Impact of AI in diagnostics and pathology

Report

This report summarises a roundtable discussion convened to address the question: “How can we harness the diagnostic power of artificial intelligence (AI) in pathology while addressing the challenges of workforce disruption and the evolving role of human expertise?”. Participants broadly agreed that AI offers potential administrative efficiency gains, improved diagnostic accuracy and new capabilities such as large-scale risk prediction. However, they also had concerns regarding unrealistic expectations, inadequate existing digital infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty, variable trust among clinicians and patients, training, workload duplication, and impacts on workforce morale. Furthermore, it was strongly voiced by participants that AI should not be seen, or relied upon, as the solution to the current workforce crisis. Overall, participants concluded that AI should complement rather than replace human expertise, and that its integration into healthcare must be evidence-based, ethically grounded and supported by robust governance and appropriate resourcing.

Authors: Health Innovation, Oxford and Thames Valley; Centre for Personalised Medicine

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Centre for Personalised Medicine, University of Oxford & Health Innovation, Oxford and Thames Valley
• Place of publication: Oxford
• Publication date: 2026-03-13
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-0ok7aknm7
• Language: English
• Keywords: SBTMR