A fertility clinic in Ireland has been using AI software to select embryos for implantation and the system has reportedly proved so efficient relative to traditional methods that the clinic has started offering “payment by results”.

Traditionally, an embryologist examines multiple embryos under a microscope and decides which is the best to implant. The AIVF tool analyses all the embryos in minute detail and can pick up tiny flaws that are undetectable to the human eye.

Dr David Walsh, founder of First IVF, which runs fertility clinics in Dublin and Kildare, claims the proportion of successful pregnancies per cycle had increased from 31 per cent to 50 per cent since he started using the AIVF system last year. This is not independently verified.

Walsh recently introduced a scheme under which patients pay only half of the cost of the treatment upfront, with the rest withheld until they become pregnant.