Insights

Developed by the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Health and Healthcare with Boston Consulting Group, the report examines how health systems can accelerate the shift to outcome-based care. Across OECD countries, healthcare spending has grown faster than GDP for two decades, while health-adjusted life expectancy has stagnated or declined and up to 20% of spending remains directed to low-value care.

Global investment in healthcare AI exceeded $18 billion in 2025, yet health systems still lack a shared understanding of the outcomes that investment should deliver. This report  argues that success in the health AI race will be determined not by technological sophistication but by which systems first identify and pursue the outcomes that matter most to patients, professionals and health systems.

This report is essential reading for leaders seeking to understand not only where AI is taking the industry, but what actions are required today to translate technological advances into meaningful outcomes for patients and societies. It provides a practical guidance to actively shape the future of life sciences to succeed as a commercial enterprise while delivering better health outcomes.

As health systems worldwide face rising costs, growing chronic disease burdens and uneven digital progress, this white paper argues that digitization alone is no longer sufficient. A new era of global health requires a system-level leap: one that embeds intelligence – not just digital tools – at the foundation of health.

Health and healthcare systems are confronting a growing set of pressures – from rising chronic diseases to cost escalation, workforce shortages, persistent inequities, and increasingly complex data and cyber risks. At the same time, quantum technologies are reaching a level of maturity that makes their impact increasingly tangible. 
Report was published in collaboration with the Quantum Economy Network, part of the Centre for Frontier Technologies and Innovation (CFTI). 

Earning Trust for AI in Health: A Collaborative Path Forward was developed by the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group to outline a collaborative path for earning trust in artificial intelligence for health. While AI offers significant potential to improve health outcomes and health system performance, its evolving nature challenges existing practices, policies and regulatory models.