TO BE PUBLISHED February 2027
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This conference will consider next steps for the development, regulation and adoption of artificial intelligence in UK health and social care. Areas for discussion include approaches to procurement and evaluation, regulatory reform and assurance, scaling technologies with demonstrated benefits, preparing the health and social care workforce for adoption, and using AI to improve productivity, patient experience and health outcomes.
Regulatory reform & learning from sandboxes
It will bring together stakeholders and policymakers to discuss next steps following the Government’s acceptance of all 44 recommendations of the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, alongside delivery of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England. Discussion will consider preparations for regulatory reform, with an implementation roadmap due by spring 2027, and learning from MHRA sandboxes, including the third phase of AI Airlock, with its focus on post-market surveillance and lifecycle oversight.
Moving from pilots to adoption at scale
Delegates will examine requirements for translating successful pilots into routine practice, including evidence of clinical and operational benefit, clear routes through evaluation and procurement, and approaches to identifying where technologies should be scaled, adapted or discontinued.
The planned agenda will assess practical requirements for adoption, such as interoperability and digital infrastructure, national and local procurement, commercial and payment models, cyber resilience and safeguards, and the capabilities needed by health and social care organisations to deploy and monitor AI safely. Attendees will consider options for supporting clinical judgement as the use of AI expands across diagnostic, administrative and care pathways, and approaches to measuring AI’s impact on productivity, patient outcomes and return on investment.
It will also provide an opportunity to consider the role of AI in supporting adult social care delivery, including applications in care planning and assessments, monitoring and preventative care, and reducing administrative workloads, alongside considerations for safe and responsible adoption.
Discussion will also assess the development of real-world evidence and the respective roles of NICE, regulators, NHS organisations and innovators in supporting wider use of technologies that demonstrate value, including NICE’s extension of its technology appraisal process to selected high-impact health technologies, including AI-enabled devices.
Workforce implications, skills & capacity
Next steps for preparing the health and social care workforce for wider AI adoption will be considered, including digital skills, training, professional confidence and organisational readiness. Discussion will assess requirements for safe and effective use across different professional roles, in the context of DHSC’s September 2026 Adult Social Care Digital Skills Framework, guidance on using AI in adult social care, and the Government’s response to the National Commission’s recommendations on workforce training and AI literacy.
Accountability, oversight & patient trust
Further sessions will focus on accountability and lifecycle oversight, including responsibilities across developers, healthcare organisations and professionals, and approaches to strengthening post-market surveillance and the management of updates for AI-enabled medical devices in routine use. Discussion will consider patient and service-user involvement, transparency about AI use in care, and public confidence, alongside the use of health and care data, equitable access and the environmental implications of increasingly data-intensive healthcare.
Innovation, investment & UK competitiveness
Sessions will also examine the implications of regulation, evidence requirements and routes to market for patient safety and the UK’s ability to attract investment and translate strengths in AI, genomics and life sciences into technologies adopted at scale.
Overview of areas for discussion
- procurement, commissioning & payment:
- national and local purchasing - reducing duplication between NHS organisations - outcome and value-based procurement
- funding and commercial models - subscription and outcomes-linked payment - routes from evaluation to funded adoption
- evidence, productivity & value:
- measures of success for AI deployment across health and social care - clinical outcomes, workforce productivity, patient experience and return on investment
- NICE evaluation and the National HealthTech Access Programme - real-world evidence - identifying technologies for scale-up, modification or discontinuation
- applications of AI in adult social care - care planning and assessments - monitoring and preventative care - administrative efficiency and provider sustainability
- regulatory reform, testing & lifecycle assurance:
- implementation of the Commission’s recommendations - qualification and classification of AI-enabled devices - potential staged authorisation pathways
- AI Airlock Phase 3 and London Region I - regulatory testing and real-world evaluation of AI-enabled medical devices - implications for regulatory practice
- post-market surveillance and incident reporting - performance drift and AI updates - intended purpose and predetermined change control plans
- clinical governance, liability, workforce & patient trust:
- accountability and liability across developers, providers and clinicians - human oversight, professional judgement and patient redress
- AI literacy, training and implementation capability - National Commission’s recommendations and DHSC’s Adult Social Care Digital Skills Framework - automation bias, deskilling and uneven organisational readiness
- patient involvement and transparency about AI use in care - public confidence - equitable access
- data, infrastructure & resilience:
- access to high-quality and representative health and social care data - interoperability, information governance and integration with health and care systems
- cyber security across AI-enabled infrastructure and supply chains - resilience, third-party risk and response to system failure
- environmental impact of data-intensive healthcare - energy use and infrastructure requirements - use of AI to support NHS and care sector sustainability
- commercialisation, research & international competitiveness:
- links between NHS need, research and product development - diagnostics, genomics, personalised medicine and drug discovery
- UK routes to market compared with international regulatory environments - attracting investment - the NHS as a testbed for innovation
