The Health Foundation: Three takeaways from our 2026 AI in the NHS Summit (9 November 2026)

Summary

Over 2026, hopes that AI can help tackle some of the thorniest problems facing the NHS have continued to grow. The dominant policy questions no longer focus so much on whether AI can or should be used to improve health services, but on how best to deploy AI and assess performance.

In October the Health Foundation hosted its third AI in the NHS Summit. This year’s summit brought together speakers from the UK, US, Singapore and South Korea to look at what we can learn about AI implementation from leading systems, and how the UK can conduct faster, rigorous evaluation. 

Key takeaways included the uneven distribution of the benefits of AI, the difficulty of generating sufficient evidence on AI tools and how the UK can make the most of its assets.