Four AI Applications Ready for Practice

Artificial intelligence (AI) is entering the mainstream of ophthalmology. At the 2025 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting, four companies outlined currently available AI-powered platforms designed to increase the speed and reliability of everything from surgical planning and diagnostics to clinical research, patient flow, and inventory control.

Adi from Alcon

Developed by Alcon, the Adi platform helps manage all the moving parts that go into surgery, said Gregory A Eippert MD. It is designed to address supply chain problems such as guessing which supplies are available and when ordered supplies will arrive; time-consuming manual checks; and trouble getting complete patient data from the clinic to the surgical centre—all of which can delay procedures.

Adi helps ensure products are available on time every time, said Dr Eippert, who helped beta test the system. The platform fits in with Alcon’s Vision Suite. Two Adi modules, Clinic Connect and Inventory Manager, were released at the meeting.

Clinic Connect gathers and shares surgery information from clinics and surgery centres through a central database updated in real time for scheduling and ordering supplies. It is connected to Inventory Manager, which automatically tracks Alcon IOLs using RFID, monitors supply usage and upcoming need, and reserves and orders needed supplies online.

All this helps ensure a smooth, successful surgery day, Dr Eippert said. “It’s going to reduce miscommunications, reduce potential mistakes, and really reduce last-minute surprises.”

Amaros precision intelligence

The Amaros AI platform unifies fragmented clinical and research data into real-time insights to drive efficient and effective operations, said Mark Packer MD.

For example, the system can sift through thousands of records to identify patients with cataracts who have not been seen recently so they can be contacted. For research, it can quickly sift electronic records to identify patients meeting specific study inclusion and exclusion criteria, making it possible to find a dozen eligible candidates out of thousands. Amaros AI also seamlessly answers business questions, such as how much revenue premium lenses bring into the organisation.

“It’s machine learning, but it’s not the machine that is learning; it is helping us learn,” Dr Packer said.

AVTR for admin

AVTR Med creates AI assistants that reduce administrative costs in ophthalmic practices by 50%, said Grayson Armstrong MD—a significant reduction because, on average, physicians spend more than 15 hours per week on paperwork and administration, which is a major factor in provider burnout.

AI can help with tasks including scheduling, insurance verification, patient follow-up, and staff education, Dr Armstrong said. For example, patient calls to schedule or reschedule appointments can be done by an AI avatar. If the patient has questions, the system can switch them to a human staff member, which he said vastly boosts staff productivity. “You can call all of your patients simultaneously and get the responses in a matter of minutes, not [through] a full day of work.”

Zeiss for precision surgery

Carl Zeiss Meditec has three AI initiatives focused on improving cataract surgery outcomes, said Mitchell P Weikert MD.

First is an IOL power calculation formula that replaces IOL constants with an AI formula optimised for each unique IOL model to better predict refractive outcomes in real eyes. So far, the system can be used with 13 lenses from Zeiss, Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson. It is available on the VERACITY surgical planning system.

In tests, the Zeiss AI formula equalled some of the best available IOL formulas—both conventional and AI derived—in all eyes and often did better in difficult cases. For example, in short eyes, the Zeiss formula was with 0.5 D of target refraction in 73% of eyes, compared with 67–69% for some of the best performing rivals.¹ In post-LASIK/PRK eyes, Zeiss achieved 76% within 0.5 D of target, bettering Barrett True-K and Oculix competitors.²

Second, Zeiss offers a surgical video analysis program that uses AI to segment and assess each step of the surgical process, which can help improve surgical speed, efficiency, and accuracy, Professor Weikert said. Simply upload the videos to the cloud for analysis.

Third, Zeiss is developing an AI-powered tool for preoperative macular OCT analysis, which may help select patients for premium lenses and improve outcomes. The system is designed to spot and offer preliminary diagnoses for a range of macular conditions that may interfere. It is currently in use in Europe and South America. “These are all very exciting,” Prof Weikert said.

All comments were made in an AI Symposium at the 2025 ASCRS annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Gregory A Eippert MD is an ophthalmologist in private practice in Mentor, Ohio, US.

Mark Packer MD, FACS heads Packer Research Associates, a consulting group specialising in ophthalmology in Fort Collins, Colorado, US. mark@markpackerconsulting.com

Grayson Armstrong MD, MPH is an ophthalmologist and medical director of Ophthalmic Emergency Services at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and instructor associate director of medical student education at Harvard University, both in Boston, US. grayson_armstrong@meei.harvard.edu

Mitchell P Weikert MD, MS is a professor at the Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, US. mweikert@bcm.edu

1. Kenny PI, et al. J Cataract Refract Surg, 2023; 49(7): 697–703.

2. Chen E, et al. Presentation at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons annual meeting, 25–28 April 2025, Los Angeles, California, US.