Britain will launch a trial next year of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can predict the risk of type 2 diabetes 13 years before a patient develops the disease, The Guardian reported Monday.

The tool, called the AI-ECG risk rstimation for diabetes mellitus (Aire-DM), analyzes the results of routine electrocardiograms to identify subtle changes that are difficult for the human eye to detect, and provide early warning of the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

This will help enable early intervention and may even help people avoid developing the disease.

Tests have shown that the tool can accurately predict the risk of the disease in about 70% of cases for people of different ages, genders, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, and that accuracy can be further improved by combining genetic and clinical information, the report said.

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) will trial the tool in selected hospitals in capital city London from 2025.

The developers of the technology hope to roll it out on a wide scale in the coming years.