A wave of "smart toilet" devices is bringing AI-powered stool analysis into the home, as companies chase a booming gut health market by promising personalised health insights from bathroom habits. Firms such as Kohler Health and startup Throne sell clip-on toilet devices with cameras that record and analyse stool and urine, generating gut health and hydration scores via an app, but gastroenterologists remain unconvinced the technology offers meaningful benefits over simply looking at the toilet bowl, particularly for otherwise healthy users.

Kohler Health's device costs $449 plus a $130 annual membership, while Throne's costs $399 with a $70 yearly fee; both insist their cameras cannot be angled upwards. Unlike gut microbiome test kits, which have been criticised for weak scientific backing, these trackers aim to establish a personal baseline over time rather than issuing pass/fail verdicts, which proponents say could help those with inflammatory bowel disease maintain logs their doctors struggle to get them to keep. Throne also plans to add multispectral imaging capable of detecting blood in stool, aiming eventually to aid earlier detection of colorectal cancer, whose rates are rising among under-50s, though a launch is still up to two years away and pricing is undecided.