Technology in healthcare and wellness is shifting from “digital channels” (telehealth visits, patient portals, appointment booking) to a much deeper rewiring of how care is delivered, paid for, and experienced. The next wave will feel less like healthcare moving online and more like healthcare becoming continuous, personalized, and hybrid—with data and AI connecting home, clinic, pharmacy, and lifestyle into one longitudinal journey.
The addressable market is expanding quickly because “digital health” now spans telemedicine, remote monitoring, clinical software, consumer wellness, and AI-enabled services. One widely cited sizing estimates the global digital health market at about $288.6B in 2024, projected to reach about $946.0B by 2030. Other major analysts use different definitions and arrive at different totals (for example, MarketsandMarkets estimates $162.1B in 2024 rising to $573.5B by 2030), but both point to rapid growth and widening adoption across payers, providers, and consumers.
From episodic care to continuous care: the core technology transition
Historically, healthcare has been episodic: you notice symptoms, book an appointment, get tested, receive treatment, and disappear until the next episode. The future model is increasingly continuous. Wearables, connected home diagnostics, and remote patient monitoring (RPM) move “signals” (heart rhythm, sleep, glucose trends, blood pressure, activity, medication adherence) into everyday life. That’s why wearables aimed at medical use are forecast to grow sharply: one estimate places the wearable medical devices market at $42.7B in 2024, reaching $168.3B by 2030.
The business opportunity here isn’t just selling devices; it’s building clinical-grade, reimbursable pathways where those signals reliably trigger actions: a dosage adjustment, a nurse outreach, a rapid appointment, or a change in care plan. In other words, the value migrates from hardware margins to service models—subscription coaching, condition management programs, employer offerings, and payer-funded RPM.
Telemedicine evolves into “care orchestration”
Telemedicine’s first wave was access: video visits and e-prescribing. The next wave is orchestration—routing a patient to the right modality and clinician, integrating diagnostics and fulfillment, and closing the loop with follow-up and monitoring. Market sizing suggests telemedicine remains a large growth engine, with estimates around $141.2B in 2024 and projections of $380.3B by 2030.
The near-term opportunity is less “more video visits” and more “better digital front doors”: asynchronous triage, AI-supported symptom guidance, rapid scheduling, and seamless handoffs into in-person care when needed. Countries and health systems are explicitly steering in this direction. For example, the World Health Organization’s Global strategy on digital health 2020–2025 frames digital health as a way to help countries implement “appropriate digital technologies” aligned to national priorities and to advance universal health coverage and health-related SDGs.
AI becomes a clinical and operational co-pilot—then an agent
AI’s impact in healthcare and wellness will be bigger than “chatbots.” It will reshape clinical documentation, coding, utilization management, prior authorization workflows, imaging triage, population risk stratification, and patient navigation. Adoption is already broad: McKinsey reports that in a Q4 2024 survey, 85% of healthcare leaders (across payers, health systems, and healthcare services & technology groups) were exploring or had adopted generative AI.
In life sciences (which strongly influences the wellness and therapeutic pipeline), McKinsey’s Global Institute has estimated gen AI could unlock $60B–$110B per year in value for the pharmaceutical and medical products industries. This matters for consumers because it points to faster discovery, more efficient trials, and more targeted therapies—often delivered alongside digital companions (apps, monitoring, adherence support) that blur the boundary between “treatment” and “wellness.”
The big unlock, though, comes when AI shifts from assisting tasks to executing workflows under governance—agentic systems that can gather information, draft a care plan for clinician review, coordinate appointments, generate patient instructions at the right reading level, and monitor for follow-up triggers. The opportunity is huge, but so are the risks: model drift, bias, privacy, and unsafe automation. Winners will combine AI with clinical safety design, auditability, and clear human override.
The consumerization of medicine reshapes wellness
Wellness is increasingly medicalized, and medicine is increasingly consumer-driven. The explosion of metabolic health demand illustrates the point: Reuters recently reported Novo Nordisk expects oral GLP-1 obesity drugs could capture over a third of the total GLP-1 obesity market by 2030, highlighting how consumer preference and out-of-pocket behavior can reshape therapy formats and distribution strategies. As more consumers pay directly for parts of wellness (weight management, longevity, mental health, fertility, dermatology), the market shifts toward retail-like expectations: frictionless onboarding, transparent pricing, rapid access, and ongoing coaching.
This creates opportunities for hybrid providers and platforms that integrate diagnostics + prescribing + coaching + community, but it also raises questions regulators and payers will push hard on: clinical appropriateness, advertising claims, equitable access, and long-term safety.
Where the biggest opportunity areas are likely to concentrate
Over the next 5–10 years, the most durable value pools are likely to cluster where technology improves outcomes and unit economics at the same time. Remote monitoring that prevents admissions; AI documentation that increases clinician capacity without burnout; imaging and pathology augmentation that speeds triage; digital therapeutics and behavior change programs that measurably reduce chronic disease risk; and integrated “navigation” layers that steer patients to the right care level rather than defaulting to high-cost settings.
There is also a foundational opportunity in interoperability. The OECD has elevated digital health as a major system issue (including a dedicated chapter in Health at a Glance 2023 focused on digital readiness), reflecting how much progress depends on data sharing, standards, and implementation—not just new apps. In practical terms, companies that make data usable across systems—without compromising privacy—unlock faster care coordination, better population analytics, and more scalable AI.
What “winning” will look like
The future of healthcare and wellness technology will reward builders who can prove three things: clinical validity (does it work?), operational fit (does it integrate with real workflows?), and trust (does it protect privacy, reduce bias, and stay safe over time?). Market growth is real, but the long-term winners won’t be the loudest brands—they’ll be the ones that consistently convert data into better outcomes, at lower cost, with experiences that feel effortless to patients and sustainable to clinicians.