Simple’s Avo™ Named “Best Virtual Health Coach” in MedTech Breakthrough Awards Program
Landmark 10th Annual Awards Program Recognizes the Most Innovative Digital Health and Medical Technology Solutions Worldwide
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MedTech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the most innovative companies, technologies and products in the global digital health and medical technology market, today announced that Simple Life (Simple), the AI-powered health app redefining weight loss by making it easier and more enjoyable, has been selected as winner of the “Best Virtual Health Coach” award in the 10th annual MedTech Breakthrough Awards program. The 2026 MedTech Breakthrough Award recognizes the breakthrough innovation of the Avo™ virtual coach.
Avo™ is an AI Virtual Coach, built with registered dietitians, doctors, and behavioral scientists, that supports sustainable weight loss through nutrition, movement, intermittent fasting, mindset, and long-term habit change. It delivers real-time, evidence-based guidance with a warm, motivating, human-like tone, helping users build lasting behaviors.
Avo includes both outgoing and incoming voice calls for a real-time conversational experience. Incoming calls allow Avo to proactively check in, reinforce habits, protect streaks, and sustain motivation, bringing digital coaching closer to the level of a real human coach. Beyond lifestyle tracking, daily check-ins assess general well-being, mood, energy, and symptom patterns for more holistic, actionable insights.
Offering more contextual coaching, Avo draws deeply on onboarding data, logs, past interactions, and behavioral patterns to deliver continuous, adaptive support that feels thoughtful and personalized. Whenever a user logs food or their weight, Avo provides tailored feedback, explaining how choices may impact progress and suggesting actionable next steps.
Users can also select coach avatars based on gender, age, ethnicity, and tone of voice, strengthening emotional connection and long-term engagement.
“Avo, by all accounts, delivers a deeply engaging, emotionally intelligent, and highly retentive virtual coaching experience that users describe as mind-blowing. 2026 has seen major advancements in intelligence, personalization, and scale, delivering proactive, personalized, timely support that is grounded in evidence-backed science,” said Mike Prytkov, Founder and CEO of Simple. “We are pleased to accept this award from MedTech Breakthrough. From the moment you create your Simple account, you’re the star of the show, and, building on our 21 million downloads, we’ll keep enhancing the app to help people develop the skills they need to prioritize self-care and live a healthier lifestyle.”
Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the MedTech Breakthrough Awards program has spent a decade recognizing the companies driving meaningful progress and improving patient care across the global health and medical technology industry. The program spans a wide range of categories – including Telehealth, Clinical Administration, Patient Engagement, Electronic Health Records (EHR), Virtual Care, Medical Devices and beyond – honoring the innovations reshaping how care is delivered worldwide.
This year's program drew a record-breaking number of nominations from leading companies and startups across more than 20 countries, reflecting the growing global impact and momentum of the digital healthcare industry.
“In addition to improving digital health, Avo is redefining virtual coaching. Obesity and metabolic disease rates are rising globally for millions of people. A virtual coach that is available 24/7, that also understands their habits and emotions, and can adapt in real time, represents a level of human-like digital coaching that has not existed to this point,” said Steve Johansson, managing director, MedTech Breakthrough. “Avo is not an AI chatbot, but a category-defining solution that combines behavioral science, deep personalization, voice interaction, holistic health insights, and massive real-world usage into a single, empathetic, always-on coaching experience.”
In January 2025, Avo participated in three million dialogues and sent 19 million messages. By January 2026, this increased to 4.98 million dialogues and 23.1 million messages. So far in 2026, Avo™ has responded to an average of 293,000 messages daily.
About MedTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the MedTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence and innovation in medical & health technology companies, products, services and people. The MedTech Breakthrough Awards provide a platform for public recognition around the achievements of breakthrough healthcare and medical companies and products in categories that include Patient Experience & Engagement, Health & Fitness, Medical Devices, Clinical Administration, Connected Healthcare, Medical Data, Healthcare Cybersecurity and more. For more information visit MedTechBreakthrough.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Simple Life
Simple is an AI-powered health app that helps users lose weight through personalized plans, on-demand virtual coaching, and real-time nutritional insights. It’s been named among the Top 100 AI Companies by the World Future Awards (2025) and MedTech Breakthrough’s Best Virtual Health Coach (2025). To date, Simple’s users have collectively lost more than 21 million pounds. With over 21 million downloads and a 4.7-star rating average, Simple ranks among the world’s top-rated wellness apps. The company’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Obesity Science & Practice and presented at major international conferences, securing publications in Annals of Behavioral Medicine and the International Journal of Obesity.
Media Contact Steve Johansson steve@medtechbreakthrough.com 213.255.3658
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