An embryologist looks at an embryo through a microscope and makes a call. Transfer it. Discard it. Try again. The grade is subjective, the stakes are physical, emotional, and financial, and even a full team of trained eyes can miss what the camera sees. IVF clinics have made their highest-consequence calls this way for decades, with experienced human judgment that brings training but cannot, by definition, see what the microscope can. AI is changing that math.

Ula Sankowska is the CEO and Co-Founder of MIM Fertility, a company building AI tools for IVF clinics in Europe, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, and now the United States, where MIM recently received FDA clearance. Before founding MIM, she ran a software house with a team of eight people. The pivot into fertility care was personal. Sankowska is an ex-fertility patient, and her family exists because of IVF treatment.

In this episode of Lead with AI, Dr. Tamara Nall speaks with Ula Sankowska about the AI behind smarter embryo assessment, the Amber decision support tool validated at the Valencia Institute, the GDPR and HIPAA posture that governs how MIM handles patient data, and her 2030 thesis that healthcare organizations will compete on the quality of their decision-making systems. She also tells the story of a single embryo in Mexico that was about to be discarded.

Why a Software House Pivoted Into Embryology  

Sankowska speaks plainly about her origins. She is an ex-fertility patient. Her family exists because of IVF treatment, and the path was, in her own words, "pretty bumpy." At the time, she was running a software house with a team of eight people, exploring what AI could do across industries. The team decided to move into healthcare, specifically human reproduction. She does not call the pivot easy. She calls it demanding, challenging, and not something she regrets for a single moment. Today MIM Fertility builds AI tools for fertility professionals in Europe, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, and now the United States, where the company recently received FDA clearance.

 The Embryo a Clinic Almost Discarded   

The story comes from a clinic in Mexico. A patient had a single embryo available for transfer. A full team of embryologists assessed it and decided to discard it. In their estimation, the quality was not high enough to give the patient a viable chance. Before finalizing the decision, they opened MIM's application. The AI assessment disagreed. It indicated the embryo had a chance to implant. The team reversed course and transferred it.

The patient is now a mother.

Sankowska says she still gets shivers when she retells the story. She calls it the moment that pushed the company past moving the needle into something larger. It is also the clearest example of what AI-assisted embryo assessment does in practice. It surfaces signal that experienced human eyes can miss, on cases where there is no second chance.

 What the AI Actually Sees   

Under the hood, MIM Fertility runs on image recognition trained against data sets gathered from clinics around the world. Sankowska calls the data "bulletproof" because of its geographic spread. The company has also moved past image alone. Newer tools incorporate EMR data, electronic medical records, so the system can read patient context alongside the visual assessment. Validation matters as much as the model itself. MIM's Amber decision support tool was validated at the Valencia Institute, and the company has now cleared FDA review for the US market. Integration is designed to sit inside existing clinic systems so doctors are not asked to bolt another workflow on top of the one they already run.

 Who Makes the Final Call?   

In healthcare, every technical decision carries a real consequence for a real person. Sankowska is direct about MIM's position. The goal is not to automate the decision. The goal is to make the decision more consistent and more informed for both the doctor and the patient. The human stays in the loop. The final call is always made by the clinician. The company runs to GDPR and HIPAA standards, has a dedicated compliance and regulatory officer on the team, and certifies its tools as software medical devices in each market it enters. The architecture is built so the doctor never feels like they are deferring to a black box.

 Beyond Equipment and Headcount   

By 2030, Sankowska expects healthcare organizations to compete on something other than the number of doctors on staff or the equipment in the building. They will compete, in her view, on the quality of their decision-making systems. That means how they collect data, how they structure it, and how they learn from outcomes to improve the next case. For MIM, the road ahead is an AI layer that supports clinicians at almost every step of IVF treatment, not only the embryo selection moment. She names the underrated trend in AI as the unglamorous workflow systems that save an embryologist or doctor as much as an hour a day, working in the background, structuring data no one would otherwise sit down to organize. The demo is boring. The compounding effect is not.

 Quick Answers   

What does MIM Fertility do? MIM Fertility builds AI tools that support clinicians and embryologists during IVF treatment, including embryo assessment and decision support powered by image recognition and electronic medical records.

Where is MIM Fertility available? Clinics in Europe, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, and the United States use MIM's systems. The company recently received FDA clearance in the US and entered the Saudi Arabian market as part of its Middle East expansion.

Does MIM Fertility replace embryologists? No. The final decision on every embryo stays with the clinician. MIM is built to keep the human in the loop and to make the assessment more consistent and informed.

What is the Amber decision support tool? Amber is MIM's decision support system for embryo evaluation. It has been validated at the Valencia Institute.

How does MIM Fertility handle patient data? The company runs to GDPR and HIPAA standards, has a dedicated compliance and regulatory officer on the team, and certifies its tools as software medical devices in each market it enters.

The Mexico story is what AI in healthcare is supposed to do at its best. A patient gets a second look. A team of experts gets a structured signal alongside their judgment. A baby exists who otherwise might not. MIM Fertility is not the only company building decision support for IVF, but its combination of validated clinical results, multi-region data, and a stated refusal to remove the clinician from the loop is what places it on the map.

The field may move toward Sankowska's 2030 thesis. It may move somewhere adjacent. Either way, the underlying point holds. IVF is a high-stakes, data-rich, decision-dense practice. Tools that surface more signal and impose less friction will keep finding adoption.

Listen to the full conversation with Ula Sankowska to hear what that future looks like from the inside. Tune in to hear how AI is changing the math of IVF, where MIM Fertility is heading next, and what it really means to keep the human in the loop. Want to learn more about MIM Fertility's work? Visit MIM Fertility. For more on Lead with AI, visit leadwithaipodcast.com.  

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