Pregnant women and new mothers in rural Kenya are getting fast medical advice through a free text message service powered by artificial intelligence. The program, called PROMPTS, was created by an organization named Jacaranda Health. It allows women to ask health questions on basic mobile phones without needing a smartphone or an internet connection.
The service started as an automated system to send clinic appointment reminders, but mothers quickly began replying with questions about their pregnancy symptoms. Today, the system receives about 15,000 messages a day across 24 Kenyan counties. The AI software understands questions in English, Swahili, and local dialects. It answers basic questions automatically, but if a message shows signs of a medical emergency—about 7 percent of all texts—the system immediately sends the case directly to a human nurse.
This rapid response is critical in Kenya, where about 6,000 women die each year from pregnancy or childbirth complications. Nearly one-third of these deaths happen because of delays in getting medical help. Health professionals say the chatbot has helped mothers spot dangerous conditions early, such as pre-eclampsia, which causes severe swelling, or jaundice in newborns, prompting them to seek urgent hospital care.
While PROMPTS serves around 700,000 users each year, experts note that technology has its limits. The tool works best in areas where functional clinics already exist. Researchers also emphasize the need for careful oversight, warning that if the AI misinterprets an urgent symptom as a routine question, a patient could miss out on life-saving care.