AI-Enabled Hearing Aids: Proving the Value of Upgrade with Clearer Speech Discrimination in Background Noise

This patient wanted to determine whether his newly upgraded hearing aids were truly an improvement over his old ones, as he was uncertain if the upgrade was worth it. To assess this, we conducted our highly reliable speech discrimination test under identical conditions using both sets of hearing aids. This allowed us to measure the patient’s speech discrimination ability across different technology platforms.

Both sets of hearing aids were programmed and verified using real-ear measures. However, the older technology was less advanced in handling background noise compared to the new AI-enabled platform. We first tested the patient with his old hearing aids, represented by the red “AR” symbol in the graph below. We then repeated the exact test using the AI-enabled hearing aids, with results shown by the blue “AL” symbol.

As clearly illustrated in the graph, the AI-enabled hearing aids provided a significant improvement in speech understanding, particularly in background noise. After continued use, the patient returned for a follow-up and reported a noticeable improvement. He was especially pleased that he could finally hear his wife clearly across the dinner table in one of their noisy London restaurants.