AI for Good blog

Meet AI Diagnostics, the pioneer behind AI-enabled stethoscopes to simplify clinical diagnosis and speed up treatment of Tuberculosis

Innovation Factory

by Cindy X. S. Zheng

African startups have raised $1.7 billion in 2024 so far (Africa: The Big Deal, 2024). The continent hosts most of the world’s fastest-growing economies (AFDB, 2024) and has, since the plummet in 2020, seen continuous growth over the years.

AI for Good Innovation Factory Africa, co-hosted by regional media consultancy AI Media, offered a unique opportunity to grow for emerging AI startups as a global pitching platform. The event featured start-studded experts on the jury panel that voted for AI Diagnostics as the winner of this year’s event. The medical technology company develops highly specialised AI models and sensing hardware to enable nurses and community health workers to make clinical diagnoses with specialist-like accuracy.

AI for Good Innovation Factory is a year-round startup pitching competition with an open invitation to all pioneers harnessing AI’s potential to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Launched in 2020 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), it consistently provides a platform to scale and accelerate AI startups from around the globe.

The most promising entrepreneurs of each session receive the opportunity to enter the Innovation Factory Grand Finale during the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 to compete with the other winners of the previous tournaments. Moreover, the winner AI Diagnostics is provided access to the international startup ecosystem to scale their solution. Find out more about their entrepreneurial ambitions in an exclusive interview with founder Johan Coetzee.

Can you tell us about your winning solution?

“We founded AI Diagnostics in 2020 to empower our superhero nurses with specialist-like superpowers. AI-enabled stethoscopes emerged as the obvious marriage between simple usability with a vast potential utility.” Johan Coetzee

We created an AI model to accurately detect Tuberculosis by analysing the sound of a patient’s lungs. We took 2 years to create a large proprietary TB training database, we then created our own models specific to the application, and since then have developed a commercial stethoscope and software application to leverage our model for clinic TB detection.

AI Diagnostics’ first approved solution combines its custom digital stethoscope (Ostium™) paired with its user application (AID.APP™), which accesses AI Diagnostics proprietary Tuberculosis detection model (AID.TB™). This suite empowers nurses to accurately and cost-effectively diagnose TB early at patients’ first interaction with the healthcare system.

AI Diagnostics is expanding its utility to detect additional diseases by replicating the strategies and methods pioneered while developing the Tuberculosis detection model (AID.TB™), all building towards the vision of screening for multiple pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases at a single sitting.

Where are you from and what regions do you work in?

A key component to developing this solution is AI Diagnostics’ proprietary TB lung sound training database which was initially collected in South Africa and expanded to include patients from South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The team is South African, and we commercially currently operate in South Africa. However, our clinical studies have extended to South America, Southeast Asia, and Central Africa.

How can your solution help to solve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?

SDG 3, Good Health and Wellbeing: TB is the world’s most deadly infectious disease. Detecting TB early reduces suffering, improves treatment outcomes, and reduces the contagious period halting the transmission of disease.

SDG 1, No Poverty: TB disproportionately affects the poor, the cost burden on patients and states is overwhelming and perpetuates the spiral of poverty. Detecting TB earlier significantly reduces the financial burden on patients as they are able to return to work in 2 weeks as opposed to up to 6 months.

What is your biggest challenge as an AI startup?

As an AI-based medical technology company, we face barriers of tech trust and regulatory uncertainty.

Why did you join the Innovation Factory Pitching Competition?

We joined for the chance to present our solution to global policymakers and to rub shoulders with other incredible companies leveraging the power of AI for good.

Challenged by underdeveloped infrastructure and opaque markets (Kola Aina, 2024), investment in African AI startups drives innovation and social impact like no other region. In exchange, the budding companies prove resilience through the vast potential of their young population and promising growth trajectory, especially since local innovations best address Africa’s unique needs.

AI for Good Innovation Factory is the leading UN pitching platform that continuously aims to promote trustworthy AI applications like AI Diagnostics, exemplifying the burgeoning AI startup ecosystem in Africa and around the world. At the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, the winning startups will gather again to showcase their impactful AI-powered solutions that can accelerate the road toward the UN SDGs.

To learn more about AI Diagnostics and AI for Good Innovation Factory, watch the full competition below: