Progress on AI in health should be determined by strength of governance, WHO forum urges

Governance readiness, not speed of deployment, should be the measure of responsible progress on artificial intelligence (AI) in health systems, according to a new report published by the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe).

The report presents the findings of WHO's first-ever Knowledge Community on responsible AI in health, a 5-week structured online dialogue held between October and December 2025. The initiative brought together researchers, policy-makers and digital health experts from 105 countries from the WHO European Region and beyond to build shared understanding of what responsible AI in health means in practice and what it will take to achieve it.

A governance challenge

The central obstacle to responsible AI in health is not the technology itself, but the strength of the institutions meant to govern it, participants concluded. They also pointed to fragmented and biased data sets, unclear accountability, and gaps in AI literacy as the most persistent barriers to safe and effective use. The Community also identified a set of enablers: robust governance frameworks, codesign with patients and clinicians, transparency, and equitable access to data and tools.

In addition, the report describes ethics as something to be woven into the daily functioning of health systems, rather than being a set of principles applied once at the point of deployment. Participants stressed that this requires ongoing scrutiny and, at times, the willingness to delay or reject an AI tool altogether if it cannot be governed responsibly.

Priority actions

Building on these discussions, participants agreed on a set of urgent priorities for which delays could pose greater risk than delays in technological adoption itself. These priorities are governance; data; validation; workforce capacity; and participation by patients, communities and frontline professionals.

WHO/Europe will build on the momentum generated by the Knowledge Community through continued technical dialogue, regional exchanges and capacity-building activities, helping translate these findings into guidance and practical support for countries.

The perspectives captured in the report reflect the views of Knowledge Community participants and do not necessarily represent the formal position of WHO, even where they align with existing WHO guidance. As the report makes clear, the Community was not a statistically representative sample of stakeholders, but its findings do offer the candid, detailed perspectives of those whose work directly relates to AI in health.

Background

Participants in the Knowledge Community came from all regions, with the majority from the European Region. The most represented category was academic institutions, followed by the private sector, government/health authorities, and nongovernmental organizations. Fifty-two per cent of participants were female, 47% were male and 1% did not specify their gender.

Knowledge Communities are informal, time-bound forums that bring together multidisciplinary expertise to support the analysis of complex issues related to data and digital health in the European Region. Designed as problem-focused platforms, they enable members to collectively identify potential solutions through shared experience, dialogue and collective intelligence.

The project was co-funded by the European Commission through the action "Supporting Member States in the WHO European Region in strengthening health information systems and boosting health data governance".

WHO expresses its gratitude to all the participants who contributed to this Knowledge Community.