Oura launches proprietary AI model for women's health spanning menstrual cycles to menopause

Oura launches a proprietary AI model focused on women's health | TechCrunch

Oura announced on Tuesday that it's launching its first proprietary AI model to enable its AI chatbot, Oura Advisor, to deliver personalized insights around women's health. The company says the model supports questions spanning the full reproductive health spectrum, from early menstrual cycles through menopause. The new model is rolling out in Oura Labs, the company's opt-in, experimental feature hub within the Oura app. Oura says the new model draws on established medical standards, research, and knowledge sources reviewed by its in-house team of board-certified clinicians and women's health experts. It also integrates biometric signals and long-term trends to deliver personalized guidance. As people are increasingly turning to AI chatbots for health guidance, from cycle changes to perimenopause symptoms, Oura says there is a need for models designed specifically for women. "This custom model is a fundamental shift in how we responsibly deploy AI in health to meet the needs of our members," said Ricky Bloomfield, MD, chief medical officer at Oura, in a press release. "Women's health is too complex -- and too often overlooked -- to rely on one-size-fits-all systems. By designing a model specifically for women and grounding it in trusted clinical science and real-world biometric data, we're setting the standard for how responsible intelligence should be built and expanded across more areas of health, pairing rigorous science with the lived, longitudinal data that makes Oura uniquely powerful." The launch of the new women's health AI model comes as Oura chief commercial officer Dorothy Kilroy told TechCrunch last October that the company's fastest-growing user segment isn't gym rats, it's women in their early twenties. When a user asks Oura Advisor a women's health question, the chatbot prompts the new model to reference its research and knowledge sources while also analyzing the user's relevant biometric signals across sleep, activity, cycle and pregnancy data, stress, and more. The new model is intentionally designed to be non-dismissive, reassuring, and emotionally supportive, the company notes. However, it's not designed to be a doctor, as users shouldn't use the chatbot for a diagnosis or treatment plan. Oura says the model is hosted entirely on Oura-controlled infrastructure, and that conversations are never shared or sold. Users who want to access the new model can opt into Oura Labs by navigating to the drop down menu on the upper left corner of the Oura app.

Oura adds a model designed to discuss women's health to its AI chatbot.

The Oura Advisor chatbot will soon be able to offer smart ring wearers an AI model that it says covers "the full reproductive health spectrum, from early menstrual cycles through menopause." Of course, reproductive health data is sensitive, particularly in places like the US -- you might want to think carefully before handing it over. Here's what Oura is saying about the model's privacy: It is hosted entirely on Oura-controlled infrastructure, and conversations are never sold, shared, or used to train public or third-party AI systems.

Oura's latest feature puts women's health at the center

The feature combines clinician-reviewed research with users' data to interpret cycle, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause trends. Oura is expanding its focus on women's health with a new AI model. The feature is the company's first proprietary AI system and aims to turn ring data into personalized guidance. It is rolling out for testing in Oura Labs within Oura Advisor, the company's in-app AI assistant. Unlike earlier Advisor updates that used general AI systems, the new tool runs on a custom model built around clinician-reviewed women's health research. According to Oura, the system interprets long-term trends, including sleep, cycle tracking, activity, stress, and pregnancy signals, through the lens of broader women's health knowledge, to provide contextual guidance. The company positions the feature as a conversational tool rather than a medical service, noting that responses are tuned to be supportive and non-dismissive. Women's health is a major wearable battleground as companies race to translate data into insights about cycles, fertility, and menopause. A model built around that complexity gives Oura a clearer framework than applying a general chatbot to health metrics. As always, this comes with familiar limitations. AI guidance (even when clinically informed) isn't diagnostic. Oura is, however, careful to emphasize privacy as the feature enters testing. The company says the model runs on Oura-controlled infrastructure and that conversations are not sold, shared, or used to train public AI systems. Participation in Oura Labs is optional. If successful, tools like this could mark a broader shift in wearable health from tracking metrics to interpreting them. The challenge isn't collecting data anymore as much as turning long-term patterns into guidance that is genuinely useful.

Oura finally gives its AI the knowledge boost many wearers have waited for

Oura has made some important changes to its Oura Advisor AI assistant, which now includes a proprietary language model specifically made to support women. New AI feature The model, which will start life inside Oura's test platform, Oura Labs, has been trained on a wide variety of established medical standards, medical sources, and through relevant research. The data was then reviewed by Oura's own clinicians and women's health experts. Wearers will be able to ask the Oura Advisor questions on, "the full reproductive health spectrum, from early menstrual cycles through menopause," according to the company. To answer questions, it will draw on its training, and also examine data taken from the Oura Ring's sensors. Together, this will help the AI to provide guidance based on women's physiology and life stages, going beyond what a standard AI model is capable of. Chris Curry MD, Oura's clinical director of women's health, explained more: If someone asks, 'Why has my cycle suddenly become irregular, and is that something to worry about?' Oura Advisor can walk them through what's typical, what their data may be showing, and what would be most helpful to surface in conversations with their provider. It translates complex science into clear, compassionate, always-available guidance, helping women connect what they're feeling with what they're seeing in their data, and allowing them to walk into discussions about their health more informed, confident, and in control of their decisions. Available in Oura Labs Because the new AI language model is part of the Oura Labs test bed inside the Oura Ring's app, women will have to opt-in to try it out. Oura Labs has been used to test a variety of different Oura Ring features, including Symptom Radar, which have subsequently been integrated into the full app. Oura also assures users its AI is hosted on its own platform, and it will never sell or share conversations. It won't use the conversations to train other AI systems either. Oura Ring ecosystem In 2024, Oura revealed nearly 60% of Oura owners were women, so the development of a custom AI language model, which also fills a gap in the market, makes sense for the company. There are two versions of the Oura Ring available. The titanium Oura Ring 4, which starts at $350, and the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic, which starts at $500. In our experience, the ceramic version is considerably more durable, but otherwise there are no differences between them. The Oura Ring 4's app costs $6 per month to access, and only the most basic data (and no AI) is available if you don't pay for the subscription. Despite the extra cost, the Oura Ring 4 is our recommended smart ring purchase. Oura Ring 4 8.5/10 Heart rate monitor Yes Notification support No Battery life Up to 8 days Sensors Heart rate/HRV; blood oxygen; skin temperature; accelerometer Water Resistance Water-resistant to 100 m Ring sizing 4 - 15 $349 at Oura $349 at Amazon $349 at Best Buy Expand Collapse