteration cycles, and a singular focus unburdened by sprawling corporate structures.