Phonak’s new EON hearing aids run two AI systems on a chip built to sip power
Phonak’s new EON hearing aids run two AI systems on a chip built to sip power The Prescription Still Wins: Why Sonova's AI Hearing Aids Keep Pulling Ahead While the OTC Revolution Stalls In the style of IEEE Spectrum — feature analysis, August 2026 Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) Four years after U.S. regulators tried to crack open the hearing-aid market with over-the-counter (OTC) devices — and two years after Apple turned a $249 pair of earbuds into an FDA-authorized hearing aid — the market's incumbents are not merely surviving. They are extending their technical lead. On 24 August 2026, Sonova's Phonak brand launched EON , a platform built around a custom low-power processor (HYPERSONIC) that runs two neural-network-driven audio systems in parallel while drawing roughly 37 percent less power than the prior generation. Meanwhile, OTC adoption has badly underperformed the hype: a 2025 survey found only about 5.7 percent of people who report hearing problems have adopted an O...