| AI for Good: Fighting diabetes before it starts |
Source: Iman Al-dabbagh, Fortune |
| 1.3 billion people are projected to develop diabetes by 2050, with another 4 billion considered pre-diabetic. AI is helping people with diabetes see how food affects their bodies, track risks in real time and act sooner on long-term health issues. Tools developed by companies like January AI are already making that possible. Best yet? No glucose monitor required. |
| What happened: At Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International conference in Riyadh, health leaders outlined how AI is shifting diabetes care toward prevention. |
| January AI uses food image recognition and predictive modeling to tell users how a specific meal will affect their blood sugar, based on individual genomic and lifestyle data. The company trained its engine on a dataset from over 1,000 participants to build real-time, personalized insights. |
| AI tools are also being applied to complications beyond diet. Olfat Berro, Middle East lead at Roche, highlighted how image analysis and genomics could help predict issues like diabetic vision loss. Leah Cotterill of Cigna noted that broader access to these tools across the Middle East could reduce the long-term strain on health systems. |
| Why it matters: Diabetes now affects millions worldwide and impacts everything from heart health to eyesight. Traditional care models react after symptoms emerge. AI makes it possible to flag risk patterns early by analyzing how a person’s unique biology responds to diet and behavior. |
| That kind of foresight could delay—or even avoid—the worst complications for hundreds of millions. |
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Source: Iman Al-dabbagh, Fortune