AI Digital Twins, Smart Yoga Mats: Bengaluru Conclave Maps Healthcare’s Next Decade

Experts gathered at the Healthcare and Artificial Intelligence (HAI) Conclave 2026 in Bengaluru on Friday, organised by the Global Healthcare Academy, to preview technologies they believe will redefine medicine over the coming decades — while cautioning that AI must support, not replace, human clinical judgement.

Dr Shravan Subramanyam, managing director and group CEO of BPL Medical Technologies, illustrated the shift through the life of a hypothetical child, noting that average life expectancy has climbed from the mid-30s to the 70s as healthcare moves from reactive treatment toward continuous, personalised care. He described a future where affordable genetic sequencing and editing could happen before birth, where AI builds a ‘digital twin’ of the body to predict disease risk, and where middle age brings a shift from hospital visits to connected care delivered at home through smart medical devices. ‘We are all the human in the loop,’ he said, calling for responsible use of the technology.

The convergence of traditional wellness and AI was another major theme. In a session titled ‘Ancient Science Meets Data Science,’ Muralidhar Somisetty, founder and CEO of Wellnesys Technologies, demonstrated Yogifi, a rechargeable, AI-enabled smart yoga mat priced at Rs 12,000 that uses embedded sensor fabric to track balance, posture and alignment, feeding data into an app that builds personalised routines.

Elsewhere, Dr Harsh Atul Hirani, clinician and co-founder of DocYantra, showcased AI-powered clinical agents that analyse 24 hours of patient data and generate dosage recommendations in under 30 seconds — versus four to six minutes for a clinician — while noting that nearly 75% of healthcare AI startups fail clinical validation and never reach doctors.

The conclave rounded out with demonstrations of AI-powered patient simulators for communication training, part of a broader showcase of tools organisers say are converging to reshape how care is delivered in India and beyond.