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The Gates Foundation and OpenAI have launched Horizon 1000, a $50 million AI programme to support 1,000 clinics across Africa in clinical decisions and reduce administrative burdens. Dr Mike Adeyemi, an infectious disease specialist, sees this as an example of a deliberate effort to integrate AI into health systems.
“What is particularly encouraging for Africa is that Horizon 1000 places real-world clinical deployment at the centre of AI development, with pilots embedded in routine care environments and aligned with local health priorities.” says Dr Adeyemi.
He adds that while the global rankings highlight how AI is already shaping leading health technology companies, the tools should be applied more deliberately within health systems that face the greatest constraints.
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Specialist Advisor in Global Health Infectious Diseases & Malaria
Is the current buzz about AI in healthcare another adrenaline rush that tends to accompany every major technological shift, or does it reflect a more fundamental change in how healthcare systems may function in the years ahead?
In the last few weeks, I have followed with keen interest the development around AI in healthcare, particularly as it applies to strengthening healthcare delivery in Africa, where structural constraints, workforce shortages, and inequities in access continue to shape outcomes.
What has become increasingly clear is that the conversation is moving beyond speculative promise toward more deliberate efforts to integrate AI into real-world health systems in ways that address these long-standing challenges.
Two recent developments prompted the decision to examine the prospects of AI in Africa’s healthcare landscape. Together, they signal a shift from AI as an abstract technological ambition to AI as a practical tool being tested, funded, and embedded within frontline care environments.
The first of these developments is the recent release of Time’s World’s Top HealthTech Companies of 2025, produced in partnership with Statista, which offers a useful lens through which to assess where meaningful innovation is currently taking place. By evaluating companies on financial performance, reputation and digital engagement, the ranking moves beyond speculative promise to highlight organisations already demonstrating measurable impact.
A clear pattern emerges from the analysis: companies that effectively leverage AI and data analytics consistently rank highly, reflecting the growing role of machine learning in improving healthcare delivery across the continuum of care, from early disease screening and diagnostics to treatment selection and matching patients to care pathways most likely to lead to better health outcomes.
Notably, Africa is not absent from this global picture. Four African healthtech companies, Remedial Health, DeepEcho, RecoMed, and Reliance Health, featured among the world’s top 400. Their inclusion illustrates the diversity of approaches shaping innovation on the continent. In some cases, AI is central and product-defining, as seen with DeepEcho, while in others, it is embedded at scale to improve operational efficiency, as with Reliance Health.
Meanwhile, companies such as Remedial Health and RecoMed demonstrate that strong digital platforms, even when not built as AI first solutions, can still deliver significant and scalable impact within complex health systems.
While the global rankings highlight how AI and data-driven approaches are already shaping leading health technology companies, they also raise a deeper question: how can these tools be applied more deliberately within health systems that face the greatest constraints? This is where the conversation around AI in healthcare moves beyond recognition and market success to questions of implementation, equity, and system level impact.
Another development that strongly reinforces the substance behind the growing excitement around AI in healthcare is the Horizon 1000 initiative, led by the Gates Foundation in partnership with OpenAI. “AI is going to be a scientific marvel no matter what, but for it to be a societal marvel, we’ve got to figure out ways that we use this incredible technology to improve people’s lives.” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
The initiative is designed to deploy tech such as AI tools into primary healthcare (PHC) settings, supporting clinicians with decision support, workflow optimisation, and patient engagement rather than replacing human care. This framing positions AI not as a futuristic luxury but as a practical response to workforce shortages, fragmented systems, and rising care demands.
What is particularly encouraging for Africa is that Horizon 1000 plans to reach 1000 PHCs by 2028 and places real-world clinical deployment at the centre of AI development, with pilots embedded in routine care environments and aligned with local health priorities. For health systems across Africa, where constraints are structural, this signals a shift from AI as abstract potential to AI as an enabling layer for scale, quality, and resilience.
At the just concluded World Economic Forum 2026, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, made a remark that resonates strongly with the current moment in healthcare innovation: “We have to be optimistic, and if you must err, it is better to be optimistic and find that you were wrong than pessimistic and find that you were right.”
As a rational optimist, I find this perspective both timely and necessary. Progress in healthcare has rarely come from caution alone, but from a willingness to test new ideas while remaining grounded in evidence and responsibility.
The growing optimism around AI in Africa’s healthcare systems should therefore be understood in this light. It is not driven by novelty or inflated expectations, but by emerging proof points that AI, when thoughtfully designed, ethically governed, and embedded within real clinical and system contexts, can help address long-standing gaps in access, quality, and resilience.