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By 2040, one in five people in Ireland will be aged 65 or older. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), this demographic shift, driven by a growing and ageing population, will considerably increase demand for healthcare services: long-term residential care beds and home support hours will need to grow by at least 60%, inpatient beds in public acute hospitals by 40%, and GP consultations by up to 30%. Together, these figures underline the scale of the challenge facing Ireland’s healthcare system in the coming years.
Meeting this demand will require more than additional resources: it will call for smarter, more efficient ways of delivering care. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in including agentic AI. Once a niche tech, AI has now matured into a transformative tool with the potential to revolutionise healthcare. AI in healthcare can transform diagnostics, automate labour-intensive tasks, optimise the use of hospital beds and equipment, and streamline administration – all of which free up healthcare professionals to focus on patient care.
Recognising this, the 2025 edition of Sláintecare, Ireland’s national healthcare reform programme, places strong emphasis on digital health transformation. It calls for the use of AI to improve service delivery through streamlining administrative processes, supporting clinical decision-making, and enhancing direct patient care.
The Mater says AI solutions have led to the reduction of emergency department waiting times and optimised hospital workflows. The hospital is also planning to roll out a new AI tool that supports early heart attack diagnosis in the cardiology department.
The Health Service Executive (HSE), Ireland’s public healthcare system, has Robotic Process Automation in place that is already delivering results.
“We will continue to use automation and explore opportunities to leverage AI and its benefits where they become feasible; however as with other digital healthcare technologies, implementation of AI for clinical use must be clinically safe, must only be used in an ethically appropriate manner, and is subject to robust clinical validation and in line with applicable policy and regulations,” HSE says.
Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital is set to roll out AI on a pilot project basis to predict no-shows and cancelled appointments. With no-shows accounting for 15.5% of its appointments, the move is aimed at ensuring “waste in the healthcare system is minimised”.
Similarly, staff at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin are exploring the potential for AI to assist with performing heart ultrasound scans to help reduce waiting times for patients.
A number of studies are also being carried out across the country to treat critical health issues such as hypertension and improve screenings like bowel cancer using AI.
A project led by a University of Galway researcher has secured funding of €700,000 in 2023 from the Health Research Board to improve treatment for high blood pressure using AI. Led by Dr Conor Judge, the project will run for four years and aims to address the significant care-gap in the management of hypertension, which affects more than 1.4 billion people around the world and causes ailments including heart attack and stroke.
Meanwhile, HSE’s national screening service has partnered with institutions from five EU countries for a project called ‘Microb-AI-ome’ to probe whether AI-driven analysis of gut microbiome data can improve the accuracy of bowel cancer screening. The research, which concludes in 2028, aims to reduce unnecessary colonoscopies, enhance early detection and improve patient outcomes.
Jim Swanson, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, J&J, says: “In the next few years AI is going to play an even bigger role.” At J&J, “the technology is currently being used to help our employees detect disease at earlier stages, accelerate drug discovery, assist with clinical trial recruitment, map a patient’s anatomy before a procedure and help surgeons predict the best tool for surgery,” he says.
Its AI-powered VirtuGuide software analyses the patient’s anatomy and suggests which instrument is needed to treat and recommends a correction plan, reducing the surgeon’s planning period from weeks to a matter of days.
In early 2025, a citizens’ jury on the use of AI in healthcare has called for an independent regulator and commissioner to oversee the technology, alongside a national strategy to chart the course of AI in this space over the next five years.
Organised by the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI), the jurors made a series of recommendations to the government to promote the “safe, ethical and inclusive use of AI” in the country’s healthcare system.
The jurors backed the early, low-risk deployment of human-monitored AI tools in helping ease pressures on the healthcare system, in pioneering advances in treatment and care, and in empowering individuals to take a more active part in their own health.
In doing so, the jury highlighted the need for robust data security, transparent oversight and strong regulation.
While there was support for the automatic enrolment of health data to train AI, the panel agreed that people must be informed of their data usage and given the option to opt out.
They were also of the opinion that patients should have an option to receive diagnosis or treatment without AI involvement “where feasible”.
Meeting this demand will require more than additional resources: it will call for smarter, more efficient ways of delivering care. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in including agentic AI. Once a niche tech, AI has now matured into a transformative tool with the potential to revolutionise healthcare. AI in healthcare can transform diagnostics, automate labour-intensive tasks, optimise the use of hospital beds and equipment, and streamline administration – all of which free up healthcare professionals to focus on patient care.
Recognising this, the 2025 edition of Sláintecare, Ireland’s national healthcare reform programme, places strong emphasis on digital health transformation. It calls for the use of AI to improve service delivery through streamlining administrative processes, supporting clinical decision-making, and enhancing direct patient care.
How Ireland is using AI in healthcare
In 2023, the Mater Hospital in Dublin became the first in Ireland to use AI in its radiology department to quickly identify suspected conditions such as stroke and fractures with an accuracy rate of over 90%. This year, the hospital launched a new Centre for AI and Digital Health to develop AI solutions to improve and speed up patient care.The Mater says AI solutions have led to the reduction of emergency department waiting times and optimised hospital workflows. The hospital is also planning to roll out a new AI tool that supports early heart attack diagnosis in the cardiology department.
The Health Service Executive (HSE), Ireland’s public healthcare system, has Robotic Process Automation in place that is already delivering results.
“We will continue to use automation and explore opportunities to leverage AI and its benefits where they become feasible; however as with other digital healthcare technologies, implementation of AI for clinical use must be clinically safe, must only be used in an ethically appropriate manner, and is subject to robust clinical validation and in line with applicable policy and regulations,” HSE says.
Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital is set to roll out AI on a pilot project basis to predict no-shows and cancelled appointments. With no-shows accounting for 15.5% of its appointments, the move is aimed at ensuring “waste in the healthcare system is minimised”.
Similarly, staff at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin are exploring the potential for AI to assist with performing heart ultrasound scans to help reduce waiting times for patients.
A number of studies are also being carried out across the country to treat critical health issues such as hypertension and improve screenings like bowel cancer using AI.
A project led by a University of Galway researcher has secured funding of €700,000 in 2023 from the Health Research Board to improve treatment for high blood pressure using AI. Led by Dr Conor Judge, the project will run for four years and aims to address the significant care-gap in the management of hypertension, which affects more than 1.4 billion people around the world and causes ailments including heart attack and stroke.
Meanwhile, HSE’s national screening service has partnered with institutions from five EU countries for a project called ‘Microb-AI-ome’ to probe whether AI-driven analysis of gut microbiome data can improve the accuracy of bowel cancer screening. The research, which concludes in 2028, aims to reduce unnecessary colonoscopies, enhance early detection and improve patient outcomes.
Companies investing in AI in healthcare
Johnson & Johnson
US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which has a large footprint in Ireland with a workforce of over 6,000 people, is deploying AI to help advance healthcare.Jim Swanson, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, J&J, says: “In the next few years AI is going to play an even bigger role.” At J&J, “the technology is currently being used to help our employees detect disease at earlier stages, accelerate drug discovery, assist with clinical trial recruitment, map a patient’s anatomy before a procedure and help surgeons predict the best tool for surgery,” he says.
Its AI-powered VirtuGuide software analyses the patient’s anatomy and suggests which instrument is needed to treat and recommends a correction plan, reducing the surgeon’s planning period from weeks to a matter of days.
Eli Lilly
US pharma giant Eli Lilly, which has been operating in Ireland since 1978, recently launched an AI platform giving biotech firms access to drug discovery models trained on years of its research data. Lilly’s platform, TuneLab, consists of AI models that include proprietary data obtained at a cost of over $1 billion. Lilly has been a proponent of the usage of AI technologies within drug development, clinical trials, and regulatory review.Pfizer
One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Ireland, Pfizer harnesses the power of AI to detect individuals at risk of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (known as ATTR-CM), a rare and underdiagnosed cause of heart failure. Advancing AI in healthcare, Pfizer is involved in a series of initiatives in hospitals across the US, Germany, Japan and Canada to help improve the early suspicion and diagnosis of ATTR-CM.Spryt
Spryt, a Monaghan-based Irish digital health start-up, uses AI to simplify medical appointment bookings for patients while increasing appointment attendance for healthcare providers. It enables patients to book, change and pay for appointments via instant message and allows them to interact with its AI receptionist named Asa. The software also allows healthcare providers to better predict potential no-shows and reduce instances of time wastage.Kheiron
A health-tech start-up from London, Kheiron’s flagship tool – Mia – uses AI to help radiologists with the breast cancer screening in Ireland. It aids radiologists in the process of reading mammograms and acts as an independent second reader of the images. The tool is made available across Ireland through medical supply company Hospital Services Limited.Akara Robotics
Based in Dublin, Akara is a robotics and AI firm focused on delivering healthcare solutions. Spun out of Trinity College Dublin, the start-up is best known for ‘Stevie’, a social care robot designed to assist in elder care facilities. Its flagship product Violet, a robot equipped with ultraviolet technology, disinfects hospital rooms and reduces healthcare associated infections. Recently, Akara provided two UV decontamination robots to a UK hospital to clean wards and operating theatres. The firm earned a spot on the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe ranking in 2024.Nuritas
Founded in 2014, Dubin-based biotech firm Nuritas uses artificial intelligence to discover bioactive peptides, which are molecules in food and food by-products, that can be used by the life sciences sector to identify supplements and new drugs.Ethical use of AI in healthcare: A call for oversight
While AI holds great promise, its use in healthcare must be carefully managed.In early 2025, a citizens’ jury on the use of AI in healthcare has called for an independent regulator and commissioner to oversee the technology, alongside a national strategy to chart the course of AI in this space over the next five years.
Organised by the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI), the jurors made a series of recommendations to the government to promote the “safe, ethical and inclusive use of AI” in the country’s healthcare system.
The jurors backed the early, low-risk deployment of human-monitored AI tools in helping ease pressures on the healthcare system, in pioneering advances in treatment and care, and in empowering individuals to take a more active part in their own health.
In doing so, the jury highlighted the need for robust data security, transparent oversight and strong regulation.
While there was support for the automatic enrolment of health data to train AI, the panel agreed that people must be informed of their data usage and given the option to opt out.
They were also of the opinion that patients should have an option to receive diagnosis or treatment without AI involvement “where feasible”.
Essential related reads:
- How Ireland’s national AI strategy puts ethics at its core
- WHOOP, Orreco & Dexcom: AI wearables shaping Ireland
- From IBM to OpenAI: The rise of AI in research across Ireland
FAQs: AI in healthcare
How is AI used in healthcare?
AI is used to improve diagnostics, reduce waiting times, streamline administration, personalise treatments, and optimise hospital operations.What is a real-world example of AI in healthcare?
Dublin’s Mater Hospital uses AI in its radiology department to quickly identify suspected conditions such as stroke and fractures.Which hospitals in Ireland are using AI?
Mater Hospital, Beaumont Hospital in Dublin are among the institutions piloting AI technologies.What companies are advancing AI in healthcare?
Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer are actively deploying AI solutions.
