The wicked problem of regulation of Artificial Intelligence in health professionals' work: Whose job is it anyway? (August 2026)

Summary

As the use of artificial intelligence in professional practice and everyday life continues to expand, there are increasing questions regarding the role of health professions' regulators in ensuring responsible adoption of this technology by practitioners. Ensuring safe and effective professional practice is a primary mandate for regulators; it is currently not clear how artificial intelligence may impact the work and role of professionals, particularly when human-out-of-the-loop artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent in professional work.

This Commentary explores competing perspectives on what role—if any—health professions' regulators have in using regulatory tools and approaches to manage the proliferation of artificial intelligence in professional work. It examines the current regulatory ecosystem (of which professions' regulators are a part) and highlights opportunities for potential collaboration across different regulatory sectors to better safeguard interests of patients and practitioners alike.