An Indian-origin engineer who spent nearly six years at Apple, including leading product planning for the Apple Watch, has recently left the tech giant to build her own healthcare startup. Meet Praneeta Pujari, a former Apple Watch lead in worldwide product planning, who recently made her exit from the Cupertino HQ to launch UniqueHuman, an AI-powered healthcare platform designed to help people manage chronic conditions, like migraines.
At Apple, Pujari led worldwide product planning for the Apple Watch, the smartwatch that Apple vouches for as a way to help users keep track of their health and fitness. Now, with her new startup, UniqueHuman, she wants to take things a step further. Unlike conventional health apps that primarily track steps, heart rate and sleep, her platform aims to use data from existing wearables, medical records and symptom logs to spot patterns that could signal a flare-up and help people manage their conditions before symptoms get worse.
“I left Apple to build healthcare that listens and acts early,” Pujari said in a promotional video announcing the company.
But before we get into what UniqueHuman does, let’s get to know a bit about the founder and her India connection.
Who is Praneeta Pujari?
Praneeta Pujari is an Indian engineer and product leader who has worked at some of the biggest names in technology, including Apple, Amazon and Flipkart. She worked at Apple from July 2019 to April 2025, eventually becoming Apple Watch lead in worldwide product planning. Before that, she held a leadership role in iPhone product planning.
But before making her way to Silicon Valley, Pujari studied mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. She later moved to the US to pursue an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her academic experience also includes working as a behavioural science researcher at the London Business School and UK consumer organisation.
Pujari’s professional journey started with Flipkart, where she worked for over 3 years from 2014 to 2017 and took on roles involving category management, pricing algorithms and product growth. She later joined Amazon as a senior product manager before moving to Apple in July 2019. During her nearly six years at Apple, she worked on iPhone product planning before becoming Apple Watch Lead in worldwide product planning, a role she held until April 2025.
What is UniqueHuman and what does it want to do?
After nearly six years at Apple, Pujari has struck out on her own with UniqueHuman, an AI-powered healthcare startup. Her decision to venture into healthcare was also personal. But her decision to venture into healthcare was not driven by technology alone. Her own experience of living with migraines, along with a decade spent helping manage her mother’s chronic pain, played a part in shaping the idea behind the company.
With UniqueHuman, Pujari wants to help people do more with their health data than simply track their steps, heart rate and sleep. The platform is being developed for people living with long-term conditions such as migraines, fibromyalgia, POTS and Long Covid. It brings together data from existing devices, including the Apple Watch, Oura Ring and Garmin wearables, along with medical records, lab results and symptom logs.
The platform also has an AI assistant, Niq, who looks at this information to spot patterns that users might otherwise miss. For someone who experiences migraines, for instance, it could look for links between their symptoms and sleep, stress, hydration, medication or menstrual cycles to help identify possible triggers.
According to the description of the app, UniqueHuman also has a Flare-Up Monitor that aims to warn users of signs that a migraine or other episode could be approaching. Users can record symptoms and medication, create reports for their doctors and get help finding specialists or seeking second opinions.
The bigger idea behind this platform according to pujari is to help people take action, rather than wait until their symptoms get worse. In a promotional video, UniqueHuman shows its AI predicting a possible migraine, connecting a user with a doctor and helping arrange medication.
However, these features are not a guarantee that the platform can predict flare-ups accurately. Its effectiveness will need to be established through real-world use and clinical evidence. The company says its AI is designed to support doctors, not replace them.
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