The data: AI is producing measurable medical safety catches. Four in 10 healthcare professionals (39%) say AI has helped them identify or prevent a potential medical error at least three times in the past three months, according to the June Philips Future Health Index 2026 report which surveyed 2,000 healthcare professionals across 10 countries. Those errors include missed or delayed diagnoses, incorrect treatments, or unsafe drug interactions.

Why it matters: AI can reliably act as a second set of eyes that flags gaps or overlooked risks, and even modest reductions in error rates could translate into meaningful gains in patient safety.

Medical errors are a persistent source of preventable harm in healthcare. Diagnostic errors are estimated to contribute to some 795,000 cases of death or permanent disability in the US every year, according to a 2023 Johns Hopkins study. Medication mistakes are among the most common medical errors, harming 1.5 million people in the US annually, according to the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.

Most medical errors are linked to flawed processes or workflow gaps, not individual mistakes, according to a January report in StatPearls. AI can help surface the gaps that clinicians don’t catch on their own to reduce preventable harm.

Implications for healthcare systems: With most physicians comfortable using AI as a partner for diagnostic support (88%) and drug interaction checks (85%), according to Philips, health systems have an opportunity to deploy AI more broadly as part of patient-safety initiatives. Health systems should embed AI into clinical workflows and move beyond current safety measures toward prediction, flagging where errors are likely to occur. The payoff will require clear guidelines, frictionless workflow integration, and clinician training.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.