By Sabine Karam, CEO and Co-founder of iDiet
Dubai, UAE- No, not fully, but it can replace a dietitian for simple elements like calorie counting, listing foods rich in a certain nutrient, and telling you what to avoid if you have this or that condition. Anyone can get that from a chatbot in seconds. But after 16 years of doing this, and now watching how AI is reshaping nutrition and wellness businesses here in Dubai through iDiet, what I’ve learned has very little to do with what I studied at university. It’s about understanding the person in front of me, their context, their mentality, their lifestyle, and knowing how to actually help them integrate a solution into their real life. It was never really about the diet itself; it’s about the support, the personalization and the motivation.
Honestly, in my clinical years I often felt more like a psychologist than a dietitian. People don’t fail diets because they don’t know what to eat, they fail because nobody addressed why they eat the way they do or helped them build something that fits their actual life instead of an idealized one. That’s the part AI can’t touch. It doesn’t know your history; it can’t read the moment you’re about to give up, and it definitely can’t sit with you through the emotional side of changing your relationship with food. So AI is a great tool, but it’s not a replacement for the human relationship that actually makes people change. That relationship is the real work, and it always will be.
Part of that human relationship comes down to follow-up, which is something AI still can’t really do on its own. A plan on paper means nothing if nobody checks in on how it’s actually being followed. Our dietitians stay in touch with clients throughout their journey, not just at the start, because that’s when the real adjustments happen, when someone’s motivation dips, when their schedule changes, when a plan that worked in week one stops working by week four. A chatbot will answer whatever you ask it, but it won’t reach out when you’ve gone quiet, and it won’t notice that your energy is off before you even say anything. That ongoing, human accountability is often the actual difference between someone who sticks with a plan and someone who quietly gives up on it.
There’s also the question of what AI doesn’t know to ask. A chatbot answers whatever question you type in, but it has no idea what the right question actually is. A good dietitian doesn’t just respond to “how many calories should I eat?” They dig into your sleep, your stress levels, your medications, your family history, because all of that shapes what’s actually going on with someone’s eating. People rarely walk in already knowing which of those things is the real issue, and an AI has no way to notice the things you didn’t think to mention. That’s the piece that no amount of data can replace: knowing what to look for beyond what’s being asked.
SOURCE: MEDIA RELEASE / SUPPLIED CONTENT WITH IMAGES
Disclaimer: This article is based on information and statements provided by iDiet and is intended for general informational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment recommendations by EmiratesReporter.com. Readers should consult a qualified healthcare professional for advice relating to their individual health needs.
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