Artificial Intelligence: A Safe Bet For The Global Healthcare Market’s Future

Way back in the late 1960s, researchers at the Stanford University made a breakthrough in developing the first-ever Artificial Intelligence System. This pet project of theirs later became famous as “DENDRAL”. Although initially developed for automated decision-making process for organic chemists, the software soon became a prototype for some of the celebrated AI in Healthcare softwares like MYCIN, CADUCEUS, and INTERNIST-I. Fast forward 70 years and today the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare have given rise to a market that is estimated to be worth billions.

Such high numbers have been successful in attracting several global tech giants to invest in advanced AI healthcare technologies such as smartphone apps, wearable monitoring devices, smart scales, etc. Not only in health management, but the global Artificial Intelligence in healthcare market is expected to witness a substantial increase in the number of employment opportunities. For instance, according to Paul R Daugherty, the chief technological officer at Accenture, “from 2018 to 2022, employment in health care will increase by 15%, while the revenues will surge by 49%, as AI moves beyond rudimentary automation and enables greater collaboration between humans and machines.”

So how exactly will AI manage this?

The Artificial Intelligence can assist the medical practitioner by providing relevant insights into medical imaging and diagnosis, drug discovery, in-patient care, hospital management, virtual assistance, risk analysis, research and precision medicine and lifestyle management and monitoring. Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google, and IBM are spending millions of dollars in their R&D to develop these softwares. For instance, IBM’s Watson Health helps researchers identify novel drug targets and new indications for existing drugs. This could prove significant in making major scientific breakthroughs in the drug discovery process.

In fact, product launch has been seen as a key strategy by any company to be at the top of its game. For instance, on 18^th January 2017, iCarbonX launched Meum platform with two other companies to provide personalized or individualized medicine based on clinical big data analytics. Another company, Next IT Corporation, offered an AI-powered healthcare software solution for customer engagement and workforce support. This software was Alme, a virtual assistance alert that helps the patient by instructing them to take their medication, address to the patient and notify the care team. It helps by understanding the condition of the patient and provide tips on managing and tracking their system. Other than this, it also motivates to eat properly, excise regularly and take the medications. Alme has been helping Fortune 1000 enterprises in areas of insurance, travel, communication, and human capital management.

Adhering to the new wave of intelligent health management, several small and big companies are adopting strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations to establish a strong foothold in the global market. For instance, on 12^th July 2017, Microsoft signed an agreement with Google’s DeepMind with an aim to focus more on selling products related to artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

These approaches further help in consorting heavy investment in the overall Artificial Intelligence market. According to the Economic Intelligence Unit, more than 75% of the fortune 500 companies are looking forward to implementing artificial intelligence in their organization by 2020. If the trend continues, the global AI in healthcare market will soon get consolidated