In an attempt to climb back up the leaderboard, Peloton just announced a flashy pivot to AI.

To set the scene, the in-home fitness company hit its personal record in 2020 when its valuation skyrocketed from about $8 billion to nearly $50 billion. It was a clear winner in the pandemic economy — but ever since people were able to leave their homes again, it’s been falling behind.

Years of underperformance has been marred with both catastrophe and cringe. Its stock dropped when fictional characters on “Billions” and the “Sex and The City” reboot suffered heart attacks while riding its bikes. Being slow to recall its treadmills in 2021 led to the death of a child and countless user injuries, for which it was hit with a $19 million fine in 2023. That same year, it was forced to recall 2.2 million bikes due to more injuries from broken seats. The once-CEO and board seat holder John Foley has reportedly lost 87 percent of his wealth in the aftermath.

So what does a struggling tech company do? In 2025, the answer is clear: announce a mad dash toward AI — and buried under the announcement, jack up the price, from $44 per month to $49.99.

The specifics of the pivot remain extremely hazy. The company says it’s built its own LLM named Peloton IQ, though it‘ll apparently also be using other LLMs, like Meta’s Llama. It also says it’ll introduce movement tracking via its Bike, Tread, and Row’s built-in cameras and pivoting screens. And yup, you’ll need to spend thousands of dollars on new hardware to use it.

Peloton claims AI will customize the experience of class recommendations, which doesn’t sound much different than what Netflix has been doing since it used to send out DVDs. It also says it’ll offer personalized guidance such as prompts for form correction according to the movement tracking — though how that’ll integrate with the company’s existing classes, which are all built around static videos, is unclear. 

It also says it’ll track your skeleton to recommend things like how low your pushup should go. But without individual data on strength measurements and mobility, and factors like injury or day-to-day shoulder tightness. Did we mention that even the best AI still hallucinates constantly?

Peloton also made a bunch of other vague promises in the announcement, ranging from wearable integration to support for users experiencing menopause. One possibility that went unmentioned: replacing its adored trainers with AI likenesses, which suggests that the company understands the immense public sensitivity around the topic of AI.

It’s impossible to evaluate any of it without trying it firsthand, but consider us skeptical. And at the end of the day, do users really want their exercise equipment surveilling them? TBD.

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