There’s a growing global problem with workplace illness. The latest UK figures estimated that in 2022, sickness absence accounted for a record 185.6 million lost working days. Late last year, an FT editorial suggested that attractive wellbeing programmes could help employers stand out to prospective hires above and beyond a headline salary.

With?City workers increasingly wanting to take their Type-A performance home with them (just look at the popularity of endurance events, from marathons to long-distance triathlons and CrossFit events such as Hyrox), the market has long been primed for corporate wellness packages with a Third Space flavour.?

Enter CloudFit, a “holistic health platform” making use of machine learning to offer personalised employee fitness and wellbeing programmes. You tell the app your body measurements and your aims, and it’ll generate a programme of workouts, nutrition and sleep advice to help you meet them, which you can put into action in the gym or at home – it’ll adapt based on what equipment you have available to you.?

The platform’s co-founder and CEO Kristian Phillips, a former international rugby player for Wales and personal trainer, is a walking advertisement for the benefits of regular exercise. “My co-founder Inid Leksina is a former footballer so we both understood what professional healthcare looks like,” he says. “The long hours can really impact work-life balance, leading to burnout; we see the risk of musculoskeletal problems or diabetes from sitting at desks all day, the list goes on,” he continues. “It was shocking, really, because sport and physical activity were second nature to us.”?

Three more AI-enhanced training apps

Coopah, from ￡79.99 a year

Londoner Pete Cooper claims that running saved his life after a mental health crisis following his mother’s death in 2009. Having run all six major city marathons in her memory he’s set up Coopah to give others the same running buzz. Tell the app your planned event, your target time and which days of the week you like to go running, and it comes up with a plan that delivers effective results. It’s pleasantly light on data (no heart-rate zones, vertical ratios or stride lengths here) and the focus is on enjoyment as much as outcome. It’s seen me to a 10k personal best, and is the official training app for the London marathon. coopah.com

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Humango, from $9 a month

Humango’s virtual coach Hugo could be the keen triathlete’s best friend. For those who are serious about their multi-sport performance the four-tier membership offers tailored coaching for anything up to an Ironman distance, with workouts that will export to existing subscriptions such as Zwift, Garmin Connect and Wahoo. The paid plans include your essential strength and conditioning work, and will adapt around professional and family commitments in your calendar, so you don’t have to sacrifice your entire life on the swim-bike-run altar. humango.ai

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Magic mirror, ￡1,399

Part home accessory, part AI-powered fitness gadget – the Magic mirror aims to bring personal training home with workout tracking features that watch your form and tell you when it’s time to up your weight. Magic promises regular feature updates and early adopters will get a lifetime membership for free. Add “the world’s smartest adjustable dumbbells” and Magic’s incline bench to complete the home-fitness set. magic.fit

Kit Harington, who’s been one of Phillips’s personal training clients since 2019, is now an investor in CloudFit. “Health and fitness have been really central in my life the past few years and I’m interested in where technology and innovation are taking it,” says the actor via email. “CloudFit feels like the future in the best sense – AI being used to give everyone what I’m so lucky to be able to afford. A PT in your pocket – it’s cool.” (Perhaps most importantly it won’t judge you for overdoing it in the pub after work the night before. “If you’re not feeling great you can tell the app and it’ll amend your session,” adds Phillips. ōura ring users should feel right at home.)

An early corporate adopter of the platform is Howden Insurance, which has rolled the tool out to its US reinsurance arm. “In the past few years we’ve been trying to find new ways to support our colleagues,” explains vice-chair Elliot Richardson. “Helping people around their physical wellbeing, there’s a huge correlation with making them feel better mentally. I introduced CloudFit to our HR team and they loved it.”

Much of the workplace illness crisis is related to mental health, with Deloitte last year calculating that the annual cost to companies of poor mental health was ￡5,379 per employee. On the flip side, businesses that take their employees’ health seriously have reaped huge benefits – while it was shooting up the S&P 500 last year, Nvidia was also winning plaudits for its positive working environment. “There’s no doubt that if people use it there’s an immediate return,” says Howden’s Richardson. He also hopes that taking on CloudFit will make Howden a more attractive proposition for prospective new hires. “Young people and university leavers, they’re interested in what companies are offering. It’s completely different, the way they talk and how open they are.”

With Keir Starmer apparently keen to embrace AI in healthcare, is there a place for CloudFit in the wider health conversation? “We aspire to work with the NHS,” says Phillips. “With the benefits of promoting activity, you could end up decreasing hospitalisation and waiting lists for a fraction of the cost.” While CloudFit is coming soon to a boardroom near you, there’s clearly no limit to Phillips’ ambitions.