I’m not a fitness buff, but I still can’t wait to buy the Fitbit Air

I’m not a fan of most fitness trackers. I’ve used a number of Fitbit products over the years, most recently the Charge 6. None of them ever stuck in my routine. Most wound up being a simple smartwatch, giving me notifications of texts and incoming calls. I’m not a fitness enthusiast, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in my health. I just never found a device that met my needs.

The Fitbit Air is the first one I’m excited to try in a long time. It’s lightweight, practical, and Google is changing how it handles your health data. I don’t expect to be doing a Couch to 5K anytime soon, but even small improvements to my sleep and overall health will add up over time.

If you’re like me and have a better chance of picking up a donut than a dumbbell this week, the Fitbit Air is worth considering.

It’s often said of NFL players that the best ability is availability. You can have the greatest fitness tracker in the world, but if I’m not wearing it, it’s useless. Smartwatches have all the health sensors you’d want in a modern fitness tracker, but they are limited. I enjoy analog watches, and even when I’m wearing smartwatches, I like to test different models.

As a result, I’ll have a few workouts from one smartwatch on one app, and some sleep tracking on another, but it doesn’t yield any useful data. My Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is also bulky. Besides the concussion I fear I might give my wife if I move in my sleep, it’s just not something I want on my wrist all the time. Battery life is a challenge, and I don’t want to have to find time during the day to recharge just so I can enjoy sleep tracking at night.

The Fitbit Charge 6 was better on battery life and weight, but it still felt like I was wearing two watches.

The Fitbit Air solves many of those problems. First, it’s extremely lightweight. At 12g, I’m barely going to notice it on my wrist. It’ll be easy to accessorize. The default bands are attractive enough, but it won’t be long before there is an avalanche of inexpensive bands and straps.

Its battery life also lasts a week, so I’ll be able to wear it all the time without worrying, and it still has plenty of fitness and health sensors to get the job done.

The revamped Google Health app will make it easier to pull in information from different devices. If you want to wear a smartwatch one day, but a fitness tracker the next, Google Health will bring that together in one app. It’s helpful, but fragmented data is only one part of the problem.

I’m not a fitness buff. I don’t know how many steps I need in a day, and I’m not sure which heart rate zones are best for me. Sleep tracking is another mystery. Keeping track of my sleep score is great, but without actionable steps to improve my slumber, what’s the point? I simply enter my height and weight whenever I’m testing a new product and hope for the best — it’s not enough.

Google’s AI-powered health coach aims to fix that. It’s not free — you’ll need to pay $10 a month for the privilege — but if you’re like me, it’s potentially worth it. The AI coach will analyze your workouts and provide improvement plans. We’ve seen similar products before, but Google takes it a step further with this latest version. You can add your medical history and records to give the AI coach a more complete picture.

Instead of just getting static plans of action based on data, you are able to question the AI coach. A dialogue is much more helpful, and you can get information back in terms you understand. I wouldn’t know where to begin with my health data, so being able to wade in gently with what amounts to an AI assistant is helpful. Walking through plans and setting goals together is significantly better than just getting a list based on a few data points.

Google claims that various external experts are reviewing the feedback the AI coach provides, but I still have questions. You’re trusting an AI model with your personal health records. That alone is concerning enough, but we are all aware of the various hallucinations these models are prone to. That becomes all the more dangerous when offering health advice. Someone with limited medical understanding may follow improper suggestions, unaware that they are actually harmful.

As a result, I expect any initial feedback to be tame. Regardless of how good it gets, it’s never going to replace actually going to the doctor and having conversations with health professionals. It’s going to be a fine line between what’s helpful and harmful. If Google’s AI coach is used as guidance and results in more people being aware of their health, I’m all for it. However, if people use it as an excuse not to handle legitimate medical issues, that’s not ideal.

Still, I’m looking forward to it. As with AFIB detection in smartwatches, anything that raises awareness of your health has the potential to save lives. I won’t take Google’s AI coach at its word, but if it gets me asking some constructive questions and it results in a better health plan in conjunction with my physician, then the Fitbit Air will have done its job — even for a couch potato like me.

The Fitbit Air officially launches on May 26, and even as someone who’s very much not a fitness buff, I can’t wait to buy one.