How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already transforming industries from banking and retail to transportation and energy and has the potential to significantly improve every industry it touches. Since some version of “improve my health” will likely be near the top of many New Year’s resolution lists next month, here are some ways AI is being used in healthcare.
Will the machines take over?
Before we go any further, let’s address the big fear that accompanies every major leap in technology. Will AI cause mass unemployment? From what we are seeing so far, the answer is a definitive no, and here is an example of why. Back in 2017, Alphabet’s (GOOG) DeepMind Go-playing AI defeated the world’s number one human player, Ke Jie, by winning the first two games in a three-part match. If you haven’t already seen the documentary AlphaGo on YouTube and want to understand more about AI, I highly recommend it. The defeat was an emotional blow to the global Go-playing community, but the fallout was not what many expected. AlphaGo had taught itself to play using strategies that had never been seen before, which ended up improving the sophistication of the game as played by those who studied the famous match, raising the bar for everyone. What we learned from the experience is that rather than replacing us, AI can be used to spark innovation, to see things in novel ways that the human brain may not. AI is simply the next tool in mankind’s ongoing quest to augment our own capabilities, just as was the case with the wheel, the ax, the steam engine, the abacus and the La-Z-Boy (LZB) recliner.
Why Now?
Investing in AI is making new record highs.
- Worldwide funding for AI companies hit a record $66.8 billion in 2021, more than double the total in 2020, according to CB Insights, with healthcare accounting for about a fifth of the overall funding. While quarterly AI funding did decline 12% from Q4 of 2021 to Q1 of 2022, it was significantly less than the 19% decline in total funding over that same period.
- Gartner Research estimates that global healthcare IT spending in 2021 reached $140 billion, with AI and robotic process automation identified as the top spending priorities.
The past year has seen a profound acceleration in AI capabilities, many of which are illustrated in this year’s State of AI report. Today, for example, there are 18 drugs in clinical trials that have been developed using an AI-first approach. In 2020 there was not a single one.
Experts believe we are at an inflection point. For example, Jeffrey Dean, a Google Senior Fellow and Distinguished Fellow at the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence wrote a paper this spring called, “A Golden Decade of Deep Learning” in which he looks at the “tremendous” progress made in AI over the past decade and what we may expect in the future.
The future impact will be profound. PWC estimates that by 2030, AI could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy. The healthcare sector is particularly in dire need of improvement, representing around a fifth of the total U.S. economy in 2020, higher than any other country, while having significantly worse outcomes than most. The U.S. Health System is ranked 69th in the world by the Legatum Institute and has an average life expectancy well below most developed nations. Accenture estimates that by 2026, AI applications could potentially generate $150 billion in annual savings for the U.S. healthcare system. d and lives saved.
