New Delhi: With the potential for greater use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India’s healthcare ecosystem, the Center will bring out a National Guidance Framework to help states, regulators, and public and private programs drive responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Stating this during the roundtable on ‘Innovation to Impact – AI as a Public Health Gamechanger’ at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 on Tuesday, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said that the National Guidance Framework will be launched at the Bharat Mandapam on Thursday.
Anupriya Patel said that AI has not been designed to replace doctors, but to enhance and support them. Reiterating India’s commitment to adopting responsible and inclusive AI in healthcare, Patel further said that the Strategy for AI in Healthcare for India (SAHI) will help drive the adoption of responsible AI rather than a fixed centralized mandate.
Highlighting the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Patel stressed that for India, AI is not just Artificial Intelligence, it is an all-encompassing solution, leading to equitable and reliable healthcare for a developed India.
Patel described AI as a public health gamechanger and emphasized that AI is not designed to replace doctors, but to enhance and support them.
The best part, he said, is that AI can reduce doctors’ workload, improve routine processes, and help them focus more on difficult and urgent cases, thereby strengthening healthcare delivery across the system.
Patel further said that AI is a force multiplier in taking everyone along and achieving equitable goals. He said, “AI can replace doctors, not augment them. Therefore, we need future-ready doctors connected to AI and appealed to all members of the medical fraternity to spread the message that AI cannot compete with doctors, it can only replace them.” Patel reiterated that doctors should be connected to AI.
Patel said that the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences in India has recently started an online training program on AI in health care for doctors across the country. This is a 20-hour special course through which they will be made aware of the basics and benefits of AI.
Saying that AI should be used ethically and responsibly in the health care system, Patel said that for this we need a strong regulatory framework. He said that, in India we have created a strong regulatory framework, so that AI can be used ethically and responsibly.
Anupriya Patel said that ICMR has created guidelines on the ethical use of AI and also because AI can never be held responsible for its decisions, but humans should be held responsible. Therefore, CDSCO is developing guidelines for AI and software as medical devices and for the use of software in medical devices. Patel said that India, today, is moving forward with a big vision of a developed India by 2047.
Patel further said that India faces equal challenges such as a large and diverse population, rural-urban divide, and the dual burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and infectious diseases. When we see specific challenges, it becomes very important that we use technology. He said that, we have a large technology integration in the National Health Care Framework, which we see not just as an adoption of technology, but as a strategic response to the specific challenges that we face.
Saying that India has integrated AI with the health ecosystem, Patel said that, from disease monitoring to prevention, diagnosis and treatment, it is everywhere and this shows the power of AI in bringing change.
Emphasizing on scalability and affordability, Patel said that in a place with a large population and low resources like India, the solutions should be scalable, affordable and able to overcome the shortcomings of the system.
He said that the government has worked proactively to build a strong AI ecosystem in healthcare, including the creation of three Centers of Excellence for AI at AIIMS Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS Rishikesh to integrate world-class AI expertise into public healthcare delivery.
Addressing the summit, Professor VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, emphasized that Artificial Intelligence presents a strategic opportunity to transform India’s healthcare landscape and accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage.
Paul said that, given India’s scale, diversity and the dual burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases, technology-driven, evidence-based interventions are necessary to strengthen service delivery and improve health outcomes.
He said that AI can greatly improve primary healthcare and enable early diagnosis. Can strengthen disease surveillance and support data-driven policy making. Integrating AI with India’s growing digital public health infrastructure will ensure smoother data exchange, real-time verification and more efficient resource allocation across the health system, he said.
Paul also stressed the importance of a strong regulatory framework, ethical safeguards and continuous validation to maintain security and public trust. He called for continued collaboration between government, academia and industry to develop scalable, affordable and indigenous AI solutions that can have measurable impact across a large scale of the population.
Speaking during the program, Roy Jacobs, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Philips, said that the biggest impact of AI will be in the field of healthcare. He said that due to increasing demand, workforce shortage and increasing complexity of care, health systems around the world are under immense pressure, making the integration of AI not just an opportunity but a necessity.
Praising India’s digital health initiatives, Roy said programs like the Ayushman Bharat scheme are laying the foundation for interoperable data systems and continuity of care across large swaths of the population. That’s exactly the foundation that AI needs to have meaningful and lasting impact.
He said, solutions made in India are increasingly being used around the world, which shows that technologies designed for scale, diversity and complexity are flexible and adaptable across the world.