NTT DATA: Gen AI Ambitions Outpace Reality in Healthcare
Gen AI is bringing a wealth of benefits to the healthcare industry.
Beyond direct patient care, it enhances healthcare operations from managing resources to patient flow.
For example, McKinsey highlights how Gen AI can efficiently wade through and comprehend vast volumes of information from patient records, allowing healthcare professionals to dedicate more time to complex patient care.
It also has the capacity to transform health insurance processes by converting unstructured data into structured formats and enabling benefits verification almost instantly.
Yet, new research from NTT DATA reveals a critical disconnect between the high ambitions surrounding Gen AI and healthcare’s actual ability to deliver on its promise.
The ambitious plans for Gen AI in healthcare
NTT DATA finds that more than 80% of healthcare leaders claim to have a well-defined Gen AI strategy.
However, only 40% say their strategy is strongly aligned with business objectives and just 54% describe their Gen AI capabilities as high performing.
This misalignment is especially pronounced as the UK government releases its Fit for the Future 10-year Health Plan, positioning the National Health Service (NHS) to spearhead one of the world’s most AI-enabled healthcare systems.
The ethical and secure use of AI in healthcare is central to our mission to build a smarter, healthier society
Despite the pitfalls, there is no doubt that healthcare’s enthusiasm for Gen AI is well founded.
In the NTT DATA survey, 94% of respondents believe Gen AI can significantly accelerate research and development, enabling access to new treatments, improved diagnostics and better predictive analytics.
Benefits cited include increased diagnostic accuracy, improved patient experiences and more efficient administrative processes.
However, major obstacles threaten to slow progress, including:
- Skills shortages: 75% of healthcare leaders report insufficient in-house Gen AI expertise
- Legacy infrastructure: 91% say outdated tech hinders their ability to scale Gen AI
- Security and privacy fears: 91% are concerned about protecting sensitive health data and only 42% are confident in their AI application security controls
But there is optimism in this story.
NTT DATA’s study finds 87% say Gen AI’s long-term benefits overshadow the risks, and more than half of healthcare leaders plan significant investments in AI over the next two years.
“To achieve Gen AI’s full potential in healthcare, organisations must align the technology to their business strategies, develop comprehensive workforce training and implement multi-layered governance strategies that prioritise people and keep humans in the loop,” says Sundar Srinivasan, Senior Vice President, Healthcare, NTT DATA North America.
“It’s vital to transparently show how the technology benefits patients by complementing human workers.”
Case studies in the NHS
The UK’s ambitious health blueprint calls for the NHS to transition from analogue to digital in the next 10 years, integrating AI as a trusted assistant for every clinician.
There’s a clear focus on harnessing AI not just to augment clinical decision-making and diagnostics, but to upskill staff and address workforce gaps.
- Centralised digital tools like a revamped NHS App
- Greater investment in AI-ready infrastructure and workforce training
- Governance reforms to safely accelerate AI adoption
Tom Winstanley, Chief Technology Officer at NTT DATA UK & Ireland, says: “Our report analyses the importance of AI to healthcare, which has just been demonstrated in the contents of the UK Government’s latest 10 Year Health Plan for England.
“The plan aims to make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world and calls for all hospitals to fully adopt AI, driving the UK to the forefront of investment and adoption.
“To achieve this, it aims to support all doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals with trusted AI assistants, signalling a bridge across the skills gap exposed in the report, while securely leveraging the wealth of health data within the NHS.”
Among the headline deployments, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust — in partnership with NTT DATA — is developing a cutting-edge AI-powered radiology analysis service.
The platform is designed to harness Gen AI for faster, more accurate cancer detection — offering researchers and clinicians an unprecedented tool to study imaging biomarkers and improve patient outcomes.
This scheme is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and exemplifies how AI is already transforming cancer research and care in the UK.
The system leverages high-performance computing and robust cloud infrastructure to process and test AI algorithms at scale, enabling the NHS to stay at the forefront of innovation.
The hope is that these models improve diagnostic precision and speed, directly benefiting cancer patients through earlier detection and more targeted treatment.
Flann Horgan, Vice President of Healthcare at NTT DATA UK&I, says: “This partnership illustrates how AI technology can be harnessed for good.
“The ethical and secure use of AI in healthcare is central to our mission to build a smarter, healthier society and this project is a blueprint for what responsible innovation looks like in practice.
“We are proud to support The Royal Marsden in pushing the boundaries of cancer research.”
