Achieving goals isn't a one-time thing. It requires follow-through, check-ins, and staying on track. Cue the Rocky montage. That means AI needs to reach out to you, not just wait for you to ask. It needs to be proactive.
But most of what we call "proactive AI" isn't actually proactive—it's just automation with better marketing.
The Problem with "Proactive" AI Today
Here are some examples of what we currently label as proactive AI:
- Poke - monitors your email for invoices, travel updates, meeting requests, and texts you about them
- Coding AI - user submits a complaint, AI automatically opens a PR to fix it
- Smart home assistants - "turn on the AC before you get home" based on GPS
- Calendar agents - proposing to reschedule when it detects a conflict
These are cool. But they're glorified notifications. The AI isn't waking up on its own—it's responding to external triggers. An email arrived. A meeting ended. The temperature changed.
That's not proactive. That's reactive. For AI to actually help you achieve your goals, it needs agency.
What Your Watch Doesn't Know
Think about Apple Health. You can have all the metrics—VO2 max, sleep hours, heart rate variability, steps. Your watch knows your sleep has been terrible for two weeks. But it has no idea why.
Are you dreading something? Burnt out but pushing through? Or maybe your bed is just uncomfortable, or your roommates are loud. Your watch can't tell you how you feel about your life. It doesn't know the why.
Sherry Jiang calls this inner world data—the gap between what AI knows about the physical world and what it knows about you.
ChatGPT Health will have access to all the metrics. But having the data is just the starting point. Some people will volunteer what's going on in their life, but most won't. And even the ones who do won't tell you everything unprompted.
That's the inner world. The psychological layer. What's actually going on in someone's life. The good stuff. And you only get it through conversation.
Earning the Right to Reach Out
So how does AI earn the right to reach out—and get access to the inner world?
The answer is daily accountability toward a shared goal.
When AI has a job to do with you—a goal you've committed to, that it's helping you achieve—it earns the right to reach out. It has a reason to talk to you every day. Not because some event triggered it, but because you have a goal together.
Through that daily conversation, AI learns who you actually are. What you're struggling with. What's getting in the way. The stuff no sensor can capture. The inner world.
A coach. An accountability partner. Someone who knows your goals and follows up. That's what unlocks proactive AI—a reason to reach out, and the context to be useful.
The Future is Goal-Oriented AI
This is why I'm excited about BodyBuddy—I built it to do exactly this for health and fitness. I gave it one goal: to help you lose weight and get in shape over 90 days. And it gives you the daily accountability and coaching you need to get there.
But this applies to any goal—finance, career, relationships, learning. The inner world is wide open.
What are you going to build to help people achieve their goals?