Harsh Mulik’s Personalized Nudging Engine is Transforming Chronic Disease Treatment by Merging Behavioral Science with Advanced AI
When Harsh Mulik, founder and CEO of HumLife360, took the stage at 1StartupWorld, he wasn’t just presenting another healthcare app—he was introducing a paradigm shift in chronic disease management. Drawing on personal experience and cutting-edge technology, Mulik has built a company that merges behavioral science, artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing (NLP) to tackle one of the world’s most pervasive health challenges: Type 2 diabetes.
In a market crowded with digital health solutions and wellness apps, HumLife360 stands out by addressing the core human factor—motivation. As Mulik shared during his presentation, the root of his journey began with his own battle with diabetes. Despite having access to top-tier medical care, technology, and resources, Mulik struggled to make lasting changes to his diet and lifestyle. The missing link, he discovered, was the personalized nudges from his family that helped him take consistent action every day.
The HumLife360 Solution: A New Era of Personalized Health
This personal revelation led to the creation of HumLife360’s Behavior Science Engine, a platform that uses AI and NLP to replicate these individualized nudges at scale. But these aren’t just generic reminders or automated messages. The engine is designed to understand each user’s unique lifestyle, habits, and psychological drivers, delivering highly personalized nudges that are tailored to the individual’s needs. These nudges help users take incremental, manageable steps toward better health—steps that, over time, lead to sustained improvements in their condition.
For patients with Type 2 diabetes, this means being guided to make better choices every day—whether it’s about diet, exercise, or medication adherence. The platform doesn’t just remind users to take their medication or log meals. It nudges them toward specific actions they didn’t take yesterday and reinforces positive behavior if they did. Over time, these personalized nudges help keep blood glucose levels within a healthy range and, in many cases, contribute to reversing the progression of diabetes.
Mulik was quick to point out that HumLife360 is not a traditional digital therapeutic. The company doesn’t deliver medical interventions or treatments. Instead, it offers something potentially more impactful—a behavioral shift that helps individuals make healthier choices, day after day.
Beyond Healthcare Apps: A Behavioral Science Breakthrough
The core innovation behind HumLife360 lies in its behavioral science engine, which goes deeper than the surface-level engagement strategies employed by most health apps. While many digital health solutions rely on static, one-size-fits-all approaches, HumLife360’s system is dynamic and adaptive. By continuously learning from each user’s behaviors and preferences, the platform refines its nudges to ensure they remain effective over time.
This approach has already delivered impressive results. According to Mulik, HumLife360 users have achieved an average blood glucose reduction of over 3%—far exceeding the industry standard of 1-2% for digital health interventions. The key to this success is the platform’s ability to motivate patients not just through data, but through personalized, human-like engagement.
HumLife360’s behavioral science engine is driven by four AI engines, each focused on different aspects of personalization. These engines analyze everything from a user’s specific symptoms and lifestyle to the language they prefer for communication. The result is a platform that feels less like a piece of technology and more like a trusted advisor—one that knows what motivates you, understands your challenges, and helps you make incremental progress.
Mulik likened the platform’s nudging to the personal care he received from his family during his own journey with diabetes. “They focused on my lifestyle, my condition, and spoke to me in a way that resonated,” he said. HumLife360 replicates this human touch, but does so at scale, using technology to deliver a similar level of personalized care to thousands of users.
Addressing a Global Health Crisis
The need for such a solution is urgent. According to Mulik, diabetes is responsible for over 1.2 million deaths annually, with the number of people affected continuing to rise. In both the U.S. and India alone, the market for uncontrolled diabetes management is valued at $14 billion. And yet, despite the availability of advanced medications and treatments, the global burden of diabetes continues to grow.
Mulik argues that this is because most interventions focus on managing symptoms rather than addressing the underlying behavioral issues that contribute to the disease’s progression. “There’s a huge gap in the market for services that help people make the small, everyday changes that have a big impact over time,” he said. HumLife360 fills that gap by providing the last-mile motivation that individuals with diabetes need to stay on track.
Scaling Impact: HumLife360’s Expansion Beyond Diabetes
What’s perhaps most exciting about HumLife360 is its potential to scale beyond diabetes. The platform’s behavior science engine is not limited to managing blood glucose levels. In fact, the same principles can be applied to a wide range of chronic conditions, including mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and burnout. With the help of experts like Dr. Simon Rigo, head of psychology at Montefiore Medical Center, HumLife360 is already expanding its behavior protocols to address these conditions.
Mulik envisions a future where personalized nudging becomes a core component of managing not just diabetes, but a wide array of health challenges. The platform’s adaptability—its ability to scale across different conditions, cultures, and regions—makes it uniquely positioned to address the global burden of chronic disease. Already, HumLife360 is working with organizations like the Lions Health Foundation to bring its solution to new markets, and discussions with major hospital systems are underway.
The Future of Healthcare: Personalization at Scale
As HumLife360 looks to the future, Mulik is confident that the company will reach $100 million in revenue within five years. The drivers of this growth are clear. First, the platform’s deep personalization not only delivers better outcomes but also increases customer engagement and retention, leading to stronger financial performance. Second, the system’s scalability—both across verticals like mental health and across global markets—ensures that HumLife360 can expand rapidly without compromising its core value proposition. Finally, the company’s focus on data licensing and partnerships with hospitals and corporations provides additional revenue streams that will fuel its growth.
The implications of HumLife360’s model extend far beyond diabetes management. In an era where AI-driven personalization is transforming industries from retail to entertainment, healthcare is poised for a similar revolution. By focusing on the human element—the motivations, habits, and behaviors that drive health outcomes—HumLife360 offers a glimpse into the future of personalized healthcare.
As Mulik aptly summarized, “Our job is to make the horse drink the water—not just once, but every day, for life.” In doing so, HumLife360 is not only improving the lives of people with diabetes, but also paving the way for a new era of patient-centered care—one that combines the best of technology with the personal touch that patients need to thrive.
