Google’s AI Health Updates from The Check Up 2025

At its 2025 The Check Up event, Google unveiled a host of AI-driven developments that are beginning to reshape how people search for medical information, how data is connected, and how treatments are discovered.

For those working in media across pharmaceutical and healthcare brands, these changes aren’t just interesting – they’re strategical important. They influence visibility, targeting, messaging, and ultimately campaign performance.

Here’s what matters most for media teams—and what to keep in mind as these shifts take hold.

1. AI Overviews in Health Search: A New Layer Between Ads and Answers

Google’s AI Overviews are becoming more prominent in search results and are being enhanced with better clinical accuracy and relevance, thanks to improvements via its Gemini AI models. These Overviews now cover thousands of health conditions and are rolling out across more countries and languages. They’re also encouraging longer, more complex search queries from users.

As these summaries take up valuable space on the results page, they may push both paid and organic listings further down. That has direct implications for impression share and click-through rates, particularly for symptom and condition-focused campaigns. Media teams will need to keep a close eye on top-performing keyword groups to understand if AI Overviews are cannibalising clicks or changing user journeys.

This may also be the time to revisit bidding strategies, evaluate how copy is aligned with more nuanced queries, and prepare for new ad formats that might emerge alongside these AI layers.

2. “What People Suggest”: Social Insight Meets Search

In the U.S., mobile users are starting to see a new feature in health search called “What People Suggest.” It uses AI to surface common themes and advice from online discussions – giving searchers a sense of what others with similar conditions are doing or recommending.

This highlights a growing user preference for real-world experience and peer insight, even in health-related decisions. While this is organic content, its presence could shift engagement patterns. Users may be more drawn to relatable language and lived experiences than traditional expert tone.

Media campaigns that tap into this conversational, community-driven tone may see stronger resonance, especially for patient awareness or support campaigns. Brands that can reflect empathy and authenticity in their creative could stand out in a feed increasingly shaped by real voices.

3. Health Connect and the Medical Records API: A More Unified Android Health Ecosystem

Google’s Health Connect platform now includes global Medical Records APIs, allowing apps to read and write information like medications, allergies, and immunisations. This brings Android users closer to having a consolidated view of their health data – from fitness apps to clinical records – on a single device.

While this doesn’t directly affect ad formats today, it points to a future where health-related behaviours and preferences may be more readily accessible (in a privacy-compliant way) for segmentation or campaign targeting. It’s also a sign that digital health apps connected to Android could become increasingly important touchpoints for healthcare brands.

Media teams should monitor how this ecosystem evolves and watch for new audience signals or partnership opportunities that might emerge within it.

4. AI Co-Scientist and TxGemma: R&D is Moving Faster

Google’s AI Co-Scientist, built on Gemini 2.0, and TxGemma, a suite of open models for drug discovery, are designed to accelerate the work of biomedical researchers. These tools can parse scientific literature, generate new hypotheses, and help predict the viability of therapeutic compounds.

While these tools are aimed at research, they have downstream implications for media. Shorter R&D timelines and faster insights mean marketers may be brought into the process earlier – or need to move faster once assets are approved. Launch planning cycles may shrink, and campaigns may need to be designed for agility.

Media teams should continue to advocate for earlier involvement in go-to-market planning to ensure there’s time to build responsive, effective media strategies.

5. Capricorn and the Move Toward Personalised Care

Google is partnering with the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology to build Capricorn, an AI-powered tool that uses de-identified data and literature to recommend personalised cancer treatment options. The tool is designed to give physicians quicker access to the most relevant therapeutic pathways for individual patients.

As more of healthcare moves toward personalisation, media strategies will need to follow suit. Broad, catch-all targeting may lose effectiveness as providers and patients expect content that reflects the nuances of individual needs and treatments.

Media teams will need to think in more granular, segmented terms – from audience development to messaging to creative execution. Programmatic and DCO (dynamic creative optimisation) approaches will become increasingly valuable as a way to serve more tailored, relevant content at scale.

6. Loss of Pulse Detection: Wearables and Medical-Grade Monitoring

Google also announced that its Pixel Watch 3 now includes a Loss of Pulse Detection feature that’s been cleared by the FDA. If a user experiences cardiac arrest or another life-threatening event, the watch can automatically call emergency services. This feature is rolling out globally, including in the U.S.

For paid media professionals, this points to the growing overlap between wellness tech and regulated health tools. Wearables are increasingly becoming medically significant – and potentially powerful digital environments for both patient engagement and awareness campaigns.

Down the line, there may be new ad inventory, health app integrations, or even data-driven targeting opportunities tied to wearable usage. Media teams should be exploring how their strategies intersect with the connected health space and looking for ways to experiment with contextual placements or emerging channels.

Final Thoughts: Paid Media Needs to Adapt Alongside AI

Google’s 2025 health updates aren’t just about what happens behind the scenes – they’re actively changing the way people access, trust, and act on health information. For media teams, that means rethinking visibility in an AI-driven search landscape, preparing for new types of audiences and journeys, and building campaigns that are flexible, data-aware and future-ready.

To read the full announcement click here.