Healthcare leaders optimistic on GenAI, but face major hurdles
New research from NTT Data has revealed a significant gap between healthcare leaders' ambitions for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and their ability to deliver on these strategies.
The findings, based on a survey of 425 healthcare decision-makers across 33 countries, indicate that while more than 80% of healthcare organisation leaders report having a well-defined GenAI strategy, only 40% believe that strategy is strongly aligned with their broader business objectives. Additionally, just 54% said their GenAI capability could be classified as high performing.
Key challenges identified
The research comes at a time when the UK Government's 10-year Health Plan has set a target to make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world. While leaders in the sector widely recognise the potential for GenAI to accelerate research and development (94%) and improve patient outcomes, they also highlight a series of barriers, including a lack of necessary skills (75%), legacy infrastructure (91%), and security concerns (91%).
A substantial majority (95%) of respondents consider cloud-based solutions as the most practical and cost-effective means for fulfilling their GenAI technology requirements. However, progress has been slowed by data security, privacy, ethical issues, and the challenges of regulatory compliance, according to the NTT Data report titled GenAI: The Care Plan for Powering Positive Health Outcomes.
Tom Winstanley, Chief Technology Officer at NTT Data UK & Ireland, said:
"Our report analyses the importance of AI to healthcare, which has just been demonstrated in the contents of the UK Government's latest 10 Year Health Plan for England. The plan aims to make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world and calls for all hospitals to be fully adopt AI, driving the UK to the forefront of investment and adoption. To achieve this, it aims to support all doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals with trusted AI assistants, signalling a bridge across the skills gap exposed in the report, whilst securely leveraging the wealth of health data within the NHS."
Security and compliance concerns
Despite investment in GenAI showing benefits in compliance and adherence to processes, 91% of healthcare executives expressed concerns about privacy violations and the potential misuse of Protected Health Information (PHI). Only 42% strongly agreed that their current cybersecurity controls are effective in protecting GenAI applications.
Nonetheless, the perceived benefits of GenAI remain high, with 87% of respondents agreeing that the long-term potential of GenAI outweighs the risks associated with security and legal challenges. Looking ahead, 59% plan to make significant investments in GenAI over the next two years.
Technical and workforce readiness
Outdated technology and insufficient data readiness also impact GenAI deployment. According to the research, 91% of respondents said that legacy infrastructure affects their ability to effectively use GenAI. Meanwhile, only 44% strongly agreed they had made sufficient investments in data storage and processing capabilities for GenAI workloads, and 48% had assessed the readiness of their data and platforms for such applications.
Developments in patient care
Human-focused GenAI solutions are seen as facilitating greater efficiency for clinical and administrative staff, while maintaining patient-centred care. Examples include using AI to predict chronic disease for early intervention and speeding up administrative checks. The report highlights NTT Data's collaborative work with The Royal Marsden, a cancer treatment centre in the UK, to develop an AI-powered radiology analysis service intended to support medical imaging research and improve outcomes for cancer patients.
Flann Horgan, Vice President, Healthcare at NTT Data UK & I, said:
"This partnership illustrates how AI technology can be harnessed for good. The ethical and secure use of AI in healthcare is central to our mission to build a smarter, healthier society, and this project is a blueprint for what responsible innovation looks like in practice. We are proud to support The Royal Marsden in pushing the boundaries of cancer research."
Addressing the steps needed for success, Sundar Srinivasan, Senior Vice President, Healthcare, NTT Data North America, emphasised:
"To achieve GenAI's full potential in healthcare, organisations must align the technology to their business strategies, develop comprehensive workforce training, and implement multi-layered governance strategies that prioritise people and keep humans in the loop. It's vital to transparently show how the technology benefits patients by complementing human workers."
Survey methodology
The report's respondents comprise 81% from large enterprises with more than 10,000 employees; 70% are from the C-suite, while 28% are vice presidents, heads or directors, and 3% are senior managers or specialists. A total of 28% hold IT-specific roles.
