Klick turns 10 seconds of speech into a Type 2 diabetes screening test

India has the world's second-largest diabetes population and more than half of cases go undiagnosed, while distance, cost and scarce resources block access to blood tests. Over a billion Indians own a phone, so Klick Labs set out to make screening something anyone could do.

Turn a smartphone into a diabetes screener: 10 seconds of speech and AI reads 14 acoustic features — pitch and intensity shifts we can't hear — flagging Type 2 diabetes.

Built on a Mayo Clinic journal study of 267 participants in India (192 without diabetes, 75 with prior diagnosis) who recorded short clips several times a day for two weeks, the app analysed 18,465 recordings and 14 acoustic characteristics, reaching up to 89% accuracy in women and 86% in men.

The tool won the Innovation Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024 and, entered by Klick Health Brasil, the Innovation Grand Ojo at El Ojo 2025 plus a Gold in Salud & Pharma; beta tests with health institutions have supported thousands of patients, seven studies are extending the approach to other diseases, and Klick projects up to $32.75 billion in global savings from earlier detection.

Type 2 diabetes usually goes unnoticed until complications appear, and in India — the country with the world's second-largest diabetic population — more than half of cases are undiagnosed. Blood-based screening is invasive, costly and out of reach for millions, yet over a billion Indians carry smartphones.

Klick Labs built Voice 2 Diabetes: a smartphone app that records short voice clips and uses AI to detect subtle vocal changes — pitch and intensity shifts imperceptible to the human ear — that correlate with Type 2 diabetes. The technology came out of a Mayo Clinic journal study with 267 participants in India who recorded clips several times daily for two weeks.

Across 18,465 recordings the model identified 14 acoustic characteristics, reaching up to 89% accuracy in women and 86% in men — for women, pitch changes and deviation from average pitch mattered most; for men, variations in voice strength. The result is a non-invasive, low-cost test that anyone with a phone can take.

The idea swept the award circuit — the Innovation Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024, then the Innovation Grand Ojo at El Ojo 2025 with a Gold in Salud & Pharma. Beta tests with health institutions have supported thousands of patients, seven studies are extending the approach to other diseases, and Klick projects up to $32.75 billion in global savings from earlier detection.

It attacks the access problem directly: no blood draw, no lab, no travel — just a phone every patient already owns.

The science is concrete: 18,465 recordings and 14 acoustic features give accuracy comparable to basic screening tools.

Launching as a brand-funded public-good project let a health agency make a diagnosable impact rather than an ad.

Because the tool runs on ordinary smartphones, it can scale in low-resource settings where diabetes is most under-diagnosed.

Make the test the product: a phone is infrastructure people already own, so ten seconds of speech and AI become a Type 2 diabetes screener that replaces the blood draw.

Voice 2 Diabetes became one of the most awarded health innovations of its cycle: the Innovation Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2024, a Gold at the London International Awards 2024, and at El Ojo 2025 the Innovation Grand Ojo plus a Gold in Salud & Pharma, entered by Klick Health Brasil for KVI Brave Fund. Klick reports thousands of patients supported through beta tests, seven ongoing studies exploring the same voice model for other conditions, and a projected US$32.75 billion in global savings from earlier detection.