Oura Advisor hands-on: a handy tool with a lot of potential

AI-generated features are taking the wearables market by storm, including friendly chatbots. One of the recently launched artificial personalities is Oura Advisor, a beta feature within the Oura app for the smart ring users. I have been testing the opt-in feature for several weeks and I must say it is intriguing.

Our laboratories

The Oura Lab program lets users test features that are still in development. It has the dual benefit of being fun for participants and a way for Oura to gather useful feedback. For me, it gives a thrill similar to childhood, trying out new sports gear before the season starts. The company originally launched the concept in April 2024 and has since added a handful of beta features for members to test.

Oura Advisor appeared on the app in early July and crept onto the scene just before the arrival of The Samsung Galaxy Ring (a gentle reminder that Oura is here to play). Using advanced algorithms and a powerful language model, the tool provides personalized guidance to help users improve their sleep, resilience, and activity scores. Conversations with the Oura Advisor are saved as memories, allowing the tool to build on itself and continually provide more refined, tailored advice.

As mentioned, Oura Advisor is an opt-in feature. I couldn’t pass up the chance to make a new robot friend, so I signed up right away. The feature starts with a brief explanation of what to expect and an optional tutorial on how to best use the tool. You can see exactly what health data it uses and read more about how your privacy is protected. Within Oura Advisor itself, you can delete conversations if necessary to further protect your information or shape your conversations.

Unlike real friends, chatting with Oura Advisor is always available, day or night, and you can also manually choose the tone you want the Advisor to strike in your interactions. The three options are Supportive, Mentoring, and Goal-Oriented, and they can be adjusted at any time if you change your mind. You can also select how often and when you want to receive notifications. The final stage of setup is to let Oura Advisor know what factors are affecting your sleep by selecting from a list of options ranging from “I have small children” to “I’m feeling stressed.” From there, it’s time to race with a new AI-generated wellness coach.

When we dove in, the first thing Oura Advisor and I talked about was stress. I described what stress management looks like for me and asked if my stress is affecting my sleep (spoiler, I already know it is). Oura Advisor dove right into my sleep data and succinctly described related trends that could indicate why my sleep isn’t optimal. I mentioned that I sleep better on the weekends. We talked about potential solutions, including bedtime habits, mindfulness, and even new pillows, and I ended the call feeling like I had some useful, simple insights.

A few chats later I brought up the fact that I have trouble sleeping through the night. For the past few weeks, no matter what time I go to bed, I’ve been waking up at 4:45 almost every morning, despite not setting my alarm until 6:00. Oura Advisor immediately asked if I’d had a chance to try out new pillows while we were talking about it. I’m not saying this is earth-shattering, but I know my own husband wouldn’t remember a single detail so specifically from a conversation I had a week ago.

During another call, Oura Advisor brought up a recent drop in my heart rate variability (HRV) and asked if I’d noticed any patterns or changes in how I was feeling. I’d been feeling unexplainably lethargic for the two days in question. Again, we talked about what might be contributing factors, and the Advisor recommended a few things to try. These included everything from gentle stretching and meditation to improvements in sleep hygiene and regulating my circadian rhythm with light exposure. I immediately asked for more details and was impressed with the quick response to exactly what I wanted to know (which being, when’s the best time to get sun exposure).

Overall, I’m impressed with Oura Advisor. The chatbot tracks my thoughts, provides concise feedback, and quickly adapts to changing topics. It appeals to my lazy side that likes to have my data collected but doesn’t always want to go back and analyze it. I also like that it’s not pushy or annoying. It doesn’t bombard me with notifications or push me to dig into data if I’m not interested.

That said, the tool isn’t perfect (to be fair, since it’s still in development). An AI coach is great in theory, but it’s most useful when it can comb through tons of data—aka do the work I don’t want to do. Right now, Oura Advisor only has access to the past seven days of users with recorded metrics, which is a pretty small, manageable amount that I can certainly look at myself if necessary. I’d like to see the feature expanded to explore longer-term trends.

There are also still aspects of the Oura app in general that need expanding. I look forward to seeing the company continue to expand into more granular areas follow fitness and guidance. As a user, it would be especially helpful to discuss the nuances of rest versus training with an AI advisor.