AutoSense OS AI 8.0: How AI supports a more natural listening experience

Can AI and a natural listening experience belong in the same sentence? With Phonak’s automatic operating system, they can. Its AI-driven adjustments help wearers focus on the moment rather than their hearing aids.

Everyday life rarely happens in one predictable listening environment. A quiet café can suddenly become busy. An evening out might take you from conversation over dinner to enjoying live music.

For years, Phonak’s automatic operating system, AutoSense OS, has used artificial intelligence to recognize listening environments and automatically select and blend appropriate settings. It coordinates features that support speech understanding and listening comfort as wearers move through their day, with no manual adjustments needed.

Music, for example, calls for different processing from conversation in noise. When AutoSense OS AI recognizes music, it automatically applies settings designed to help preserve its richness and dynamics.

When it detects conversations in loud noise, it activates Speech in Loud Noise. This program brings together speech-enhancing features designed to support speech understanding while maintaining listening comfort. AutoSense OS AI 8.0 builds on this foundation by refining how the system responds to a subtle but important part of everyday listening: brief fluctuations in background noise.

Knowing when not to change

For a natural listening experience, the operating system’s ability to maintain steady hearing aid settings is just as important as its ability to adjust them.

Think of a conversation in a busy restaurant. Conversations at nearby tables naturally rise and fall. Background noise may briefly drop when other diners pause, even though the conversation at your table continues. A moment later, the surrounding conversations pick up again.. In a busy restaurant, conversations at nearby tables naturally rise and fall. Background noise may briefly drop when other diners pause, even though the conversation at your table continues. A moment later, the surrounding conversations pick up again.

The sound level has changed. From your perspective, however, you are still having the same conversation in the same restaurant. For an automatic hearing aid system, this raises a practical question: When should it stay in the current program, and when should it switch?

AutoSense OS AI 8.0 refines how the system responds to these fluctuations, helping keep that support available while the conversation continues.

A different threshold for leaving the program

The principle is straightforward. The threshold for entering Speech in Loud Noise remains the same, but the threshold for leaving it is lower. Once the program is active, background noise can therefore drop below the entry threshold without immediately triggering a program change.

This separation between entry and exit thresholds is known as hysteresis. It helps the system remain stable through fluctuations around the entry threshold, while allowing it to leave the program when background noise falls below the lower exit threshold.

Hearing care professionals can still personalize the activation level of Speech in Loud Noise in Phonak Target. The hysteresis applies across these settings.

What a lunchtime conversation revealed

A 30-minute lunchtime recording from the Phonak Audiology Research Center (PARC) Stäfa illustrates the difference. Researchers recorded the microphone signal from Audéo hearing aids during a conversation at Sonova’s global headquarters. They then played the same recording into hearing aids using AutoSense OS AI 7.0 and 8.0. Both versions used the same threshold for entering Speech in Loud Noise, allowing comparison of activation with and without the revised exit threshold.

AutoSense OS AI 7.0 activated Speech in Loud Noise for most of the recording but temporarily left the program during quieter passages. AutoSense OS AI 8.0 maintained activation throughout, resulting in 20% more time in Speech in Loud Noise in this recording.¹

Why does that matter? Keeping the program active helps maintain access to speech-enhancing features, such as Spheric Speech Clarity 3.0. Previous research has reported improvements in speech understanding and reductions in listening effort with Spheric Speech Clarity when engaged.²

The lunchtime evaluation measured program activation rather than these listening outcomes directly. Its finding shows how the revised exit threshold can maintain access to speech support through fluctuations in background noise.

Perhaps “natural” takes intelligence

A natural listening experience should extend to every environment. AutoSense OS AI 8.0 adjusts automatically in real time, with refined thresholds to help make this a reality for wearers. Perhaps that is one measure of intelligent hearing technology: how little the wearer has to think about it.

Read the Phonak Insight to learn more.

References

1. Preuss, M., & Müller, S. (2026). AutoSense OS™ AI 8.0 provides a more natural listening experience for speech in loud noise. Phonak Insight. Retrieved from the Phonak Evidence Library.

2. Latzel, M., et al. (2025). Spheric Speech Clarity improves speech understanding and reduces both listening effort and fatigue. Phonak Field Study News. Retrieved from the Phonak Evidence Library.