Abbott introduces AI-driven meal impact predictions to transform diabetes management at CES

Abbott has launched Libre Assist, an AI-enabled feature in its diabetes app that predicts how meals may affect blood sugar levels, aiming to shift glucose management from retrospective to real-time decision-making, unveiled at CES in Las Vegas.

Abbott has unveiled a new artificial intelligence feature for its diabetes app that aims to help people estimate how a meal may affect their blood sugar before they eat it. Introduced at CES in Las Vegas on January 5, Libre Assist is built into the FreeStyle Libre app and uses a photo or text description of food to generate a colour-coded prediction of glucose impact, with green indicating a minor effect, yellow a moderate one and orange a major one.

According to Abbott, the feature also provides personalised advice intended to blunt a spike and then checks the result about three hours later against readings from the company’s continuous glucose monitor. The launch marks a more visible use of AI in a platform Abbott says has already relied on algorithmic analysis for more than a decade, although until now much of that work has happened behind the scenes rather than in a consumer-facing tool.

The company is positioning Libre Assist as a way to move diabetes management from retrospective logging to real-time decision-making. Rather than waiting until after a meal has been eaten and recorded, users can receive guidance beforehand, which Abbott says may help them choose differently in the moment. The feature is being offered within the Libre app at no additional cost.

Abbott’s broader CES presence underlined how central AI has become to its healthcare pitch, with the company also highlighting other work in biowearables, heart-health insights and diagnostics. Even so, the practical test for Libre Assist will be whether meal-by-meal predictions change behaviour in a meaningful way for people living with diabetes, a condition affecting hundreds of millions of adults worldwide.