Billion-dollar tech company Starkey unveils its newest hearing aid with AI accessible for all generations—solidifying the ear is ‘the new wrist’

When you think about hearing loss, you might typically envision your grandparents blaring the television or having to semi-shout when talking to them. But the reality is more than 1.57 billion people of all ages worldwide experience hearing loss, which is the third-most common chronic physical condition in the U.S. alone, twice as prevalent as diabetes and cancer. 

And it’s only expected to get worse: The World Health Organization predicts in the next 25 years, more than 2.5 billion people worldwide will experience hearing loss. That’s nearly one-third of the world’s entire population. 

Starkey, a billion-dollar hearing tech company, is one company addressing not only hearing loss today, but preparing for what is becoming only a more prominent health concern. On Thursday, the company announced its latest hearing aid model Omega AI , the successor to last year’s Omega AI.

“Starkey is a company with the vision, talent, and global scale to invest in the future long before it arrives,” Brandon Sawalich, president and CEO of Starkey, told Fortune. “Omega AI is the result of that commitment, years of AI investment, deep technical expertise, and a belief that the best technology should make people feel more connected to the world around them.”

“Starkey is a company with the vision, talent, and global scale to invest in the future long before it arrives,” Brandon Sawalich, president and CEO of Starkey, told Fortune. “Omega AI is the result of that commitment, years of AI investment, deep technical expertise, and a belief that the best technology should make people feel more connected to the world around them.”

Last year’s Omega AI was the first hearing aid in the world to use deep neural network-powered directionality and spatial awareness features, according to Starkey. Deep neural networks are a type of machine learning system inspired by how the human brain works, processing information in layers........

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