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Product cover image for Askunali: Defining a Go-to-Market Strategy for an AI Nutrition Assistant

Askunali: Defining a Go-to-Market Strategy for an AI Nutrition Assistant

Ahmed Zahlan, Kamel Jedidi, Robert J. Morais

Product #:W49848
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:Entrepreneurship, Marketing
Setting:United Kingdom, 2024
Details:Case (PDF) • 10 pages • 2026-09-11

Subjects:

Sales and marketingMarketingEntrepreneurshipHealthcare benefits

Industries:

Healthcare sector

Geography:

EuropeUnited Kingdom
Your Price:$10.54

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In July 2024, Gauthier Salavert, founder and chief executive officer of AskUnali, was seeking to finalize the start-up’s go-to-market strategy. Based in London, United Kingdom, AskUnali was an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up that provided science-backed nutrition guidance through an AI assistant trained on more than 200 million research papers. Although the company had attracted strong interest from prospective partners, it had struggled to convert that attention into signed business deals. The company now faced a strategic choice between two potential growth paths. One option was to prioritize partnerships with large institutions, including health insurers, pharmacy chains, and clinical platforms. The other was to focus on smaller consumer platforms, such as fitness platforms, supplement retailers, and grocery apps. To make this decision, Salavert needed to assess market research findings, evaluate the most promising customer segments, and determine how AskUnali could build credibility, accelerate adoption, and position itself for long-term success in the emerging AI health ecosystem

Learning Objectives

This case is best positioned in upper-level undergraduate and master of business administration and master of science offerings in marketing strategy, entrepreneurship and new ventures, product management, and health care and digital health, ideally within modules on product-market fit and go-to-market sequencing, B2B2C platform strategy, and AI commercialization in regulated settings. It also fits into executive education courses on digital health commercialization and payer-provider-retail ecosystems. Instructors can use the case early in a go-to-market module to explore beachhead market selection and segmentation trade-offs. The case assumes minimal prior exposure to core marketing and partnership concepts.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

  • Understand the significance of AI in nutrition and preventive health care, and how evidence-based digital tools can address misinformation, improve decision-making, and enhance consumer wellness outcomes.
  • Analyze the challenges faced by early-stage start-ups in defining target markets within crowded, fast-evolving health-tech ecosystems, including tensions between credibility, speed, and scalability.
  • Evaluate the trade-offs of option A versus B.
  • Explore the role of trust as a differentiating factor in user adoption of AI-powered health solutions.
  • Develop go-to-market strategies for start-ups balancing short-term survival with long-term positioning, including customer-segment sequencing, partnership choices, and communication strategies.
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Case Study: Askunali: Defining a Go-to-Market Strategy for an AI Nutrition Assistant (English version) | Ivey Publishing