NEW YORK - The United States has tried in recent years to confront an enormous obstacle in its expensive and inefficient healthcare system, which makes up an astounding 18.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.¹ Despite significant investments, in addition to high costs, the quality of patient care often falls short of expectations, prompting widespread concern and calls for more innovation. Previous efforts have failed to gain much traction, but artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to revolutionize healthcare administration, while not an instant fix, may at last help lead to longer-lasting solutions to this pressing problem.

Advanced technology that has already been integrated into the healthcare system shows that it is possible to substantially reduce costs, improve the quality of care, expand access, and boost clinician and patient satisfaction.² Given the urgency of the situation, experts from prestigious institutions such as McKinsey & Company and Harvard University have collaborated to investigate the potential benefits of implementing AI in healthcare on a wider scale - and have even published a paper highlighting how this may save the US healthcare system billions of dollars per year.³

In light of these findings, this article will delve into the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, examining the myriad ways in which this groundbreaking technology can address the system's flaws. From streamlining administrative tasks to facilitating early detection and diagnosis, AI offers a glimpse into a future where the American healthcare system figures out how to solve its problems. AI - and more specifically machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) - can transform healthcare even more than it has already done. ML is particularly useful in helping predict patient outcomes and optimize hospital operations,⁴ whereas NLP is well-suited to such t