Ro has launched Robin, an AI health agent, and its CEO wants Ro to become the place that guides your care. An outside expert says the proof is not in yet.
Ro announced on Thursday that it is launching Robin, an AI health agent meant to handle routine parts of medical care. Ro CEO and co-founder Zach Reitano gave Business Insider a preview. His larger goal is for Ro to become the one place that steers a person through the whole US healthcare system.
Robin is built to do more than answer a health question in a general chatbot like ChatGPT. In the demo, it handled side effects, meal planning and medication changes. To personalize its advice, it draws on information from doctors, patient feedback, prescriptions and smartphones. The starting point is Ro's current subscribers.
Reitano used the word "quarterback" for the role he wants Ro to play. He does not expect one provider to handle all of someone's care. He does expect one place to help people navigate the rest.
His plan is to spot where Ro customers must go to specialists for common conditions or prescriptions, then offer more of that care inside Ro. Asked if the ultimate goal is a full-service virtual clinic, he said yes, that is the hope.
Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, chair of the health policy department at Brown University, studies telehealth. He said the idea rests on a premise: more health data should lead to better recommendations. Nobody yet knows if that is true. "I would love some evidence before millions of Americans start doing this," he said.
He said he would be more likely to use an AI agent built into an official electronic health record system, which holds what he has told his own doctors and has to follow strict privacy rules. He also pointed to "weird financial incentives" at Ro. Business Insider did not see Ro's privacy policy for Robin.
Reitano said chasing short-term profit at the cost of a good patient experience is not in the company's interest. "We fight for patients and we serve you, and if we don't, then we go out of business," he said.
Before sharing health data with any AI helper, read its privacy policy and ask whether the company profits from the advice it gives.
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