Would You Let a Chatbot Screen Your Squat?

Rethinking the Role of AI in Preventative Physiotherapy

Let me introduce you to someone familiar.

She’s in her mid-30s, lives locally, and works in a fast-paced corporate role—finance, law, or consulting, perhaps. She trains consistently at one of the boutique gyms or Pilates studios nearby. Watches her diet. Listens to wellness podcasts. Keeps an eye on her step count. She’s not injured—but she’s not feeling 100%, either. Her hips are tight after long rides on the spin bike. Her neck stiffens up after another day of back-to-back Zoom meetings. Her knees don’t quite like the longer runs anymore.

She doesn’t want rehab. She wants to stay ahead of injury—to move better, feel stronger, and optimise her health while juggling a demanding schedule.

This is the kind of person more and more of us are seeing in private practice.

And it’s made me wonder: what role could AI play in supporting these kinds of preventative consults—where it’s less about fixing, and more about future-proofing?

Why Multimodal Chatbots Might Actually Be Useful

There’s plenty of noise around AI right now, and it’s easy to tune out. But step back for a second and think about what we really need in preventative care:

• A way to understand how someone moves before they’re in pain
• A way to deliver personalised advice that sticks
• A way to stay connected outside the treatment room without drowning in admin

That’s where multimodal chatbots could come in.

These aren’t your standard text-only bots. They can handle videos, images, audio, and typed messages. Think about what that means for a proactive patient:

• Uploading a quick video of their squat form or running gait
• Snapping photos of meals to reflect on diet and recovery
• Logging daily movement or stiffness without needing to open five apps

The AI doesn’t replace us. It just helps us walk into that first consult already knowing what matters most.

From Screening to Coaching

Preventative care is coaching, really. It’s spotting the small things before they become big things. It’s education, encouragement, and timely feedback.

Multimodal chatbots, if designed well, can support that:

• Form feedback from pre-consult videos
• Tailored resources based on reported patterns or goals
• Habit nudges delivered automatically to support consistency and progress

That means our in-person time can go deeper. The basics are already covered. Now we can focus on building trust, setting strategy, and working with someone—not just treating something.

Here’s what one of my proactive clients said after trying a beta chatbot I’d built:

"It actually made me more aware of how I move. I recorded my deadlift from the side and realised my form wasn’t as clean as I thought. By the time I came in, I already had a plan in mind I wanted to talk through."

That’s the kind of empowered, collaborative engagement we want in preventative care.

It’s Not All Smooth Sailing

Let’s be honest—this only works if the experience feels natural and human. Some clients won’t want to film themselves. Others won’t trust a bot to tell them anything meaningful. And if the AI isn’t well-designed, it risks giving shallow or misleading feedback.

There’s also the cost and effort of building or integrating these tools into your workflow.

But then again—most good innovations don’t start perfect. They evolve. And they need curious, forward-thinking clinicians to test, adapt, and improve them.

What Kind of Physio Do You Want to Be?

When you look at the kinds of people walking into our clinics today—active, time-poor, data-aware—it’s not hard to imagine a new model of care taking shape.

One that starts before the consult. One that extends between sessions. One that blends our clinical experience with AI-supported insight and strategy.

Not because it’s trendy. But because it actually makes sense—for us and for the people we serve.

These are the kinds of solutions we’re currently exploring in R&D at CliniScribe AI—focused specifically on the private practice physiotherapy niche. Our goal is to build tools that are vertically integrated, human-first, and clinically meaningful.

If you’re working in this space or simply curious about what’s coming, I’d love to connect.