AI Must Serve Equity, Not Exclusivity: Anupriya Patel

“Artificial Intelligence for India must mean All-Inclusive Intelligence,” Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel said on Tuesday, asserting that technology in healthcare must ultimately be judged by its capacity to reduce inequities and touch lives across the country.

Addressing the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi, she framed AI not as a futuristic abstraction but as a practical instrument for the public good.

Speaking at the session titled “Innovation to Impact: AI as a Public Health Game-Changer,” Patel drew upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “AI for India” to underline that the country’s approach must be inclusive, affordable, and scalable.

Artificial Intelligence, she said, cannot be confined to sophisticated algorithms or precision medicine alone; its true worth lies in addressing health disparities in rural and underserved regions.

As India moves towards the goal of a Viksit Bharat by 2047, health remains central to national development. The country’s demographic scale, rural–urban divide, and the dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases demand systemic innovation. In this landscape, Patel observed, AI becomes an indispensable enabler across the continuum of care - from prevention and surveillance to diagnosis and treatment.

She highlighted the AI-enabled Media Disease Surveillance System, which tracks disease trends in 13 languages and generates real-time alerts to strengthen outbreak preparedness. By harnessing multilingual data streams, the system enhances India’s surveillance capacity and enables quicker public health responses.

Under the One Health Mission, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has introduced AI-based genomic surveillance tools capable of predicting potential zoonotic spillovers before transmission from animals to humans. Such predictive capabilities, Patel noted, mark a decisive shift from reactive containment to preventive vigilance.

In the fight against tuberculosis, AI-enabled handheld X-ray machines and Computer-Aided Detection tools have brought advanced diagnostics closer to communities. These innovations have contributed to a 16% increase in TB case detection. Additionally, AI tools designed to predict adverse treatment outcomes have helped reduce negative treatment results by 27%, strengthening program efficiency and patient outcomes.

Emphasizing that technology must remain a support system rather than a substitute, Patel stated that AI is intended to augment clinicians, not replace them. “Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art,” she observed, adding that empathy, compassion, and communication are enduring human attributes beyond the reach of algorithms. By automating routine and data-intensive tasks, AI allows doctors to focus on complex decision-making and patient care.

To nurture an enabling ecosystem, the government has established Centres of Excellence for AI at AIIMS Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh, and AIIMS Rishikesh. These centers aim to integrate cutting-edge AI research into public healthcare delivery. Further, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences has launched an online training program on AI in healthcare to equip medical professionals with essential digital competencies.

Prof. VK Paul, Member (Health) at NITI Aayog, described AI as a strategic lever to accelerate universal health coverage. Integrating AI with India’s digital public health infrastructure, he said, would enable real-time analytics, efficient resource allocation, and evidence-based policymaking. He also stressed the importance of regulatory oversight, ethical safeguards, and sustained validation to maintain public trust.

From the industry perspective, Roy Jakobs, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Philips, remarked that health systems worldwide are under strain from rising demand and workforce shortages. AI, he noted, will have its greatest impact in healthcare, provided it is supported by robust data governance, interoperability, and strong clinical integration. Transparency and explainability, he added, are essential to safeguarding patient safety.

He commended India’s digital health initiatives, particularly the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, for laying the groundwork for interoperable systems at population scale, a foundation upon which meaningful AI applications can be built.