How AI-Driven Diagnostics Will Make Today’s Health Care Look Like the Stone Age

Note From the President and Founder, Brian Hicks:

Every year, right about this time, something wild happens around here.

Our inbox fills up.

Old subscribers resurface.

New readers pile in.

And everyone is asking the same thing: “When is the predictions podcast coming out?”

Over the years, this annual event has quietly turned into something of a cult ritual. Not because we’re flashy… but because our calls have had an uncanny habit of coming true.

We were early on gold’s last big move — and we stuck our necks out again before this latest breakout in gold and silver. We were pounding the table on precious metals while Wall Street was still half-asleep.

We’ve highlighted the “Conjoined Twins” of this new era — the AI and infrastructure boom on one side, and the commodity and hard-asset boom on the other — long before it became fashionable to talk about it on CNBC.

We called the quiet accumulation in gold and silver years ago…

We alerted you about the coming renaissance in America’s mining sector…

We spotlighted crypto and tokenization of real-world assets before the last two major runs…

And we didn’t just talk in vague generalities. We named names.

• Northern Dynasty when almost no one wanted to touch it
  
• Silvercorp Metals when silver was still treated like a sideshow
  
• A slate of “forgotten” resource and infrastructure plays that are now dead center in the MoneyQuake I’ve been writing about

Both Northern Dynasty and Silvercorp Metals are up 290% and 190% this year, respectively.

This year’s predictions podcast is, in my view, the most important and shocking yet.

Our gold and silver price targets are jaw-dropping. And that means massive profits in the junior mining stocks we recommend.

Because 2026 isn’t just “another year” on the calendar. It’s the next major leg of a once-in-a-generation realignment in money, markets, and hard assets — the kind of environment where a single correctly timed move can compress 5–10 years of gains into a fraction of that time.

In the days ahead, you’ll see this podcast mentioned throughout our editorials. Consider those notes your invitation to join us as we walk through where we think the Dow, the S&P, the Nasdaq, gold, silver, crypto, and select “MoneyQuake” stocks are headed in 2026 — and why.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know…

We don’t make timid predictions.

We make testable ones.

And this year, we’re swinging for the fences again.

Without further ado, welcome to Angel Investment Research’s annual predictions podcast.

Now, on to your regularly scheduled Wealth Daily…

Dear Reader,

Every generation believes it’s living in the “golden age” of medicine. But when future historians look back at our era, they won’t highlight blockbuster drugs or biotech giants. They’ll point to something far more transformative…

Early detection. Not treatment. Not surgery. Not pharmaceuticals…

Detection.

For the first time in human history, technology is giving us the ability to see disease before symptoms arise — sometimes years before.

And that single shift will save more lives than every cancer therapy, antiviral, and cholesterol drug currently on the market combined.

It sounds dramatic, but that’s exactly what’s happening…

AI-driven liquid biopsies. Breath-based diagnostics. Genomic risk mapping. Proteomic screening tools. Smart sensors detecting anomalies in real time…

We’re entering a world where diseases that used to be invisible until it was too late will become detectable during routine checkups — or even routine phone scans.

It’s not medicine. It’s magic with a scientific explanation.

And investors who recognize how big this shift really is will have front-row seats to the most lucrative transformation in modern health care.

Symptom-Based Medicine Is Dying

The entire healthcare system is built backward.

We wait until someone feels sick. Then we run tests to confirm the sickness.

Then we prescribe drugs to manage the sickness. And, of course, we hope they get better.

It’s an archaic model — the medical equivalent of waiting until the whole forest is on fire before calling the fire department.

But AI doesn’t wait for smoke to block out the sky. AI sees the spark.

That’s the breakthrough…

Instead of diagnosing a tumor when it’s the size of a coin, we’ll detect it when it’s the size of a cell cluster.

Instead of discovering lung cancer when survival odds are 9%, we’ll find it years earlier when survival odds are above 80%.

The myth has always been that cancer is unbeatable. The truth, however, is that late detection makes it unbeatable.

Early detection changes everything — outcomes, costs, treatment burdens, survival rates, and national healthcare spending.

It’s not evolution. It’s revolution.

AI Is the Engine Behind the Transformation

The key to early detection isn’t better microscopes or bigger clinical labs. It’s computation.

AI can read medical images pixel by pixel — and doesn’t get tired.

AI can analyze biomarkers in blood that humans can’t even see.

AI can detect molecular patterns invisible to traditional diagnostics.

AI can process millions of historical samples to predict future outcomes.

AI can spot the earliest signature of disease in breath, saliva, voice, or movement.

Doctors diagnose with experience. AI diagnoses with data. And data doesn’t forget.

We’re watching AI become the superpower of modern medicine. It doesn’t replace doctors — it finally gives them X-ray vision for every major disease.

That’s why Big Pharma isn’t just dabbling in diagnostics — it’s acquiring, partnering, and investing aggressively.

The writing is already on the wall: The biggest profits of the next decade will come not from blockbuster drugs but from platforms that detect disease early enough to eliminate the need for blockbuster drugs.

Investors who understand that shift early will make a fortune.

Those who don’t will still be reading about it a decade from now.

The Technology That’s Leading the Charge

When people think “early detection,” they imagine traditional tests — blood draws, imaging scans, or biopsies.

But the breakthroughs coming to market now make those look crude by comparison.

Liquid biopsies can identify cancer DNA floating in the bloodstream before tumors even form detectable masses.

Breath analysis platforms can detect volatile organic compounds that reveal cancer, infection, metabolic disorder, and neurological disease — all from a single exhale.

Proteomic scanners can map the thousands of proteins circulating in blood to identify developing disease before symptoms appear.

Genomic pattern recognition can predict an individual's lifetime disease risk with staggering accuracy.

AI imaging models can outperform radiologists in detecting early-stage cancers across multiple organs.

We’re not talking about incremental improvements. We’re talking about a complete redefinition of what medicine can do.

And the companies developing these technologies aren’t fringe startups — they’re attracting Big Pharma interest at the highest levels.

We’re seeing billion-dollar buyouts not just for drugs, but now for diagnostics too.

And there's a reason for that. In fact, there are trillions of reasons…

Early detection doesn’t just improve survival — it cuts treatment costs by up to 80%.

It reduces the need for advanced care. It eliminates many late-stage interventions altogether. It transforms health care from a reactive system to a preventative one.

That shift alone is worth trillions of dollars.

Why Society Cannot Afford to Ignore This

Everyone knows healthcare costs are out of control.

Premiums… drug prices… surgery costs… hospital bills… emergency room shortages…

But the truth behind the crisis is simple.

We spend our money in the wrong place — treatment instead of prevention.

That’s like designing a city budget around rebuilding houses after they burn down instead of installing smoke detectors before disaster strikes.

AI early detection flips the economics…

Detect cancer early → cheaper to treat.

Detect heart disease early → easier to manage.

Detect diabetes early → prevent decades of complications.

Detect neurological disorders early → slow or halt decline.

The macro impact is enormous.

Governments want it. Hospitals want it. Insurance companies desperately want it.

And patients will demand it once the results become undeniable.

This is an unstoppable trend — not because investors want it but because society can no longer survive without it.

Why Investors Should Be Paying Attention Right Now

If you’ve been following the smart money like we have, you’ve likely noticed a shift…

Big Pharma companies are paying massive premiums for diagnostic platforms.

Biotech VCs are pivoting to early-detection startups.

Government agencies are fast-tracking breakthrough devices.

Insurance providers are exploring new coverage models.

And tech giants — from Google to Nvidia — are integrating medical AI into their infrastructure.

This is the birth of the early-detection economy.

And early detection has something no other biotech trend can offer: universality.

Everyone ages. Everyone develops health risks. Therefore, everyone benefits from finding disease early…

This isn’t a niche. This isn’t a rare-disease business. This isn’t a specialized therapy.

It’s a multi-trillion-dollar market with global applicability across every demographic, every nation, and every healthcare system.

Investors often chase biotech moonshots that promise big payouts. But early detection isn’t a moonshot. It’s a mandate.

The Bottom Line

The future of health care won’t only be defined by new miracle drugs…

It will be defined by the moment we stop only treating diseases at the finish line and start catching them at the starting line.

AI isn’t here to diagnose deadly diseases faster. It’s here to diagnose so early that disease never becomes deadly in the first place.

This is the greatest shift in medical history — the transition from reactive medicine to predictive medicine.

And every investor who gets positioned early in the right diagnostics platforms will benefit from one of the most explosive, transformative, and socially impactful revolutions of the coming decade.

Because when you change detection, you don’t just change medicine…

You change life expectancy. You change economic burden…

You change the entire trajectory of human health.

And that future is arriving faster and sooner than you think.