Recently, sports technology company KEEP and Nike jointly launched an exclusive online service to provide specialized running experiences for more runners, helping them run faster, farther, and longer. Under this service, users can seamlessly switch between KEEP's AI coach Kaka and Nike Run Club (NRC) running coaches with one click, experiencing multiple coaches being "simultaneously online" for "comprehensive service," while enjoying exclusive features from NRC running coaches.
According to the current KEEP platform display, under the KEEP AI coach Kaka interface, members can enjoy Kaka's intelligent exercise programs, training guidance, image recognition and recording, and multi-dimensional data analysis functions. Through the NRC running coach, users can access multiple exclusive features: generating personalized running plans and training programs; conducting assessments for lower limb flexibility, single-leg stability, and core stability, along with exclusive assessment report interpretations.
Additionally, users only need to complete a single 5km distance to join Nike Run Club and unlock coaching benefits, while also enjoying elite athlete courses, exclusive sharing templates, and dedicated running achievement badges. After joining Nike Run Club, users will also connect to Nike membership, unlocking more member benefits within the Nike ecosystem through accumulated running mileage.
Both KEEP and Nike are committed to providing better services for runners, with KEEP AI serving as a crucial strategic component that transforms current runners' real needs into experiential reality.
It is reported that after KEEP announced its "all in AI" strategy at the beginning of the year, the company has been vigorously advancing its AI strategy, committed to strategic transformation from a fitness app to a sports AI Agent. AI coach Kaka launched in March this year, primarily applied in exercise program customization scenarios. Kaka can customize training plans and programs based on users' exercise demands while supporting basic Q&A functions. In May, the new version of Kaka was launched, providing users with intelligent exercise program generation, smart training guidance, exercise data recording, dietary logging and evaluation functions, aiming to become users' personal AI coach to help them better achieve fitness goals.
In terms of intelligent exercise program generation, Kaka can formulate the most suitable exercise plans for users based on their fitness goals, venues, and equipment availability, combined with basic user data, exercise habits, dietary preferences, and real-time heart rate. During user training, the AI coach can provide adjustment recommendations based on users' real-time exercise conditions.
During training sessions, KEEP's AI coach can provide comprehensive voice guidance on users' movement details. Whether for indoor workouts or outdoor running and cycling, Kaka can provide real-time voice guidance based on users' current exercise status, goals, and habit preferences. The image recognition feature allows users to simply open their phones and upload photos, enabling Kaka to precisely identify food and beverage names, quantities, and even calorie data, while providing dietary evaluations and recommendations.
Li Dongan, Senior Researcher at KEEP Sports Research Institute, explains that KEEP's sports assessment system relies on large-scale data and multi-dimensional feature extraction. Through "information collection and metadata processing," it obtains users' basic "data profiles," then uses artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze and interpret the data, clearly presenting users' athletic abilities and performance. Based on data indicators and users' fitness goals, it generates personalized exercise solutions, forming comprehensive athletic status and capability assessments.
In the NRC running coach launched through this collaboration between KEEP and Nike, the "lower limb flexibility assessment," "single-leg stability assessment," and "core stability assessment" features that users can experience are also built on this logic. In this experience, Nike's professional running coaches set standard movements and evaluation criteria, while KEEP's AI algorithms implement athletic ability and status assessments.
When users join NRC and enter the movement assessment interface, they receive AI conversational responses providing guidance on video shooting standards for movements. After users complete filming and upload videos, if the video meets standards, they receive AI-generated movement assessment reports; if movements don't meet standards, they receive AI prompts to reshoot according to AI guidance and upload again.
According to reports, KEEP plans to upgrade and iterate its app version again, launching the new 9.0 AI version subsequently. Driven by large language models, it will fully create an AI Agent for the intelligent era. Meanwhile, Kinetic.ai is KEEP's proprietary model developed for the sports and health vertical sector, marking an industry first. This model is released by KEEP based on extensive sports data and professional sports knowledge accumulation, trained and optimized on foundation models, demonstrating more professional performance in the sports and health vertical domain.