GenAI x Telemedicine & SRHR

Written By Frontier Tech Hub

THE QUESTION

Can an AI-powered, WhatsApp-based telemedicine service safely and effectively expand access to abortion and contraception care in underserved areas of South Africa?

LOCATION: South Africa
SECTOR: Health
TECH: AI, Mobile
TIMELINE: January 2026 - Present
PARTNERS: TBD
PIONEER: Louise Coskeran

 
 

In South Africa, individuals face shortages, stigma, and long distances to access sexual and reproductive healthcare, despite a positive legal environment. AI-powered consultations can offer support to access medical abortion and contraception with human clinical oversight, integrating with public pharmacies to provide accessible care for underserved communities.

 

Our learnings and stories so far

This pilot hasn’t started to publish yet, but there are plenty of other blogs to read below. Check back soon!

Blog
One hill down, a forest of hills to go
One hill down, a forest of hills to go

Three years after its FT Hub pilot, Oko Forests is glad it stopped to read the map.

Read more →
Mexico Safe Online is looking for a Child Protection and Technology Partner
Mexico Safe Online is looking for a Child Protection and Technology Partner

Call for Mexico-based expertise to help shape a new initiative. Applications close on 9th October.

Read more →
Changing the user, not the technology
Changing the user, not the technology

When building a tool to improve access to justice for women in Tanzania our biggest successes came from more than just improving the AI architecture.

Read more →
Mexico Safe Online is looking for a local market consultant
Mexico Safe Online is looking for a local market consultant

Call for Mexico-based expertise to help shape a new initiative. Applications close on 9th October.

Read more →
What the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice taught us about testing tech for justice
What the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice taught us about testing tech for justice

Reflecting on insights from our Access to Justice Learning Brief with Sara Wahedi at the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice.

Read more →
Could designing for the "furthest first" close Tanzania's justice gap?
Could designing for the "furthest first" close Tanzania's justice gap?

When a woman in Tanzania goes to the police, she will often be told that the problem she’s facing, whether it is around inheritance or gender-based violence, is a domestic issue. Therefore, it’s not something for them to intervene in. That response is legally wrong, but unless she knows that, it’s the last she’ll hear on the matter.

Read more →
The solutions that already exist
The solutions that already exist

12 September is the International Day for South-South Cooperation. This year's theme, Solidarity Rising, rests on the observation that proven solutions already exist across the Global South, but too often they stay fragmented and hard to reach.

Read more →
Making climate risk investable: our first portfolio learnings
Making climate risk investable: our first portfolio learnings

A new film and report sharing what we learned from our first climate adaptation portfolio. Can frontier technologies turn climate risk into something someone is willing to pay for?

Read more →
What does international development look like in the Age of AI?
What does international development look like in the Age of AI?

As we end our AI mini-series, join us for a Field Trip to the Future.

Read more →
Are we about to waste it?
Are we about to waste it?

From Sierra Leone to Sri Lanka: the case for building AI together.

Read more →
What happens when the algorithm marks its own homework?
What happens when the algorithm marks its own homework?

The responsible AI decisions that matter most rarely arrive labelled as such.

Read more →
Access to Justice: a new learning brief 
Access to Justice: a new learning brief 

Introducing our latest learning brief on integrating AI and other technologies to improve access to justice for survivors in low-resource and post-conflict settings

Read more →
The age of AI: Ten years in, looking ten years on
The age of AI: Ten years in, looking ten years on

Ten years ago, tech was stuff you could pick up and drop on your toes. Now it’s often AI + X. What might AI make newly possible for people doing development in the future?

Read more →
The age of AI: what's worth testing in the future that’s emerging?
The age of AI: what's worth testing in the future that’s emerging?

Fitting AI to real systems, building institutions that can work with it, and testing new arrangements that shift power over how it is developed and used.

Read more →
Frontier Tech Hub

The Frontier Tech Hub works with UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff and global partners to understand the potential for innovative tech in the development context, and then test and scale their ideas.

https://www.frontiertechhub.org/
Previous

Ukraine Investment Integrity
Next

Economic Truth Dashboard