Exploring Abbott’s mission-led AI strategy

Medical technology companies have always been in the business of trust, and Abbott has been building it with AI for over 10 years. Long before gen AI entered the enterprise conversation, Abbott was using algorithmic AI to help diabetics manage their glucose, and imaging AI to guide surgeons in real time. Here, Sabina Ewing, Abbott’s CIO, explains how a principled approach to AI governance, deep cross-functional partnerships, and a commitment to demonstrating results from within IT have kept them ahead of the curve, and its mission intact.

How is Abbott using AI to achieve its mission and growth strategy?

As a medical technology company, Abbott’s mission is to help people live life to the fullest. For over a decade, we’ve been using AI to deliver on that mission, but whether it’s AI or any other technology, we’re intentional about how it ties to our mission.

Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. To ensure we maintain trust with our customers and employees, we’re guided by principles of fairness, safety, quality, and transparency. With these and our mission as our guide, we’re in command of the table we set for ourselves.

How have you been in the AI business for so long?

For decades, we’ve provided FreeStyle Libre, a glucose monitoring sensor built on algorithmic AI, that delivers continuous glucose readings to diabetics, and in some instances, connects to insulin pump applications.

In late 2025, we developed Libre Assist, which leverages generative AI to let FreeStyle Libre users take pictures of their food and receive guidance on the impact of that meal on their glucose levels, including when to eat what, because sequence affects how the body processes glucose.

In our medical devices business, Ultreon, launched in 2021, uses imaging AI to guide optimal stent placement during cardiovascular procedures, supporting the physician’s decision-making in real time.

So whether it’s algorithmic, generative, or agentic, we’re intentional about matching the capability to the specific therapeutic problem.

When technologies evolve, your mission doesn’t change. But how has the CIO evolved during this AI boom?

Today’s CIO must have the strengths of conviction, credibility, and communication. You need technical expertise and to surface data to have the right discussions. You also need to be brilliant on the fundamentals and clear about the strategy, and then execute against it. If I tell the business it can use AI to drive outcomes, then I need to demonstrate it in IT. This is why I’ve committed two commas of results in IT from new AI operational capabilities.

How can CIOs influence their company’s investment in AI?

Working with senior leaders in HR and finance ensures we’re educating the organization and securing necessary investment, and then maintaining financial discipline where investments occur. We hold to that discipline and we’re deliberate about how we deploy the resources of the organization to measurably have impact. We look for high-impact opportunities where new technology delivers results even as it evolves.

We established an executive steering committee on generative AI, and senior leaders are engaged in how we deploy capital. We’re not going out with a thousand flowers blooming.

We also have traditional financial measures we apply to AI investments. And we know you need to be able to identify quantifiable outcomes and then measure them. Those conversations happen in partnership with all senior leaders, especially those business leaders requesting specific capabilities.

As the CIO, you need to have strong relationships with all other parts of the company. I don’t need to be in the spotlight, but you need those relationships in order to lead and effect change. I led a program that helped educate our top leaders on AI foundations, and we’re all working together on the talent side, too. We’ve embedded AI into our talent processes, and we have a continuous cycle of enterprise education through the ranks, both in person and virtual, to ensure our people are ready to use the latest tools and technology. If you want to do something sustainable, you can’t do it by yourself.

What’s your message to your technology team?

What I tell our team is no one is better positioned to lead the organization through this transformative era than its own technical experts. That means we lean into our expertise and AI-first mindset.

Years ago, we crystallized our vision for Abbott IT by unleashing the power of technology and our people in service of Abbott’s purpose. That’s the constant reminder. Our role isn’t to deploy tech but to unlock what technology and people can do together, in service of the mission.

I have asked the team to be bold, bring their best, and pursue excellence. Our strategic pillars are modernization, and protecting Abbott in both enterprise and product cybersecurity, digitization, and advanced analytics. That’s always been part of our mandate.

But what does an AI-first mindset look like? I asked our executive assistants how they, as a community, think about using AI to radically expand what they can do with it as a companion to their work, but not a replacement for it. The models that exist today can’t be a great executive assistant. Models don’t have the judgment, institutional knowledge, or nuanced reasoning required to prioritize work and navigate unspoken rules. That expertise is irreplaceable. Our question is how to augment it.