Technologies

I Was Wrong About Workout Buddy, Apple’s AI Coaching Vision Is Just Getting Started

I tested Apple’s new WatchOS 26 feature and spoke with the team behind it. It’s not a full-blown coach yet, but it hints at where Apple may be heading with its AI health strategy.

I wasn’t exactly sold on the idea of having a “buddy” cheering me on during a workout when Apple first announced its Workout Buddy feature in WatchOS 26. The workout partner I had in mind was more of a no-nonsense trainer; someone to push me out of my comfort zone and into peak performance. Apple’s version, instead, is an AI-powered voice that dishes out praise as you run (or as you do any number of activities). But after testing it myself and talking in-depth with Apple about how it works, I’m starting to think the company undersold it on purpose. Workout Buddy is much more than just a hype man, and it represents a crucial turning point in Apple’s health journey.

Workout Buddy turns your Apple Watch into a friendly voice that lauds your achievements during workouts. The WatchOS 26 feature isn’t a full-blown fitness coach that can guide your training plan, but that doesn’t mean Apple isn’t headed there. In fact, Workout Buddy may be the clearest signal yet that Apple is laying the groundwork for something much bigger in terms of fitness tools and AI.

At a time when investors and enthusiasts are critical about the company’s AI efforts, especially compared to competitors like Samsung and Google, Apple has a chance with Workout Buddy to show how its approach is different in a meaningful way. After the lukewarm debut of Apple Intelligence on the iPhone, Workout Buddy is the first time we’re seeing what Apple can do with AI on the watch.

The public beta version of WatchOS 26 is out. I recently tested Workout Buddy in the developer beta of WatchOS 26 and was genuinely surprised by how it made me feel after a walk. I spoke with Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies, and Deidre Caldbeck, senior director of Apple Watch product marketing, to get more clarity around the feature, and unpack the tech and philosophy behind it. And the sense that I got from them is that Apple’s marathon toward personalized, intelligent coaching is only getting started.

Don’t call it a coach… yet

When Apple introduced Workout Buddy at WWDC in June, many Apple Watch fans (including myself) were quick to critique Workout Buddy for being more of a hype man/woman, than a trainer. Compared to competitors such as Fitbit, Garmin and recently Samsung, all of which already offer some form of AI-powered adaptive coaching plan, Workout Buddy with its real-time feedback is more like a cheerleader than a strategist.

It’s easy to overlook what Apple set in motion, by focusing on what Workout Buddy isn’t. The feature is designed to be a motivating presence during your workout, not a drill sergeant. It delivers contextual, personalized encouragement that’s dynamically generated in real time across eight supported workout types: indoor/outdoor walks and runs, outdoor cycling, HIIT, Functional Strength Training and Traditional Strength Training.

“We didn’t want it to be just a pro tool,” Blahnik told me. “We wanted it to be accessible to as many people as possible.”

Workout Buddy requires you wear headphones. I’m a no-frills runner, who’d rather use 2 extra minutes to work out than spend them searching for a headset and choosing the perfect playlist (WatchOS 26 will soon take care of this too). So I wasn’t sold on the idea of using Workout Buddy rather than just tracking my regular pace and heart rate alerts on the wrist with my Apple Watch. And while I’m still not fully onboard with the whole audio gear requirement, I didn’t mind having the Workout Buddy version of my alerts in my ear reminding me that I’d reached my cruising range (that is, my target training zone).

When I launched my first walk workout, I toggled Workout Buddy on and was greeted with a quick summary of my week so far. “This is your fourth walk this week,” it reminded me, and framed it in the context of how close I was to closing my rings. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was surprisingly helpful to have that context delivered in a conversational tone, rather than buried in a graph somewhere.

“It’s not a coach, but it is designed to take your data and try to deliver it to you at the right time,” explained Blahnik, “in a way that inspires you and doesn’t get in the way.”

My Workout Buddy did start to get a little too chatty though when I hit some hills during my walk and my heart rate started spiking. Because my HR was constantly teetering above and dipping below my target, the alerts were hitting my ear every few seconds. Luckily, you can tweak or disable HR alerts entirely for each individual workout. My personal sweet spot involved removing just the high HR alert.

A decade of sweat equity and a team of trainers

Workout Buddy was not just Apple’s whimsical creation made to prove that the company can do AI for health and workouts. It’s the result of a decade of fitness data, an inspiring team of Fitness Plus trainers, and the technical lift of Apple Intelligence, Caldbeck told me.

“This was such a great time for it to happen because three things came together,” Caldbeck said. “Ten years of sweat equity, your personal fitness data. Our Fitness Plus trainers. And Apple Intelligence, which gave us the technical capabilities to push it forward.”

I could feel all three in the final product. The voice I heard isn’t just some generic audio prompt, which is what I was used to from these types of features on other devices. It’s a generative model trained on the voices of 28 actual Fitness Plus trainers. The tone, energy, and phrasing feels intentional and personal.

“It’s not a recording,” Caldbeck emphasized. “There was no script. It’s generated in the moment using your workout data and the voice model, and it will sound different every time.”

When I first set up Workout Buddy on my Apple Watch Series 10, I was prompted to choose from one of three distinct voices. They weren’t the tough-love trainer I’d envisioned would whip me into the best shape of my life, but they did sound like someone I’d trust to help me get there. Authoritative, energetic and strangely human. A far cry from the telemarketer-style robo-coach voices I’ve encountered in other programs.

There was a moment when Workout Buddy tipped its hand as something being less than human. It came during a mile-mark check-in, right after I’d crested what I considered a steep hill. It reported my stats: “One mile in, 230 feet of elevation gain.” Then it paused and declared, “That’s a mild elevation gain!” The tone was so emphatic, you’d think I’d just scaled Everest. It wasn’t the message that stood out; it was the delivery. A real person would’ve said “mild” matter of factly. But this was delivered with such over-the-top cheer that it almost felt like sarcasm. But the mismatch between tone and achievement made it sound like my wrist was gently roasting me for doing the bare minimum.

Personalization, with privacy at the core

The personalization isn’t just about your data, it’s about how it’s delivered. Workout Buddy can adapt to your habits, preferences, and even time of day.

“There’s something really remarkable about knowing that whatever they’re saying is unique to that moment, and that you’re not just going to trigger that same sentence on your run again the next day, even if you’ve done the same thing,” said Blahnik.

At the end of the walk, Workout Buddy summarized my stats, distance and calories. And it shared one meaningful nugget: My walk was my fastest pace in four weeks. That hit me harder than I expected. I’ve been coming off a knee injury that’s kept me from running for five weeks, and hearing that small gain was the moment I realized I might be on the mend. It was the kind of contextual insight I’d usually have to dig out on my own, in this case surfaced in my ear without having to think about it.

Under the hood, Apple is balancing Workout Buddy’s intimacy with its long-standing privacy approach. The feature uses a combination of on-device processing (on both your watch and iPhone) and private cloud computation to generate responses in real time. None of your personal fitness data is shared externally.

“We know this is your most personal data,” said Caldbeck. “So we wanted to treat it appropriately, but still give you powerful insights.”

This cautious approach matters. Trust will be the foundation for any future health coaching Apple delivers through AI.

A vision that’s just at the starting line

While Workout Buddy is only available to those with Apple Intelligence-supported iPhones, all Apple Watch users will still benefit from other updates in WatchOS 26. The limitation isn’t about exclusivity, it’s about processing power. Generating real-time, personalized voice feedback requires the kind of on-device performance that current Apple Watch hardware alone can’t handle. At least not yet.

The Apple Watch’s Workout app has the biggest navigation overhaul since it launched in 2015. Core features like interval training and pace alerts, previously buried in menus, are now front and center. Media integration also improved, with dynamic Apple Music suggestions based on your typical workouts that will play as soon as you start your workout.

“We kept our focus on making these features as personal and easy to use as possible,” Blahnik said, “pushing the workout app further than it’s ever been.”

That framing, focused on simplicity, accessibility and personalization, is key to understanding Apple’s strategy. While other companies rush to launch full-blown AI fitness coaches, Apple is taking a more deliberate path: It’s building the infrastructure to handle your data and translate it into meaningful, real-time guidance.

Apple’s been here before with adding native sleep tracking to the Apple Watch. The company waited until it had a clinical reason and subsequently a trustworthy implementation with Sleep Apnea alerts, even while competitors had long offered basic sleep tracking features.

“We almost always start our features to be really welcoming and inclusive and simple to use. We think that there’s a really bright future for where this can go as well,” Blahnik told me.

Apple’s long game

Of course Apple will never tell us where its sights are set next, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to draw the connections of where this is all headed.

“When we think about the future, all the ways with which we can push this feature to be even more personalized, we think its really, really exciting,” Blahnik noted.

Workout Buddy may seem lightweight now, but it proves that real time data analysis is already a possibility on the Apple Watch, and it can deliver them in a way that feels motivating and deeply personal. More importantly, it’s testing the waters. It’s accessible, friendly, and non-threatening; something even a beginner might be inclined to use.

It’s setting the stage for what could be next: an AI-powered coach that helps you make sense of all your data beyond just the Workout app to help motivate you and lead you to build healthier habits that will lead to measurable improvements. If Apple plays this right, the long game may actually pay off. Because building trust, delivering real insights and meeting people where they are is how you win the marathon.

Technologies

Kremlin Confirms Putin Transmitted Iran’s War Resolution Plan to Trump

The Kremlin says Putin relayed Iran’s proposal for ending the war to Trump, while Trump announced a Russian diesel supply deal that drew sharp criticism from Zelenskyy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin communicated Tehran’s perspective on a potential conclusion to the conflict in Iran to U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Russian state media reports on Saturday.

This disclosure follows Trump’s Friday statement that Russia will provide diesel to global markets amid soaring energy prices driven by the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

Russia’s Interfax news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stating that Putin conveyed the message to Trump “in agreement with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian,” per a Google translation.

Additional Russian media accounts indicate Putin spoke with Trump by phone after meeting Pezeshkian on the margins of a summit in Turkmenistan.

Interfax did not detail the specifics of how Iran envisions the war — which erupted on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets — reaching an end.

The White House did not immediately respond to Verum’s emailed request to confirm the reported conversation between Putin and Trump.

Russia supply deal

Trump announced Friday that Russia will deliver more than 4 million tons of diesel to the global market under an arrangement he said he agreed with Putin during a phone call.

Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by 500,000 tons in November, and 1 million tons immediately after, Trump posted on Truth Social. Moscow will then provide another 3 million tons of diesel contingent on the condition of Russia’s refineries, Trump added.

The Treasury Department temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel through April 2027 under a general license issued Friday.

Iran has intensified attacks on oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, with vessels coming under fire almost daily as Tehran attempts to choke off a rebound in crude exports.

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard official stated Wednesday that Iran will block all “illicit routes” through Hormuz, according to the Fars News Agency, an outlet considered close to the Guard.

The surge in tanker attacks coincides with crude oil exports from the Middle East rebounding in September to prewar levels, largely because the U.S. military escorted ships through Hormuz along Oman’s coast.

An interim agreement signed in June between the U.S. and Iran to pause hostilities to allow for negotiations quickly collapsed.

‘Gifts to Putin’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy immediately denounced Trump’s diesel deal with Putin. Ukraine’s leader warned that easing sanctions without a commitment from Russia to de-escalate the war will only prolong it.

“Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post. “Russia will ‘repay’ the diesel with further terror and perfidy. Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged.”

Diesel prices have surged worldwide as Ukraine has pounded Russian refineries, forcing Moscow to ban diesel exports to global markets. Iran and its Houthi allies have also attacked refineries in the Middle East, further constraining fuel supplies.

Trump faces mounting political pressure to lower fuel prices ahead of the November midterm elections. Republicans confront competitive races in conservative strongholds like Iowa, where farmers feel the pinch of high diesel prices.

Technologies

AI is Changing How Lawyers Work — and Putting the Billable Hour Under Pressure

AI is reshaping the legal industry by reducing the time needed for routine tasks, challenging the traditional billable hour model, and changing how lawyers learn and practice.

Artificial intelligence is now used by almost 90% of legal professionals in the U.K. and Ireland, and it’s putting one of the profession’s oldest conventions — the billable hour — under the microscope. That’s according to legal software company Clio’s U.K. & Ireland Legal Insights Report 2026.

It found that among firms using AI, almost 80% said they can handle more work without increasing resources, while over 70% said it cut costs by absorbing administrative work once done by support staff.

As a result, AI is challenging some of the assumptions on which the legal profession was built, forcing firms to reevaluate how their lawyers spend their time, how they charge for it and how new lawyers learn the ropes. You can’t charge 16 hours for something that takes 16 secondsNick Rowles-DaviesLexolent Some of the U.K.’s biggest firms are already putting this into practice.

A&O Shearman has worked with legal AI company Harvey to develop artificial intelligence agents for tasks, including reviewing loan agreements and analyzing regulatory filings, which it says can complete in minutes work that previously took several hours. Slaughter and May, meanwhile, has rolled out Harvey across all practice areas this year, including for regulatory research and document analysis.

Billable hour pressure The billable hour is central to the business model of many law firms, but when AI significantly reduces the time lawyers spend sifting through and drafting documents, the economics are no longer so straightforward. “You can’t charge 16 hours for something that takes 16 seconds,” Nick Rowles-Davies, founder and CEO of legal finance fund Lexolent, based in London and Dubai, told CNBC.

About one in five firms that have widely adopted AI report difficulty meeting billable-hour targets, according to Clio’s report. Globally, senior legal leaders expect the share of work charged by the hour to fall from 72% to 44% over the next two to three years, according to a Deloitte survey.

Routine work is the most exposed, Rowles-Davies said. “If you’ve got standard documents and you’re just putting in detail, then clearly that’s an automatic process.” But complex legal work still requires human judgment, he added, particularly when interpreting AI output and determining the right strategy for a client.

Lawyers [are] telling us that their day is getting betterJoshua LenonClio

AI and workloads

Whether AI efficiencies ultimately make lawyers’ working lives better may depend on what firms do with the time they get back. Clio’s report found that 51% of legal professionals work evenings, but only 32% want to, while 22% work weekends compared with 11% who would choose to.

Joshua Lenon, Clio’s New York-based lawyer-in-residence, believes some lawyers are already seeing the benefits. “Lawyers [are] telling us that their day is getting better,” Lenon told CNBC, as AI becomes more commonplace.

“People are really looking at these tools and saying, ‘This is making work better.’”

Technologies

Trump’s diesel agreement with Putin accused of contradicting Russia sanctions law

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a searing statement that the U.S. easing sanctions on Moscow “plays into Russia’s hands.”

President Donald Trump’s Friday announcement that Russia will supply diesel fuel to the global market marked an apparent pivot from recent efforts to pressure Moscow to end the Ukraine war by targeting Russian energy exports.

Trump claimed the move, unveiled with less than a month left in an affordability-focused midterm election, would swiftly bring down record-high diesel prices.

But commentators and critics were quick to highlight contradictions between the new policy and prior efforts by the U.S. to clamp down on Russian oil sales.

Those efforts most recently included the enactment of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, empowering Trump to impose tariffs up to 100% on the top purchasers of Russian crude oil or gas, among other restrictions. Trump signed the bill into law just three weeks ago.

“Congress just passed a law giving Trump the power to impose new tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil & gas,” Scott Lincicome, vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, said on X after Trump’s Friday announcement.

“Can America tariff America?” he quipped.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, accused Trump’s latest move of being “directly contrary to Congress’s intent in our bipartisan sanctions bill.”

Peter Harrell, visiting scholar at Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute of International Economic Law, in an X post said that the relaxation of Russian diesel restrictions “pretty much proves the point that the Graham Russia Bill was not going to force the Trump Administration to increase economic pressure on Moscow.”

Some of the criticism crossed party lines.

“Through the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, we gave the president significant authorities and leverage against China and Russia to bring Putin’s war to an end with a negotiated settlement,” Rep.

Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in an X post. “Unfortunately, while I understand the desire to bring down diesel prices, I am concerned the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil will only fund the Kremlin’s war machine—emboldening more violence and destruction, as we have seen in recent days,” McCaul said.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s questions about the diesel agreement with Russia.

Less than a year earlier, the Trump administration slapped sanctions on multiple Russian oil companies in response to what it called “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.”

Trump also had previously slammed NATO allies for continuing to buy Russian oil. In a September 2025 Truth Social post, he wrote, “the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia.”

Later that month, Trump again harangued world leaders for doing business with Russia.

“They’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?” he said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. “They can’t be doing what they’re doing. They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia.”

Trump announced the diesel deal in a Truth Social post Friday afternoon after what he described as a “highly successful discussion” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Under the agreement, Russia will immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, then another 500,000 tons in November, followed by 1 million tons “immediately thereafter” and 3 million more depending on refinery conditions, Trump wrote.

The Treasury Department soon after said that Trump directed the Office of Foreign Assets Control to immediately issue a “temporary general license to allow the supply of Russian diesel to the global market.” OFAC specified that the sanctioned transactions will be authorized for about six months, until April 7.

Russia seemed to celebrate the move. “Russia-US cooperation on diesel and energy will benefit the world,” an X account associated with Putin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev said in response to the announcement.

But Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose military has started targeting Russian oil refineries, said in a searing statement that the U.S. easing sanctions on Moscow “plays into Russia’s hands.”

“Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness,” Zelenskyy said. “Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged.”

“We count on America’s fair support for our defense of life, for our defense of people in Ukraine – and on the United States having a correspondingly strong conversation with Russia,” he said.

“A strong one, not a weak one,” he added.

Trump thanked Putin later Friday afternoon for enabling “massive amounts of oil” to come to the U.S.

“We need oil for the world, and this is diesel, which is what we need, so we’re very happy to get it,” Trump told reporters before heading to Syracuse, New York.

The Trump administration has previously eased some Russian energy sanctions temporarily, though more narrowly than Friday’s announcement.

Earlier this year, in an attempt to stabilize markets after the start of the Iran war, the Trump administration issued limited, 30-day waivers allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil that was already in transit.

But some interpreted the latest move as a more significant step.

“It looks like Trump cut a deal with the devil,” Jeremy Siegel, professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” Friday afternoon.

“It’s not a permanent solution at all. It’s sort of a short-term Band Aid,” Siegel said. “And cutting back on or eliminating sanctions on Russia for the invasion in Ukraine, I think, is a very unfortunate consequence.”