Starkey presented Omega AI, its flagship hearing aid platform, to a global clinical audience at IFOS 2026, the XXIII World Congress of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, held at the Istanbul Congress Center last week. Convened once every four years and drawing thousands of specialists from every region of the world, the congress gave Starkey a platform to demonstrate how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing what patients with hearing loss can expect from their devices.
The centrepiece of Starkey’s participation was a keynote lecture delivered by Dr. Achin Bhowmik, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering. Speaking to audiologists, ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons and hearing industry professionals from across the region and global markets, Dr Bhowmik set out Starkey’s blueprint for AI-led hearing performance, anchored by Omega AI and its deep neural network (DNN) 360 system, described by Starkey as the world’s first DNN-powered directionality system for hearing aids.
“At Starkey, sound quality remains job number one, and everything we build starts there,” said Dr. Achin Bhowmik, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering, Starkey. “ At Starkey, we are leading the industry and changing the standards. What has changed is the intelligence we can now place inside a device this small. Omega AI applies 360-degree deep neural network processing and generative AI to adapt as listening conditions change, so that patients hear more clearly in the environments where they have always struggled most. A congress like IFOS matters because the science only reaches patients when clinicians adopt it. Our vision is to make the hearing aid a multipurpose device. It will help in various new health monitoring features and improved connectivity. We are trying to mimic the brain using our advanced chips.”
Across the five days of the congress, Starkey hosted clinicians at its stand for hands-on demonstrations of the platform. According to Starkey, Omega AI delivers up to 28 percent improved speech intelligibility in challenging environments and up to an 8 decibel (dB) improvement in signal-to-noise ratio, alongside up to 51 hours of battery life and a waterproof coating tested to last 10 times longer than previous coatings. Delegates also reviewed TeleHear AI, which uses generative artificial intelligence to help resolve common hearing issues in real time with 93 percent predictive accuracy, together with connectivity features including Auracast assistant, Google Fast Pair and fall detection.
“The conversations we had in Istanbul confirmed what we hear across our markets,” said Giscard Bechara, Regional Director, Starkey MEA. “Clinicians want technology that performs in real-world noise, over long days, and that they can fit and follow up on with confidence. Bringing Omega AI to a congress of this scale allowed professionals from the Middle East and Africa to see the platform alongside their global peers and judge it on clinical merit. That is how adoption accelerates, and that is how lives are transformed. We gave our visitors a small glimpse on what is coming and the excitement is there. Starkey will remain the sound the patient wants and the easy fit the professionals want”
Interest was strongest around the platform’s health capabilities, including Balance Builder and an automatic respiratory rate monitor within the My Starkey application, features that reflect the wider shift from conventional amplification towards multifunctional devices that support everyday wellbeing.
The congress took place against a rising global burden. The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that nearly 2.5 billion people will have some degree of hearing loss by 2050, with more than 700 million requiring rehabilitation. In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, which includes the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, 78 million people live with hearing loss today, a figure projected to reach 194 million by 2050. In the WHO African Region, disabling hearing loss could affect 97 million people by 2050, with unaddressed hearing loss estimated to cost African economies US$27.1 billion each year. It was announced that the next 2030 IFOS congress will take place in Hong Kong.
Starkey Middle East and Africa will continue to engage hearing care professionals through professional education, technology briefings and clinical enablement initiatives across the region, supporting evidence-based hearing care practice and helping to translate the latest innovation into improved patient outcomes.
