Today, I would like to share the following reflection with all of you: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic that is everywhere today. There is almost no subject or conversation in which it does not appear, and in which we do not talk about its impact on the future. But, as often happens, there is a lot of discussion about what will happen in the future, while we barely see it in the present. In the case of AI, we all talk about it, but we see little in a tangible way beyond ChatGPT, Copilot, or whichever tool we use in our daily life. However, the fact that we do not have the information does not mean that things are not happening.
Even if we do not see it, many companies are beginning to integrate it into their processes.
To give an example, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Nvidia recently signed an alliance to build an AI supercomputer dedicated to drug discovery. This is not a simple technological agreement: it represents the integration of generative models into R&D processes in order to reduce timelines, increase accuracy, and accelerate the development of new molecules.
What is happening with AI today in the spine market?
A recent review in Frontiers in Surgery confirms that AI is already transforming diagnosis from medical imaging, preoperative planning, navigation during surgery, prediction of complications, and postoperative evaluation. In other words, AI is no longer an abstract idea for the future—its impact is already visible in clinical practice and in the design and development of spinal implants.
Across Europe startups, and large medical device companies are integrating AI to modernize the entire spine surgery workflow:
- One example is the DIGITECH initiative in the Czech Republic, where Syntropiq and academic partners are developing AI systems that analyze musculoskeletal images, automate segmentation, assist in surgical planning, and support decision-making for spinal procedures. Their objective is to digitalize and automate tasks that are still manual today, making surgery more precise, safer, and more consistent.
In the United States, the adoption of AI in spine surgery is also accelerating.
- Surgical Theater has received FDA clearance for its SyncAR® Spine platform, which combines AI with extended reality. The system segments vertebrae automatically, aligns preoperative images with the real surgical field, and guides the surgeon in real time, increasing precision in both open and minimally invasive procedures.
- Medtronic has expanded its AiBLE™ Spine Surgery Ecosystem, (UNID-ASI-Clinical-brief-data.Medtronic.pdf) which integrates AI, imaging, navigation, and robotics. This ecosystem includes the O-arm™ imaging system with AI-based dose reduction, and the UNiD™ Adaptive Spine Intelligence software, which uses AI to analyze MRI, predict alignment, and generate patient-specific implants and surgical plans.
Other companies are also contributing to this transformation.
- Carlsmed uses AI-driven planning to design personalized implants for complex spinal deformities, and has completed early clinical cases with positive results.
- NuVasive, now part of Globus Medical, uses machine-learning models to help surgeons optimize alignment goals and select implants for deformity correction based on patient-specific data.
- DeGen Medical in the United States uses AI to analyze CT scans, extract morphometric data, and automatically generate implant designs adapted to individual spinal anatomies. Their models simulate load distribution and predict subsidence risk before manufacturing, reducing development times and improving the precision of personalized implants.
The application of AI is unstoppable, including in the spinal implant market. It is true that there are still many challenges, such as data quality and clinical integration, but AI represents the future—and in some cases, already the present. It is clear that companies that integrate artificial intelligence into their design, planning, and clinical follow-up processes will innovate more rapidly and, above all, set the standard for the future of surgery.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, we often talk about AI as the future without seeing what is already happening in the present. Undoubtedly, what today seems like a distant future is already being built today!
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