What role can AI play in providing access to reliable and understandable information?

AI can translate medical jargon into sentences that are easy to understand right away. It helps you make sense of a diagnosis, prepare for an appointment, or simply figure out what questions to ask before walking into the doctor's office.

I’ve experienced this myself. When dealing with a gynecological issue, I consulted several specialists who gave me interpretations of the same situation that were sometimes very different. It was enough to make me feel lost. AI allowed me to cross-check these opinions with reliable information, to understand what was widely agreed upon and what was a matter of interpretation. It even helped me create a clear calendar of my cycle, so I could figure out when to schedule certain appointments, plan my time off accordingly, and arrive prepared rather than feeling uncertain.

It can never replace a doctor. But it can bridge the gap between those who already know how to decipher medical jargon and those who have to figure it out on their own—and sometimes help resolve conflicting opinions.

How can AI better address women's still-neglected health needs?

For decades, medical research has been based on a reference group: male, white, and healthy. As a result, women’s health conditions are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed—sometimes for years.

AI can help fill these blind spots, but only if it is fed data that truly reflects the diversity of women: age, background, social status, and place of residence. AI trained on incomplete data merely reproduces the very blind spots it claims to correct.

How can these technologies help patients become more independent?

A patient who understands becomes a patient who participates. AI can help her anticipate the side effects of a treatment, track her care journey, and—most importantly—arrive at an appointment with real questions rather than just passively receiving information.

Autonomy doesn't mean doing without a doctor. It means stopping being merely the recipient of decisions that affect your own body.

How can we design healthcare tools that are truly accessible to women?

Accessibility isn't just a matter of technology. It's about designing simple tools that are available in multiple languages, tailored to a wide range of digital literacy levels, and—above all—designed with the women involved, not for them.

The best innovations are never conceived in isolation. They are co-created with the people who will use them.

Which groups are still at risk of being excluded from these innovations?

Older women. Women living in underserved areas. Women with limited access to digital technology. Women in precarious situations. The list goes on, and that’s precisely the problem.

Nor should we forget women in low- and middle-income countries, where the digital divide and the healthcare gap overlap. Innovation must not create yet another divide; it already does little to bridge the existing ones.

How Can We Prevent Data Bias from Harming Women's Health?

AI is only as good as its data. If women are underrepresented in that data, the recommendations it generates will be less relevant—and sometimes completely off the mark.

We need to diversify the datasets, regularly evaluate the models across different patient profiles, and involve healthcare experts, researchers, and civil society representatives from the very beginning—not at the end of the process, and not merely as a formality.

What safeguards are needed to maintain trust?

Transparency. Protection of personal data. Explainability of recommendations. Human oversight at every stage.

AI remains a decision-support tool, period. Ultimate responsibility must always remain in the hands of healthcare professionals.

What would truly inclusive AI in women's health look like?

AI that reduces inequalities rather than perpetuating them. AI that takes into account the diversity of women’s life experiences, cultures, and social realities. AI that supports without replacing, explains without excluding, and empowers every woman to understand her own health.

Technological innovation is never an end in itself. It is judged by its ability to make a tangible difference in people’s lives. If AI enables more women to take control of their health, it will have done its job.