This article offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘The Map-Woman’, examining the metaphor of the female body as a map in relation to artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted medical imaging technologies. The study explores how Duffy’s poetic rendering of the body as a cartographic surface fixed with streets, landmarks and memories resonates with contemporary practices of bodily visualisation in diagnostic medicine. Drawing on feminist theory, spatial poetics and digital epistemologies, this article argues that both poetry and AI imaging engage in acts of mapping the body, although through different epistemic frameworks: one rooted in narrative, memory and affect; the other in data, abstraction and algorithmic logic. While Duffy’s poem foregrounds the emotional and historical dimensions of embodiment, AI-driven imaging systems often reduce the body to quantifiable data, potentially overlooking the sociocultural and subjective aspects of human experience. This contrast highlights the limitations of technological representations and underscores the value of literary metaphor in preserving the complexity of embodied identity. By placing poetic and technological mappings in dialogue, this article advocates for a more holistic understanding of the body, one that integrates narrative, emotion and cultural context alongside technological precision. Ultimately, the article demonstrates how literature can serve as a critical lens through which to interrogate the promises and limitations of AI in reconfiguring our relationship to the body in the digital age.