The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) governments are at the forefront of the global digital transformation, rapidly advancing their focus on e-commerce, smart cities, e-services, and digital health. This momentum is driving the accelerated integration of AI across industries, with healthcare leading the charge in an unprecedented leap toward AI-powered innovation and adoption.
PwC’s latest report, ‘A Healthcare Reboot for the GCC: How AI can Supercharge your Healthcare Ecosystem’, highlights that the Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) market opportunity across the GCC will have a potential overall economic impact of US$23.5 billion per year by 2030. The research also indicated that GenAI-fueled improvements in efficiency and effectiveness would have the most significant impact in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with significant benefits also seen in the rest of the GCC, and healthcare was one of the key industries to be affected. With the increased focus on value-based care, Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption across the GCC is being driven by the objectives of improving patient outcomes and the productivity and efficiency of care delivery.
In an interview, Amar Patel, Healthcare Sector Lead for Deals at PwC Middle East, highlighted: “In the GCC, patient outcomes are being enhanced through AI technologies offering predictive analytics, personalised treatment plans, preventative care management, and chronic disease management. Similarly, AI can provide solutions to improve operational efficiencies by automating processes such as initial assessments, ambient listening/transcription, resource allocation, and other administrative tasks.”
Overall, he explained, value-based care is transforming the healthcare sector, with providers adopting various avenues, including AI technologies, to achieve a more patient-centric, cost-efficient, and outcome-driven care delivery.
Challenges in implementing AI technologies
Although the benefits are substantial, as with any emerging technology, businesses must consider potential risks and challenges when implementing AI technologies. This applies not only to front-end patient care use cases but also to other mid- and back-end AI applications and use cases.
To name a few, this would include data privacy and integrity concerns, integration with existing systems, resistance from healthcare professionals, and justifying the upfront capital investments for relatively nascent and unproven business cases for AI adoption. Additionally, a lack of robust data infrastructure and a skilled workforce represent key bottlenecks.
Patel said: “For healthcare organisations embarking on the AI journey, taking a structured adoption path from strategy to execution can help overcome these challenges. This entails, among other things, defining an AI strategy that is aligned with the overall organisation’s vision and goals, getting leadership buy-in and commitment, and establishing a centre of excellence that helps prioritise business use cases, the build vs partnering capability plan, and a performance monitoring framework that measures progress and is agile enough for course correction.”
Facilitating the adoption of AI in healthcare
Governmental and regulatory bodies play an essential role in facilitating the adoption of AI, particularly in the healthcare sector. These bodies are responsible for establishing guidelines, standards, and policies to regulate the use of AI and ensure its safe implementation. Additionally, to align with the global digital revolution, governments today are incentivising enterprises and individuals to adopt AI solutions by providing funding and grants.
“For healthcare organisations, the first step is to establish an enterprise governance framework for ‘Responsible AI’—an approach designed to enable the trusted and ethical use of AI. Organisations can employ several strategies to ensure compliance, such as conducting regular audits or assessments, staying abreast of evolving regulatory changes, and training employees on regulatory compliance. These measures can help identify and address compliance issues effectively,” Patel explained.
Furthermore, he said, healthcare organisations should tailor AI training to the specific needs of each of the core functions.
For instance, advanced treatment and medicine require deep expertise in clinical AI applications, while operations and revenue cycle management focus more on data literacy and predictive analytics. Similarly, patient engagement benefits from skills in the Internet of Things (IoT) and remote monitoring, whereas public health emphasises epidemiological data analysis. Along with technical proficiency, soft skills such as problem-solving, leadership, collaboration, and adaptability are equally important.
Based on each organisation’s specific AI use case implementation roadmap, they will need a corresponding AI workforce upskilling strategy to ensure their workforce is equipped with the right skills for their specialised areas. This strategy should include steps such as continuous education and training programmes, partnering with technology providers to leverage their expertise, and raising awareness about the ethical use of AI. By doing so, healthcare organisations can effectively integrate AI into their operations, improve patient outcomes, and drive overall efficiency.
Future of AI in healthcare
Patel emphasised that over the next decade, AI is expected to positively shape the healthcare landscape, transforming patient care and achieving operational efficiencies in an evolutionary manner.
AI will leverage patient medical records and databases to develop personalised treatment plans. Predictive analytics will enable early detection of diseases, thus supporting early interventions. AI-driven tools will help enhance diagnostics services, resulting in faster and more precise image analysis. Telemedicine, virtual health assistants and chatbots will increase the accessibility to care. Routine and mundane tasks will also be automated, allowing healthcare professionals to focus more on the actual delivery of care.
“AI holds the promise of empowering healthcare leaders to overcome some of the sector’s most historically daunting challenges,” he concluded.
PwC’s report ‘A Healthcare Reboot for the GCC: How AI can Supercharge your Healthcare Ecosystem’ gives healthcare leaders insight into how to establish a clear plan encompassing strategy development, execution, and monitoring. Through each phase, the report lays out the key steps leaders must consider while embarking on their AI journey. Read the report here.
