How AI is reshaping hearing assistance

Hearing loss affects over 1.5 billion people globally, with an annual economic impact exceeding $980 billion. While medical treatments remain limited, technological solutions have evolved dramatically from the early days of ear horns to today's sophisticated devices. This talk explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the future of hearing assistance, promising to revolutionize hearing healthcare for millions. We'll briefly survey the state of hearing technology before AI and how AI is driving the next transformative leap in this field. We'll define AI in the context of hearing assistance, contrast it with traditional approaches, and showcase its diverse applications—from automatic scene analysis and live captioning to advanced noise removal and speech enhancement. Looking ahead, we will examine the future directions of AI-driven hearing technologies and what is being worked on today. Join us to discover how AI is poised to transform hearing healthcare, reduce the global burden of hearing loss, and potentially serve as a model for AI integration across various healthtech domains.