Inbrain seeks to enhance BCI technology with AI agents able to adapt interventions based on real-time neural feedback.
Barcelona-based neurotech Inbrain Neuroelectronics has entered into a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to integrate “agentic AI” into its graphene-based brain-computer interface (BCI) platform. The collaboration aims to leverage Microsoft’s large language models and data analytics tools to enable adaptation of Inbrain’s interfaces in real time.
Inbrain claims the collaboration will ultimately enable AI agents to act autonomously on continuous patient brain data, learning and adjusting interventions based on real-time neural feedback. The companies aim to create BCI-powered therapies capable of continuously optimizing treatments for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and cognitive decline.
“Our vision is to create the most intelligent, autonomous, and personalized interface between the nervous system and AI,” said Inbrain co-founder and CEO Carolina Aguilar. “This partnership brings us closer to a future where brain-computer interfaces don’t just decode or modulate, but truly understand and respond to the nervous system in real time, making the nervous system, the body OS.”
The vast complexity of the human brain makes it easy to understand why Inbrain views AI collaboration as a vital component of its strategy.
“We know so little about the brain,” Aguilar told us in an interview last year. “Ok, we know a lot about the brain of a zebra fish, which is about 100,000 neurons, but the human brain has almost 100 billion neurons.”
Inbrain’s core technology is based on the use of graphene – a single layer of carbon atoms that provides exceptional conductivity, strength, and biocompatibility. The company’s ultra-thin, micrometric graphene electrodes conform closely to the brain’s surface, enabling high-precision neural signal decoding and finely tuned modulation, facilitating “real-time” interaction with neural circuits.
Extensive AI-driven processing is then required to deliver adaptive neuromodulation personalized to the patient. The agentic AI element introduced by Microsoft will be used to allow Inbrain’s neural interfaces to continuously interpret complex data streams, refine their models, and autonomously determine optimal stimulation patterns.
This isn’t the first example of a BCI company engaging with a tech giant. Synchron recently hit the headlines when its partnership with Apple enabled an ALS patient to control an iPad entirely by thought.
Inbrain recently partnered with Mayo Clinic to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of its BCI therapeutics for neurological disorders, and the company is also engaged in ongoing clinical research led by the University of Manchester and the Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences. Interim findings from its first-in-human study demonstrated the ability to capture high gamma activity associated with distinct speech sounds, achieving “exceptional” spatial and temporal resolution.
Last year, Inbrain raised $50 million in a Series B funding round to advance its BCI platform, and the company holds an FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its Parkinson’s therapy. Its subsidiary, Innervia Bioelectronics, is extending the capabilities of the technology to the peripheral nervous system, exploring applications for systemic diseases.
