Artificial intelligence in healthcare is here to stay, but the ultimate decision maker must remain with doctors: the experts
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an integral part of healthcare and is here to stay, but the skills, judgment and critical thinking of doctors will remain central to patient care, experts said in a webinar on ‘The Future Doctor: Balancing Clinical Experience with Technology’ organized by SRM Institute of Science and Technology in association with The Hindu.
The panelists included R. Jayanthi, Dean, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Center; Vivek N, Dean (Dental), SRM Kattankulathur Dental College and Hospital; Ritubhan Gautam, Head – Global Health, Deep Tek.ai; and K. Ganapathy, Emeritus Professor, IIM Jammu, Distinguished Professor, Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, and Emeritus Professor, National Academy of Medical Sciences.
Dr. Jayanthi said AI has become an important part of healthcare and medical education and doctors and institutions need to adapt to the AI era. She emphasized the need for medical students to develop AI literacy and a strong “verification reflex” to ensure that information generated by AI is checked against credible sources and does not undermine clinical reasoning and critical thinking.
AI comes with responsibility
Artificial intelligence should support clinical decisions, but doctors should never outsource their responsibility to technology, said Dr. Ganapathy. He emphasized the importance of enhancing judgment, empathy and accountability, and asking the right clinical questions when assessing how reliable an AI prediction is for a particular patient and setting.
In dentistry Dr. Vivek pointed to the growing role of artificial intelligence in automating several aspects of diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, according to him, this technology remains a decision support tool and cannot replace the dentist, who must continue to make the final clinical decision.
From a public health perspective, AI can act as a force multiplier in areas where specialist doctors are scarce, Mr Gautham said. He said this could make screening more accessible in rural and underserved settings and help prioritize patients requiring urgent attention, while accuracy, bias and clinical oversight remain important considerations.
The session was moderated by Geetha Srimathi, Chief Reporter of The Hindu. The webinar can be viewed at
Published – 30 Aug 2026 01:52 IST