Apple has introduced a groundbreaking feature with watchOS 26: Workout Buddy, an AI-powered voice fitness coach designed to elevate the workout experience on Apple Watch. Built on the company’s new Apple Intelligence platform, Workout Buddy offers real-time feedback, motivation, and personalized coaching directly through your Bluetooth headphones. While still in its early stages, Apple positions the tool as a step in transforming how users engage with fitness tracking.
AI Coaching Arrives on Apple Watch
Workout Buddy marks a major shift in Apple’s approach to health and fitness, embedding AI-powered encouragement into daily routines. According to Apple executives, the tool is not meant to replace a human coach, but to deliver tailored feedback that keeps users motivated throughout their sessions. Jay Blahnik, Apple’s VP of fitness technologies, emphasized that the goal was to make the tool accessible to all, not just elite athletes.
The feature supports eight workout types, including indoor and outdoor runs, walks, cycling, and strength training. Rather than giving general metrics, Workout Buddy uses contextual cues from user data to offer real-time updates. The audio feedback is dynamically generated using voices modeled after Apple Fitness Plus trainers.
How to Get Started With Workout Buddy
To enable Workout Buddy, users need to meet strict hardware requirements. The feature is only available on Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, and must be paired with an iPhone 15 Pro or newer running iOS 26. These devices are the only ones compatible with Apple Intelligence, which powers the AI coaching feature. Additionally, the device language must be set to English, the only supported language at launch.Once compatibility is confirmed, users must connect Bluetooth headphones.
Workout Buddy does not function through the watch’s speaker. Supported accessories include AirPods, AirPods Pro, and third-party Bluetooth earbuds. Users can check their connection by tapping the AirPlay icon in the Control Center or navigating through Bluetooth settings on the watch.After connecting audio, users must manually enable the feature. To do this, they need to open the Workout app, select a supported workout type, tap the Alerts icon, and toggle the Workout Buddy switch. This must be repeated for each individual workout type they wish to enable AI coaching for.
Customizable Feedback and Voices
Workout Buddy allows users to tailor both the voice style and the feedback content. Through the Alerts menu in the Workout app, users can choose from several voice options, each modeled after actual Apple Fitness Plus trainers. These aren’t pre-recorded clips but generative audio designed to vary based on context.Deidre Caldbeck, senior director of Apple Watch product marketing, confirmed that the voices are generated on the fly using a model trained on real speech patterns. This allows the AI to deliver different responses based on workout conditions and personal data. Users can also configure which metrics appear on their screen by editing the Workout Views layout.
Designed to be Accessible not Intense
Apple has emphasized the fact that Workout Buddy is not a complete Artificial Intelligence-based personal trainer, but still. Rather, the aspect is motivation-oriented and accessible. Blahnik said that the point is to give feedback that is, as he explained, inspiring and does not get in the way. Instead of following through with complete training programs, the tool motivates user success and reminds them about what is fitting in each context.
Its observed in a testing process that the tone of the AI was cordial and sometimes, excessively zealous. When tackling a moderate hill ascent during a workout, it described the activity as a wildly excited “mild elevation gain” that may put the generated tone and the physical situation out of sync. Nevertheless, she appealed to the feedback and said, more particularly, she was told her walk was both the fastest in four weeks and that, too, encouraged her during her post-injury.
The Long Term AI Strategy of Apple
Workout Buddy is not exactly an upgrade to the app. Caldbeck stated that the feature was created after ten years of collected fitness data and experience of the Fitness Plus trainers alongside the calculations of the Apple Intelligence. She repeated that Apple created Workout Buddy, not only as a device, but as a strategic measure towards providing a more all-inclusive AI health technology.The feature is powered by a mix of on-contactivation processing and personal cloud calculation, which can guarantee that the personal fitness data storage is safe. Apple emphasized its stand and privacy means that there is no user data shared. A trust-based approach is the cornerstone of expanded activities in AI-driven health services in the future.
A Broader Overhaul of the Workout App
Workout Buddy is accompanied by the largest ever update to the navigation part of the Apple Watch Workout app since it was first introduced in 2015. Interval training and pace alerts can be made available faster. Also, Apple Music compatibility has increased, and dynamically updated playlists are made on the basis of user usual exercises.Although Apple Watch 26 is powered by Workout Buddy, which is only available on devices that support Apple Intelligence, other customers will also improve these wider changes at the same time. Apple is adamant on the restrictions, claiming them to be related to the required power of processing to generate AI in real-time, as opposed to exclusivity.
The wider vision was then summed up by Blahnik, who said, “We begin essentially to be very welcoming and inclusive and easy to use with features almost always”. He pointed to possible future improvements that would transform Workout Buddy into a complete coaching system. The feature is modest but in terms of infrastructure, it is something that Apple may be preparing for a long-term commitment on the wise, flexible medical advice.
Setting the Stage for Future AI Coaching
Although the critics have opposed Workout Buddy to other applications such as Fitbit and Samsung, the strategy applied by Apple is very discrete and easy to use. They take it to the level of individualisation and not pressurisation. On experimenting with real-time motivation, Apple is accumulating the information on how the users react to the AI-powered workouts.Blahnik spoke of the long-term goal by stating that Apple has a lot of potential to drive the feature further. Given the progress the company is on, it might soon have a powerful digital trainer that is not idle during the workout but rather contributes to shaping the process over the period.Workout Buddy is a launch of a new reality in fitness tracking, where the Apple Watch will not just be a mere observer. Rather, it transforms into an intelligent companion that educates, motivates, and adapts to the intentions of the user, all the time maintaining privacy of the data and keeping the insights personal.
