Does Access to Human Coaches Lead To More Weight Loss than with AI Coaches Alone?

Obesity and excess weight are major global health challenges. A number of technological solutions, including mobile apps, have been developed to help people lose weight. Many such applications provide access to human coaches who help consumers set goals, motivate them, answer questions and help them in their weight loss journeys. Alternatively, similar services could be provided using AI coaches, which would be cheaper and more scalable than human coaches. In this study, we ask if access to human coaches incrementally affects weight loss outcomes for consumers relative to having AI coaches alone. 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 into these plans using a matching-based approach that leverages rich behavioral data to find matching consumers on the two types of plans. Our empirical analysis of about 65000 consumers reveals access to 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 impact on weight loss.