Scenario: Personal Trainers

Personal Trainers • Mid-future pessimistic scenario

Personal Trainers

Soft robotics allowed at-home fitness to become far more interactive. At first, smart fabrics embedded into fully flexible sleeves made it so postop and injured patients could receive physical therapy remotely. Soon, the tech also became a hit with smart gym companies. Wearable robotics that could sense and adjust in real time to correct movement patterns became incorporated into many home gym’s on-demand and live fitness classes. As a premium feature, clothes could nudge a person into the right position or adjust the resistance for “weight.”

But few people realized that the clothing also captured advanced biometric data, including the amount of effort exerted and a participant’s emotions during a workout. This information fed the rise of synthetic media fitness trainers. These hyperpersonalized trainers provide “hands-on” attention during the class—no matter how large—and then ultimately lock in members to the platform on an emotional level. People brag about finding their alltime favorite trainer—not realizing that every interaction was specifically molded to their exact responses and preferences. Fitness fanatics don’t catch on that “their” Cody—while maybe sharing a common personality base—had evolved into something completely different. Literally a personal trainer.