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Artificial intelligence has huge potential to improve health and care, but its use must be safe, effective and fair. In this blog, chief executive Jonathan Benger explains how NICE's new AI delivery plan will support responsible adoption in the NHS, ensuring AI brings real benefits for patients.

Artificial intelligence is no longer the preserve of science fiction.

In a matter of years, it has become a part of our everyday lives, helping us to work, communicate and solve problems in new and unexpected ways.

Healthcare is no exception.

Artificial intelligence is moving rapidly from promise to practice.

Around the world, AI is already helping clinicians interpret medical images, supporting earlier diagnosis, identifying people at risk of illness and reducing administrative burdens.

Its potential is enormous.

But the real question is not whether AI will become part of healthcare; it is how we ensure it improves care in ways that are safe, effective and fair.

That is why NICE has published a plan that sets out how we will enable the safe, effective and scalable adoption of AI in the NHS.

The plan presents ways in which NICE will support the responsible adoption of AI across health and care, while helping to create the conditions for innovation and economic growth.

It reflects the government's ambition to harness the opportunities offered by AI. But it also recognises that public confidence must be earned through transparency, evidence and robust standards.

Our work over the next year will focus on 3 key areas.

1. Using AI for evidence generation and evaluating innovation

For 27 years, NICE has led the way in health technology assessment, spearheading new ways of developing healthcare guidance.

We uphold the principle that healthcare decisions should always be guided by evidence. And this principle does not change when AI enters the frame.

One of our priorities is to help developers and innovators use AI appropriately when generating evidence about new treatments, technologies and ways of delivering care.

AI can help analyse large volumes of information far more quickly than traditional approaches. It may identify patterns in data, help researchers review scientific literature more efficiently and support analysis of real-world healthcare information.

But speed alone is not enough.

We need to understand how conclusions have been reached and ensure that methods are robust, transparent and reproducible. In healthcare, decisions affect people's lives. The evidence must therefore be both reliable and explainable.

We will continue to work with experts, researchers and industry partners to develop clear expectations about how AI should be used in evidence generation. By March 2027, we will publish an AI best practice methods framework for the use of AI in evidence generation, synthesis and review. This will build on work that includes:

• Testing and learning about how AI will transform health technology assessment through our HTA Innovation Lab.

• Exploring with our own teams how we can make the best use of AI in evaluating evidence and conducting assessments.

• Upskilling both NICE staff and our partners in the use of AI for guidelines and assessments.

2. Evaluating AI-powered health technologies

The second area of focus is assessing health technologies that incorporate AI.

These include tools that help clinicians make decisions, software that supports diagnosis, predictive models that identify people at higher risk of disease and digital health technologies that assist patients in managing their own conditions.

Many of these innovations are inspiring. Some have the potential to transform care pathways and improve outcomes for patients.

Take diagnostic imaging as an example. An AI-enabled system may help identify signs of disease more quickly, allowing clinicians to focus their expertise where it is needed most. Or consider tools that help spot early warning signs of deterioration, potentially enabling earlier intervention and preventing avoidable hospital admissions.

However, innovation should never be confused with effectiveness.

New technologies must demonstrate that they genuinely improve outcomes, represent good value for public spending and work consistently across different populations and settings. Patients and healthcare professionals need confidence that the tools they use are safe and trustworthy.

Our guidance already provides rapid, lighter-touch evaluation for early-stage digital and medical technology products that address national priorities - such as our recent guidance for 5 AI tools to aid fracture detection.

Moving forward, we will continue to produce robust, future-relevant guidance on AI technologies for the NHS by coordinating with the MHRA on regulation and evidence needs.

We will also deliver technology appraisals of AI-enabled HealthTech, by publishing 4 HealthTech guidance documents on AI technologies referred to NICE by the Secretary of State.

3. Using AI to improve the way NICE works

The third priority is to explore how AI can help NICE itself operate more effectively.

Like many organisations, we see opportunities to use AI to support productivity and improve efficiency. Certain routine tasks that currently require substantial time and effort may be streamlined through carefully governed AI tools.

AI may help to summarise large volumes of information, identify relevant evidence more efficiently or support administrative processes. Used responsibly, these tools can help us work smarter and respond more quickly.

Our goal is to halve the staff time required to produce each piece of guidance by 2030. NICE’s HealthTech guidance-producing directorate is the first test case for embedding AI into a delivery model.

Looking ahead

The delivery plan is an important step, but it is only part of a wider journey.

In the coming months, NICE's AI Framework will clarify how we develop, evaluate and use AI to generate evidence, ensuring our approach remains consistent, transparent and worthy of public confidence.

AI is evolving quickly. Expectations are changing. So too must the organisations responsible for guiding healthcare innovation.

That is precisely what NICE intends to do.

By combining innovation with evidence, ambition with accountability, and progress with public trust, we will ensure that AI delivers meaningful benefits across health and care.

NICE looks forward to working with patients, clinicians, innovators and partners across the system to help make that vision a reality.