AI is spreading in workplaces around the globe—and healthcare isn’t being left out. From fortifying diagnostic accuracy to filling up electronic medical records (EMRs), AI is helping to ease the workload of healthcare professionals worldwide. In June, Microsoft unveiled an AI diagnostic system that scored four times higher than human doctors in identifying complex medical cases from the New England Journal of Medicine.
But will doctors be the next profession at risk from AI automation?
“Clinicians are not going to be replaced by technology, but those who don’t use it will be replaced by those who do,” Zubin Daruwalla, who oversees clinical innovation at Singapore’s National University Hospital (NUH), said at the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday.
Yingying Gong, founder of Yidu Tech, was more optimistic about how AI and doctors will interact.
China has an aging population, with around 300 million people over the age of 60. Hence, doctors have a heavy workload, seeing between 30 to 100 patients each day. Yidu Tech developed an AI copilot to assist doctors in their medical work.
“We didn’t have to do much explaining,” Gong said, noting that doctors “very much welcomed” the help.
AI diagnosis
AI can also help medical professional diagnose ailments in non-invasive ways.
“[These AI tools] can help you detect [lung] cancer early, and prevent it from deteriorating to stage three or stage four,” Chin Keat Chyuan, president and managing director of KPJ Healthcare Berhad, said.
And AI in healthcare is only effective if medical professionals are properly trained to use them.
“It doesn’t get implemented because we don’t spend enough time training [doctors to] use it, as it takes away time from patients,” Daruwalla, who is also a clinician, said. “Then, people get frustrated and fed up [with the technology] and revert back to their old ways.”
And doctors can rest easy in the knowledge that there’s still nuances in patient care that only doctors can manage.
“There’s evidence, and computers are really good at that. But there’s also eminence or experience, where you have to take into consideration culture and context,” Daruwalla said.
“I don’t think anyone has told me that they choose hospitals because of ChatGPT or DeepSeek,” said Chin, of KPJ, “but they always refer to the clinicians.”