Does Access to Human Coaches Lead to More Weight Loss Than With AI Coaches Alone?

Obesity and excess weight are major global health challenges. Several technological solutions, including mobile apps, have been developed to help people lose weight, many of which provide access to human coaches who help consumers set goals, motivate them, answer questions, and help them in their weight loss journeys. Alternatively, AI coaches could provide similar services efficiently and at scale. In this study, we ask how having access to AI coaches alone compares in terms of achieving the goal of weight loss to also having access to human coaches. Our empirical context is a mobile app with two types of subscription plans, those with AI coaches only and those with additional access to human coaches. We compare adopters of the two types of plans on their weight loss achievements. We address potential self-selection in these plans using a matching-based approach that leverages rich behavioral data. Our empirical analysis of about 65,000 consumers suggests that access to AI plus human coaches leads to higher weight loss than with AI coaches alone. We document heterogeneity in these differences based on age, gender, and starting BMI of the consumers. We also explore potential mechanisms for the human coach’s impact on weight loss.

History: Olivier Toubia served as the senior editor for this article.

Funding: Funding for this research was provided by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Stanford University.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.0029.