Artificial Intelligence in the Healthcare Sector

There is no doubt that talk of the accelerating progress in the applications of artificial intelligence has become a major conversation topic and is occupying space among the most trending topics on social media platforms. On a personal level, I have spent some time over the past two years reading, exploring, and attending several in-person and virtual training courses in the field of artificial intelligence and its applications. Given my specialization in healthcare and rehabilitation, I wanted to share with you an overview of the information I have come across regarding artificial intelligence applications in the health sector, or what is known as the end of the Health 2.0 era and the beginning of the Health 3.0 era.

Experts believe that artificial intelligence will be a general-purpose technology, and will bring about a transformation similar to that brought about by electricity in the Second Industrial Revolution, thanks to its ability to enhance and improve the efficiency of many sectors, including healthcare. Certainly, not all AI-powered technologies are capable of bringing about a fundamental transformation today, but some have already been launched in the healthcare ecosystem, while others are ready for experimentation and testing for launch if they prove their effectiveness and efficiency as an alternative to current workflow mechanisms and service delivery. Artificial intelligence and its applications will inevitably change the concept of healthcare delivery.

This information may be important for the Arab reader, entrepreneurs, investors, healthcare practitioners or those working in the health sector, as well as male and female students in colleges of medicine and health sciences colleges. It will be in the form of a three-article series.

Link to the first article

In the first article, I summarize my brief review of the research field of artificial intelligence applications in the health sector, the most renowned and active research centers, the scope of artificial intelligence model applications in the health sector, and the regulatory bodies governing those applications.

Link to the second article

In the second article, I briefly address market size and provide a concise list of some startups around the world that have raised investment rounds during the past period.

Link to the third article

In the third article, I conclude the series with a list of the most important books in the field, training courses I recommend interested individuals join, and what universities must do to prepare male and female students for the future of careers and competencies in this field.

Due to not specializing in various artificial intelligence models such as machine learning, large language models, deep learning, generative artificial intelligence, deep neural networks, expert systems, and multimodal systems, I have not delved in this article into the details of these models, their development mechanism, and their use cases in the health sector. I may dedicate a future article to cover this topic and some of their currently available use cases in more detail. Also, I have not addressed in this article the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Arab region, and local entities such as the Ministry of Health and its affiliated bodies, as well as the Saudi Data and AI Authority, the Research, Development and Innovation Authority, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, among others, and I will, God willing, cover this aspect at a later time.

The articles were published on the Zero to One website in mid-2025

Thanks and gratitude to colleagues (Dr. Mahmoud El-Defrawy, Eng. Rakan Fadhel, Eng. Raghad Al-Ghunaim, and Dr. Fahad Al-Balawi) for reviewing the initial draft of this article and offering suggestions to refine it.

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.