What is the science behind ‘gamification’ and how is it helping drive healthier behaviours?
Gamification at YuLife isn’t just about making wellness fun – it’s a scientifically grounded strategy to change behaviour at scale. Drawing on the well-established COM-B model of behaviour change – which emphasises capability, opportunity, and motivation, the YuLife app is deliberately designed to activate the psychological mechanisms that drive long-term healthy habits. While features like leaderboards, step challenges and achievement badges may seem playful, they serve a deeper purpose: to create the right conditions for sustainable behaviour change. For instance, leaderboards can trigger healthy competition, while quests and progress-tracking tools offer intrinsic motivation for those who prefer self-paced improvement.
Where does preventative AI fit into this approach?
Gamification offers an extensive toolkit, but AI helps deliver a more tailored experience — and with it, greater impact. Preventative AI is designed to identify early signs of potential health issues and prompt small behavioural changes by offering personalised interventions and lifestyle recommendations.
This enables the AI to seamlessly guide users towards the tools they’re most likely to engage with and the activities that will deliver the greatest benefits in terms of improving their health. It’s all about delivering interventions in a meaningful, engaging way.
How does this preventative AI work?
This proprietary AI model has been trained on anonymised health and lifestyle data from over half a million participants in the UK Biobank — one of the world’s most comprehensive biomedical databases.
Within the app, the Preventative AI uses real-time health and behavioural data from a range of sources to build a continuously evolving risk model. This includes wearable technology, biometric data, and lifestyle habits — informed by data collected through our dynamic health questionnaires.
These questionnaires cover more than 300 detailed questions across 23 different health and behavioural topics. However, we know users don’t want to wade through pages of text and time-consuming questions. Instead, questions are tailored to the individual. We use a variety of formats and adapt which ones are used based on individual preferences and past engagement. There’s even an element of seasonality — for example, if someone tends to experience low mood during the winter months, the app may serve more mental health-related questions at that time of year.
Is this approach delivering results in terms of improving health and wellbeing?
We’re working with the University of Essex on a series of randomised trials, and the results show clear and measurable improvements in health outcomes when these behavioural tools are used. For example, users reported a 50% improvement in sleep quality, a 24% increase in physical activity, and more than one in three reported fewer symptoms of depression.
What benefits could this deliver for employees and employers?
These interventions can help employees lead healthier, happier lives. But in our trials, there was also a measurable decrease in absenteeism among those using the app with gamified features and preventative AI. Productivity indicators also improved in this group — suggesting that this approach could deliver significant benefits for companies.
How might this impact future insurance claims?
From an insurance standpoint, this could help manage claims and keep costs under control across group life, group income protection and health insurance plans.
Data from our trials showed a 20% drop in health-related risk factors linked to claims in the intervention group, compared to 10% in the control group (who were using a reward system, but without the gamification or AI enhancements). Overall, this resulted in a 5% reduction in loss ratios for insurers — helping to create a more efficient and sustainable insurance model.
How might corporate advisers and HR professionals make use of this information?
We believe preventative AI offers benefits far beyond individual health outcomes. The platform provides aggregated, anonymised insights, helping HR teams, business leaders and benefits consultants identify trends and issues within the workforce — whether around stress, dietary habits, or lifestyle risks.
This information can support more informed planning, communication, and engagement strategies, ultimately
helping to build healthier, more resilient workforces.
