The Untapped Potential of AI in Healthcare: What’s Holding Us Back?

The tech world can’t stop talking about artificial intelligence (AI) lately, and it’s no surprise. Google’s latest smartphones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, have already shown consumers a glimpse of what AI can do. But, as the famous Freud quote suggests, “it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

AI has far more potential beyond improving smartphone cameras. With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the rollout of 5G technology, we can expect AI to become even more integrated into our lives, especially through smart assistants.

Smart assistants like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and even Samsung’s Bixby, are becoming essential parts of our daily routines. Yet, again, this is just scratching the surface.

To be considered “intelligent,” a system must be able to learn. In psychology, learning is defined as a lasting change in behavior prompted by previous experiences. Essentially, an organism (or an AI system) needs to understand its environment, retain information, and use that information to improve its responses over time.

Take the example of touching a hot stove. We only need to burn ourselves once to learn to avoid hot surfaces in the future. Similarly, AI aims to learn from experiences to improve and adapt its behavior.

One field where AI’s learning capabilities could be enormously beneficial is healthcare. AI can assist doctors in diagnosing patients by analyzing symptoms and suggesting possible conditions. This can make healthcare more efficient and accurate.

Moreover, AI can handle the cumbersome paperwork in healthcare, tailoring processes to meet each patient’s needs, which benefits both patients and healthcare providers. Once again, this is merely the beginning.

While we can see the vast potential applications of AI in healthcare, one pressing question remains: “Why haven’t we fully adopted this technology yet?”