KPMG Survey – AI Adoption Higher in Healthcare Industry

KPMG survey has revealed that 53% of healthcare executives believe the healthcare industry is ahead of most other sectors in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)

The latest report from KPMG has stated that more than half (53%) of executives say that when it comes to the adoption of AI, the healthcare sector is quite ahead to other industries. As per the report, 37% of healthcare executives believe factors like cost and skill barriers are slowing the AI implementation in the healthcare industry.

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The adoption of AI and automation in hospital systems has increased exponentially since 2017, found the report. Nearly 90% of respondents believe AI is already creating efficiencies in their operations, and 91% say AI is expanding patient access to care. AI will be effective in diagnosing patient illnesses, say  68% of respondents. Meanwhile, 47% believe diagnostics will have a significant impact by 2022, according to the study. Respondents also said AI would have a positive effect on process automation. Around 40% of them think AI will assist providers with better  X-rays and CT scans. It will continue to advance the digitization of healthcare as per the KPMG survey. With the help of AI technologies, 41% of respondents expect improved records management, while 48% believe the most significant impact of AI will be in biometric-related applications.

In the field of healthcare and diagnostics, studies have shown that AI can assist doctors while making informed decisions, and enhance patient diagnostics, even to the extent of identification of cancer. Nearly half of healthcare executives said their institution’s offer AI training courses to employees, and  67% say their employees’ support AI adoption.

On the flip side, there has also been suspicion that AI has increased the overall cost of healthcare – more than half of the survey’s respondents feel this way. This suggests that healthcare executives are still trying to determine the most cost-effective areas to use AI tools. Two of the major concerns for healthcare companies are privacy and security. According to the survey, 75% of respondents have concerns that AI could threaten the privacy and security of patient data, while 86% say their companies are taking steps to protect patient privacy as they implement AI.

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Healthcare leaders agree that AI will play a key role in improving care delivery, with 90% of respondents saying they believe that AI will improve the patient experience. The results show that once leaders address key issues to implementation, the benefits of AI could outweigh potential risks. Applying AI to unstructured data will also be quite useful in the diagnosis and more accurate prognosis of health issues. Supported by doctors, AI could well be the closest tool to increase the accuracy of healthcare analysis and provide much more error-free results in days to come.