Introduction
In 2015, the UK Government published Artificial Intelligence: Opportunities and Implications for the Future of Decision Making,1 initiating a pattern of biennial artificial intelligence (AI) reports or policy publications: Growing the Artificial Intelligence Industry in the UK (2017),2 AI Sector Deal (2019),3 National AI Strategy (2021),4 A Pro-innovation Approach to AI Regulation (2023),5 and, most recently, the AI Opportunities Action Plan (January 2025).6 Despite eight governmental changes over this decade, these documents maintain remarkably consistent rhetoric: the UK is primed to become a global AI leader, promising economic prosperity, improved public services, and increased opportunities.
Although these reports are not sector specific, they repeatedly identify the NHS and its patients as primary beneficiaries of AI. In the foreword to the 2015 AI opportunities report, Matt Hancock asserted that AI would ‘make existing services — such as health, social care, and emergency services — more efficient by anticipating demand and tailoring services …’
1 Then, in January 2025, Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer launched the 2025 AI Opportunities Action Plan with a speech emphasising AI’s potential benefits for the NHS, listing numerous ways it could save lives.7
This emphasis is understandable given AI’s potential to alleviate the NHS’s financial strain over the past decade by freeing up staff time and cutting patient waiting times for results. However, ‘getting AI right‘ in health care is exceedingly complex. The risks are high due to an intricate regulatory landscape, fragmented NHS governance, outdated digital infrastructure, sensitive data, and justified caution regarding private partnerships.
While the NHS needs a comprehensive strategic plan covering AI development through deployment, none currently exists. This is not for lack of trying, and progress has occurred in isolated areas — through Medicines and …
