Imagine a world where robots can detect gas leaks before disaster strikes, where healthcare providers can monitor patient health through scent, and where factories can optimize production by analyzing airborne chemical compounds. This isn't a futuristic fantasy; it's the present and future vision of Ainos Inc., (Nasdaq: AIMD, “Ainos), a Nasdaq-listed company, making significant strides in digitizing the sense of smell. The name Ainos —evocative of ‘AI Nose’— is fitting for a company digitizing the sense of smell.

Ainos, a U.S.-incorporated company with a Taiwanese management team, is pioneering "digital olfaction" – the ability to capture, analyze, and interpret scents as data. Ainos calls its digital olfaction technology as the “AI Nose” and the digitized scent data as the “Smell ID”. This groundbreaking technology is poised to transform various sectors, from industrial automation to long-term care and personal health.

Jack Lu, Ainos's Director of Corporate Development, highlights how their technology is enhancing existing robotic platforms.

The AI Nose modules can be mounted on various parts of a robot, including a robotic arm, allowing for inspection in areas inaccessible to humans. This is particularly valuable in environments where certain smells are undesirable or lead to olfactory fatigue for human inspectors.

The Nose of Artificial Intelligence: Enhancing Robotic Capabilities

One key application involves integrating their AI Nose smelltech platform onto robots developed by a Japanese robot startup named ugo, Inc. (“ugo”), which was selected by the Epoch Foundation as one of the “2025 Must-See Startups”.

At Computex 2025, ugo’s Business Operations Division Global Partnership Manager Hadrien Roy told TechSoda that its robots are already deployed for security patrols and inspection tasks in office buildings, data centers, manufacturing plants, and public facilities in Japan. These robots currently use cameras and thermal imaging to inspect meters and equipment, but Ainos is adding the crucial sense of smell.

One of ugo’s core values is to address the growing labor shortage amid an aging population, beginning from their home market, Japan, with robotic inspection capabilities. "In many factories, inspection and patrolling are conducted by humans, which is very laborious. As the labor shortage grows, this critical task becomes increasingly difficult to manage," said Roy.

Incorporating Ainos's AI Nose technology enables these robots to detect toxic gas emissions, identify early signs of electrical fires, and monitor air quality – functions currently impossible for human inspectors or existing systems. This integration can significantly reduce inspection time, potentially cutting it in half for large facilities like data centers.

AI Nose Meets Silicon: Powering the Next Leap in Smart Manufacturing

Ainos is also bringing its AI Nose technology into the world of smart manufacturing, an industry where early detection of airborne chemical compounds can make the difference between smooth operations and costly disruptions. By identifying subtle changes in the air, AI Nose helps manufacturers catch equipment issues before failure, ensure material consistency, and reduce downtime. Ainos is already working with leading global semiconductor makers to pilot this technology in advanced chip fabrication environments, where the margin for error is razor-thin and even small chemical shifts can affect output quality.

This move builds on Ainos’s successful validation in Japan’s semiconductor sector, where the AI Nose demonstrated over 80% accuracy in detecting 22 types of VOCs during live trials. That track record is now forming the foundation for broader commercialization, including a partnership with the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing service provider.

“Smell is a missing signal in smart factories,” said Eddy Tsai, Chairman and CEO of Ainos. “We’re combining world-class sensor chips with our AI models to help factories sense what they couldn’t see before—unlocking a whole new layer of operational intelligence.”

“Our AI Nose platform is changing how we approach healthcare, smart factories, and robotics. Now, we’re opening the door to innovators, manufacturers, research institutions, and governments who share our vision,” said Eddy Tsai. “If you believe the next wave of AI needs more than just sight and sound—if you believe smell is the final frontier—join us.”

From ICU to Industry: The Genesis of AI Nose’s Olfactory Expertise

The journey for the AI Nose technology began 13 years ago in the medical field, a testament to the precision and sensitivity of their technology. Mr. Tsai shared the technology’s origin story, rooted in a collaboration with a seasoned ICU doctor in Taiwan. The doctor, nearing retirement, sought a more objective and less experience-dependent method for diagnosing pneumonia for ventilated patients.

This led to the invention of AI Nose technology, an AI-powered electronic nose technology capable of detecting trace amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from the human body, such as breath. These VOCs can signify health conditions, such as pneumonia in ICU patients. The semiconductor-based sensors inside AI Nose are very small, allowing for easy integration into various devices, offering highly accurate detection. These AI-Nose powered devices can detect health conditions in just a few minutes, while traditional test methods may take days. "We can detect it when the VOC traces are still very subtle," Lu emphasized, explaining their ability to identify issues before they escalate. The technology has achieved impressive accuracy rates: over 90% for gynecological conditions, and 84% for elderly care bowel movement screenings and industrial applications.

While their initial focus was on critical care, the COVID-19 pandemic inspired a pivot. Ainos then expanded its application to women's health, offering a non-invasive, quick diagnostic tool for gynecological and sexual health issues that can be used at home or clinic. This innovation addresses the discomfort and inconvenience often associated with traditional gynecological examinations, particularly for individuals who may be hesitant to seek medical attention due to cost or privacy concerns.

“Regular screening is very important for effective management of gynecological and sexual health. But, cost and ease-of-use are the key bottlenecks. We are addressing these problems, and our products can help many people. For instance, bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a very common condition among women of reproductive age, with a global prevalence ranging from roughly from 20% to 30%,” said Lu.

The expansion continued into long-term care, where the AI Nose technology can monitor the health of care recipients by detecting excretions, freeing up the caregivers’ time, therefore addressing the significant labor shortage in such facilities. Beyond immediate needs, continuous monitoring of bodily excretions can contribute to a comprehensive health profile, paving the way for advanced AI-driven health analytics.

Digitizing Scent: Turning Scent to an Emerging AI Token

Tsai, with a background spanning two decades in the tech industry and a keen interest in the five senses, recognized the untapped potential of olfaction. While vision and hearing have been extensively digitized and integrated into modern technology, the sense of smell has lagged. "Why has no one successfully brought olfaction into mobile phones or currently popular robots for 20 years?" Tsai pondered.

The challenge lies in differentiating between a single gas and a complex mixture of scents, as Tsai puts it. Ainos has invested heavily in training its hardware, software, and firmware to interpret these complex scent profiles and digitize them. They've also fostered collaborations with leading gas sensor chip manufacturers worldwide, integrating their world-class sensor technologies with Ainos’ proprietary scent-detection AI and other know-how to create a comprehensive "scent map” (Ainos calls it “the Smell ID”). This collaborative approach, combined with the miniaturization and mass reproducibility offered by semiconductor technology, allows Ainos to overcome the previous limitations of older gas detection methods.

The implications of digitizing olfaction are vast. For factories, it means continuous monitoring of machinery for early detection of malfunctions, potentially preventing costly shutdowns. It also enables quality control for chemical materials, addressing a gap in current visual-based analysis. In healthcare, the collection of continuous scent data can provide invaluable insights into human health, similar to how visual data is currently used.

Ainos's business model revolves around both hardware sales and a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription for their analytical software. This approach generates recurring revenue from data analysis services, akin to a "razor and blade" model where the hardware is the razor and the data analysis is the consumable blade. The company emphasizes its proprietary AI that processes this scent data, building a comprehensive "Smell ID database" that forms the true core of their value.

"Nvidia is working on building the AI infrastructure," Lu noted, "and for us, we hope to build the ecosystem for digitalizing olfaction". As more industries recognize the untapped potential of scent data, Ainos anticipates a significant expansion of data centers, as current data storage largely focuses on images, text, and video. Ainos is breaking through the technical hurdles that have historically prevented the widespread adoption of scent technology, paving the way for a future where robots not only see and hear but also smell, enabling them to truly collaborate with and assist humanity.

“The era of digital scent has arrived,” said Lu. “With the global electronic nose market set to grow from nearly $30 billion today to over $75 billion by 2032, the question isn’t if digital olfaction will transform our world—it’s who will lead it. At Ainos, we’ve harnessed 13 years of research in the AI, data, and sensor fusion needed to turn scent into actionable intelligence. We’re not just creating sensors—we’re building the infrastructure for smell to become the next major input for machines, diagnostics, and decision-making.”

Tsai emphasized, “The future doesn’t just look different. It smells different. And we’re leading the way.”