AI is transforming healthcare – but doctors still matter

From chatbots to smartwatches, it is transforming the sector and Cyprus must catch upBy Dina Gavarieva Not long ago, the idea of asking a computer programme about a strange symptom, a worrying lab result or the best way to lose five kilos before summer would have sounded far-fetched. Today it is simply what people do. Artificial intelligence has moved from the realms of science fiction into our everyday lives, and it is doing so at a pace that is genuinely difficult to keep up with – AI is revolutionising the medical field, and the only sensible response is to adapt. Recent surveys suggest that about a third of adults regularly turn to AI chatbots for health information, among younger adults the share is even higher. Hospitals and clinics are following suit with AI-powered symptom checkers, once a novelty, now something most patients say they are willing to use before they ever speak to a medic. Of course, it’s easy to see the appeal – an AI assistant is available at two in the morning, never seems rushed, and doesn’t mind being asked the same question twice. The catch is that an AI tool will deliver a misdiagnosis with the same fluent certainty as it delivers a correct answer, and there is often not easy to see which one you’re getting. There is still no substitute for a trained clinician who knows your history so the healthiest way to use these tools is as a first step, not as the final answer. At this stage, however, getting genuine value out of an AI tool takes a certain amount of knowledge on the user’s part – knowing what questions to ask and how to read an answer critically. Used without that awareness, AI can just as easily mislead as inform. Wearables are genuine turning point Another more visible change we are going through can often be found strapped to our wrists. Smart rings, watches and continuous glucose monitors have turned everyday biology into a stream of data that AI turns into user friendly information. Instead of simply logging your heart rate or your sleep stages, today’s devices interpret the numbers, flag patterns you would never spot yourself, and nudge you towards small daily adjustments. For longevity medicine in particular, this is a genuine turning point. Ageing well is largely about consistency in sleep, movement, stress and metabolic health, and AI is very good at spotting the slow drift away from healthy baselines long before it becomes a clinical problem. Nutrition is another area where AI is making good health choices more accessible to the many. AI tools can now generate personalised weekly menus in seconds, built around a person’s goals, allergies, cultural preferences and even what is sitting in their fridge. For weight management and metabolic health, this kind of tailored planning removes one of the biggest barriers people face, which is simply not knowing what to cook. Health care providers use of AI Elsewhere, clinics and hospitals are also integrating AI into their working lives, using it to track patient outcomes over time, automate scheduling and logistics, and handle the repetitive administrative work that used to eat into clinical hours. Of course, the main driver is cost; healthcare systems across Europe are under sustained financial pressure, and AI is one of the few tools that promises to cut costs while, in theory, maintaining or even improving the standard of care Cyprus, notably, tells a two-speed story. Cypriots are among the most enthusiastic individual AI users in the EU with nearly half the population using a generative AI tool in the past year. Businesses are a different matter, however, with only 9.3 per cent of Cypriot companies having adopted AI as of last year, against an EU average of roughly 20 per cent. The government’s new national AI strategy, which names healthcare as a priority sector, is explicitly aimed at closing that gap, with a target of 75 per cent AI adoption by 2032. Human side of medicine still has important role Clearly, we still don’t know how AI will shape our world over ten years – could we be looking at AI-guided robots performing routine surgery? Who knows. What we do know for certain is that diagnostic software is already being woven into everyday clinical practice, from reading scans to flagging early signs of disease, and that trajectory is not slowing down. None of this means the human side of medicine is becoming obsolete. If anything, the opposite is true. As AI absorbs more of the repetitive, data-heavy work, the time doctors and specialists have for listening, examining and reasoning through complex cases should, in theory, expand rather than shrink. But AI is a tool, not a new medical God. It doesn’t examine, it doesn’t know you, and it doesn’t carry responsibility for getting it wrong. Treated that way, it is enormously useful. Treated as an oracle, it becomes a liability. The role of good clinics going forward will be to use these tools wisely, to separate genuinely useful innovation from hype, and to make sure patients are guided rather than left alone with a screen. Dina Gavarieva is a qualified naturopath practising at Neomed Institute and Medical Centre, Limassol