Vocal biomarker technology uses AI and speech analysis to detect subtle changes in voice (pitch, tone, pauses) from everyday devices, identifying acoustic features linked to health conditions like depression, Parkinson’s, COVID-19 or cognitive decline, offering a non-invasive, scalable way for early screening, monitoring and personalized health management, transforming diagnostics by providing objective data for mental, neurological and respiratory health.
Henry O’Connell, CEO and co-founder of Canary Speech, a software company in Provo, said there are five trends to watch for in that technology this new year.
Vocal biomarker data has come a long way in a short amount of time. No longer relegated to the pages of science fiction, the power of the human voice to assist in diagnoses is an established fact.
Providers already possess technological platforms that make informed care recommendations based on vocal biomarker data. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, researchers have identified a wide range of conditions — Parkinson’s, mild cognitive impairment, etc. — that can be detected using vocal biomarkers.
In 2026, those platforms will continue to deliver even more information upon which doctors can base their care recommendations. Here are five areas in which we can expect to see further developments from vocal biomarker technology in the new year:
More data-rich ambient recordings
Ambient listening tools that record doctor-patient conversations in clinical office settings, such as Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot platform for clinical dictation, have become common. Expect these platforms to expand to include a range of AI enhancements, some of which interact with Epic, to feed even more vocal biomarker data straight into the patient’s EMR/EHR.
The upshot: Doctors will receive even more clinical decision support information on each patient based on their vocal biomarker data — one of many tools they can use to make objective evaluations about a patient’s clinical condition.
More accurate patient pain-scale ratings
Often, today’s patient pain-scale ratings take the form of an ordinal (1-10) scale. Sometimes the methodology is even more crude, such as a series of two-dimensional faces showing increasing levels of discomfort.
In the new year, expect the emergence of vocal biomarkers to allow for more specific and accurate pain-scale assessments — unobtrusively, by analyzing the patient’s voice in conversation with a clinician. The benefit to clinicians is an increased ability to categorize pain quickly and accurately, via objective measurements based on patient outputs, not a subjective one based on a “best guess.”
Enhanced data outputs in video-conference settings
HIPAA-compliant virtual care platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) will integrate with more vocal biomarker detectors than ever in 2026, enhancing their functionality. Some of the neurocognitive assessments currently available in clinical settings will be available over virtual-care platforms as well. So will the pain-scale ratings as well as anxiety assessments.
The potential for more thorough remote assessments, without the time and hassle of visiting a clinic, could be a game-changer for patients and providers. By making video care platforms a more data-rich environment, patients will have more reasons to utilize virtual care meetings, and providers will glean more from each virtual visit.
More diseases will be able to be detected
Dozens of health care systems are using AI-enhanced tools to tell clinicians when behavioral and cognitive disease might be present. Expect more diseases (COPD, multiple sclerosis, PTSD, etc.) to be subject to detection in the primary care setting.
In 2026, that will mean earlier warnings for primary care physicians to recommend their patients to a specialist than has ever been possible.
Vocal biomarker screenings for childhood illnesses
ADHD and autism are being diagnosed at higher rates than ever in children. AI-enhanced vocal biomarker screenings can improve the accuracy of these diagnoses.
In the first half of 2026, these tools will be able to assess young people for ADHD and autism through unobtrusive ambient listening between patient and doctor. The result: faster, more accurate diagnoses for more children in more clinics.
Clinicians already have the platforms for AI-assisted vocal biomarker disease detection. The new year will see our existing capabilities expand to include more diseases, and more accurate pain assessments, that touch more patients than ever.
Canary Speech is an AI-powered health tech company that uses real-time vocal biomarkers to screen for mental health and neurological disorders.