The app brings the knowledge of the NHS to your fingertips – can your brand use AI and chatbots more effectively?

AI is an ever-present concept in books, films and TV shows. But it rarely ends up looking like a good idea.

Likewise, a familiar narrative in the media (and in Westminster) is the ongoing strain on the NHS.

Your.MD aims to reverse this negative tide and bring accurate, personalised healthcare information to the world – for free.

The app is a simple chatbot between you and Your.MD where you can check symptoms, search an A-Z list of health queries and receive next-step advice about products and services.

But the selling point isn’t just the idea, it’s in the execution – and that’s where content marketers can learn a thing or two.

Chatbot tone

Probably the simplest form of AI, chatbots are most commonly found in customer service. The attraction is clear – a simple interface for a one-to-one conversation.

Your.MD follows this form. The bot asks a few questions; you type your answers. It all seems remarkably familiar.

Here’s a sample of my opening chat:

There’s a reason for the familiarity. As with all the health content housed within the app, the answers have been written and reviewed by NHS doctors. The tone is professional but not overly formal – exactly as you would want from a trip to your GP.

Is your content too formal? Or the opposite? The Your.MD audience is potentially a huge range of people. Apps and chatbots may generally be skewed towards a slightly younger audience but part of the business’ stated goal is to “democratise healthcare” – and that means excluding no one. So a calm, reassuring, professional tone seems exactly right in this case.

Backed by experts

The health expertise provided by Your.MD comes from a partnership between the business and the NHS. Your.MD uses the content from NHS Choices – meaning anyone who downloads the app has the knowledge of thousands of healthcare professionals available to them.

The concept of a knowledge hub should be a familiar one to content marketers – building loyalty through sharing knowledge. When publishing articles, for example, providing useful, relevant information (as opposed to the hard sell) will help push your content higher up the Google SEO food chain.

Your.MD couldn’t work without genuine, human expertise at its core. Is there a way of better harnessing the knowledge and skill within your own brand?

Artificial intelligence

But the app is not just an information dump (nor is it a hypochondriac’s heaven, for that matter). AI gathers more info each time you use the app, meaning a relationship is built up between virtual doctor and patient.

AI is still somewhat in its infancy, but in the case of Your.MD, it is moving from being a simple chatbot and one-time interaction to helping create a longer-term relationship.

Medically speaking, the advice is becoming more accurate. In content marketing terms, it is becoming more personalised. (Content Desk recently looked into an example of such personalisation in IKEA’s video output.)

AI is still a couple of years away from the mainstream, but examples such as Your.MD show that to ignore advancement in the technology is to miss out on major opportunities in which content can help build long-term relationships between brand and audience.

Collaboration

The spirit of collaboration is present throughout Your.MD and it has a series of trusted partners that it recommends for specialist services.

As well as the partnership giving access to the NHS content, it feels like the app is coming through in its mission statement to democratise healthcare – providing knowledge and support for those who don’t have access to health services.

Collaboration has elevated Your.MD from a health database to a genuinely vital service that can help to ease the burden on overwhelmed healthcare facilities. Improving your content could mean joining forces with other experts – the case of Your.MD, the number one health app in over 100 countries, provides a compelling argument.

[Main image: Your.MD]