AI-powered telemedicine reshapes Saudi healthcare landscape

Arab News

19-04-2025

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is fast positioning itself as a regional pioneer in artificial intelligence-driven healthcare, harnessing telemedicine and digital innovations to modernize its medical infrastructure and widen access to care —particularly in remote and underserved regions.
Guided by its ambitious Vision 2030 agenda and bolstered by rising investments in digital health, the Kingdom is accelerating the deployment of AI technologies, fundamentally reshaping how healthcare is delivered, managed, and experienced.
Vikas Kharbanda, partner and healthcare sector lead at Arthur D. Little Middle East, told Arab News that AI-driven telemedicine is allowing providers to move from reactive care to proactive health management, which is particularly important in remote areas where 'physical infrastructure is difficult and costly to develop and operate.'
Historically, access to healthcare across the Arab world has been uneven, with rural populations often lacking access to specialized services. In Saudi Arabia, however, AI-enabled platforms are helping bridge these gaps by facilitating remote consultations, optimizing clinical workflows, and supporting early detection of disease.
One of the Kingdom's flagship initiatives is the Seha Virtual Hospital, a fully digital facility that leverages AI for diagnostics and links medical specialists across various locations for real-time consultations. Kharbanda described Seha Virtual Hospital as 'a starting point of showcasing the full spectrum capabilities of what is possible with the convergence of digital capabilities into the healthcare environment.'
'With rapidly emerging capabilities for virtual consultations, e-ICU, digital prescriptions and dispensing workflows, AI-enabled diagnoses augmentation the program is starting to demonstrate the potential of what a virtual care delivery model can potentially achieve and the value it can create for a health system,' he said.
Kharbanda added that the hospital 'has created a platform from which individual capabilities can be picked and diffused in the whole health system — commercializing the infrastructure capabilities from the public sector into the private sector could help diffuse these capabilities very rapidly into the whole system.'
Another initiative is Nala, a digital platform that began using AI in 2022 to offer personalized care recommendations based on individual data. Nala integrates with wearables to monitor vital signs and flag potential health risks. In 2023, it was acquired by Integrative Health, a network of AI-led urgent care centers in the Kingdom.
Tech-enabled outreach
Telemedicine remains a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia's digital health strategy. Virtual consultations are helping to ease the burden on hospitals and clinics by enabling patients to connect with healthcare professionals remotely—eliminating the need for travel and streamlining access to specialized care.
'Telemedicine could be a major enabler for access and AI capabilities, especially focused on health risk assessments, enabling remote diagnosis, triaging capabilities and potentially bringing together the financing and care delivery model in a more systematic fashion could fundamentally shift the way health and care is managed today in the market,' Kharbanda added.
Telemedicine could be a major enabler for access and AI capabilities, especially focused on health risk assessments, enabling remote diagnosis, triaging capabilities and potentially bringing together the financing and care delivery model in a more systematic fashion.
Vikas Kharbanda, partner and healthcare sector lead at Arthur D. Little Middle East
High smartphone penetration and widespread internet access have supported the uptake of these tools. Babylon Health, in partnership with Saudi Telecom Co., offers an AI-based app for symptom checking and consultations, while local platform Cura provides similar services with remote diagnosis and digital prescriptions.
AI: the game changer
Artificial intelligence is also being deployed to support clinical decision-making, personalize treatment plans, and deliver predictive insights that can improve patient care. Hospitals across Saudi Arabia are increasingly incorporating machine learning to optimize operations and enhance health outcomes.
According to a report by GlobalData, AI-powered monitoring systems are now in use in many healthcare facilities across the Kingdom. These systems utilize real-time analytics and sensor technologies to boost patient safety and alleviate staffing pressures—offering a glimpse into how smart technology is reshaping the day-to-day realities of clinical care.
'Most responsible AI-powered telemedicine solutions are developed as clinically assistive tools,' said Hannah Gibson, director of UK and global partners at Visiba. 'Triage in-person consultations may not always be necessary and if they are, should be more efficient.'
Still, the development of benchmarking tools to evaluate AI systems remains limited. 'It takes a significant amount of time and resources for companies to create reliable benchmarking tests for research and development purposes,' said James Tapscott, senior manager of innovation and legal technology at Addleshaw Goddard.
He referenced findings from a report by Addleshaw Goddard, which showed that specific AI-powered retrieval techniques boosted the accuracy of commercial contract reviews from 74 percent to an average of 95 percent. Highlighting broader applications of artificial intelligence, he noted that in certain scenarios, AI models can deliver more concise responses than human counterparts—without compromising on accuracy.
'When it comes to telemedicine, it may be that a more concise, easily understandable answer is preferred … it may be surprising to your readers to see how well these models perform compared to humans,' Tapscott added. Kellie Blyth, partner in commercial at Addleshaw Goddard, said image analysis is one of the most common applications. 'The most prevalent use of AI we are seeing in the market is to analyze medical images such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. Many of these solutions can detect anomalies and diseases with an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy, often at earlier stages than previously thought possible.'
Kharbanda said AI could help improve efficiency in outpatient consultations by at least 20 percent, while also easing bottlenecks in emergency and surgical departments.
Investment trends
Saudi Arabia's digital health sector is experiencing rapid expansion, driven by both public and private investments. A study by BlueWeave Consulting estimated the country's digital health market size at $3.2 billion in 2024, with projections indicating a compound annual growth rate of 21.3 percent through 2031, reaching $13.3 billion.
Kharbanda said there is a shift in investment focus toward 'AI-driven diagnostics, augmented care delivery, and supporting the provider-payer system in understanding health risks and funding structures to optimize health outcomes.'
The most prevalent use of AI we are seeing in the market is to analyze medical images such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. Many of these solutions can detect anomalies and diseases with an extraordinarily high degree of accuracy, often at earlier stages than previously thought possible.
Kellie Blyth, partner in commercial at Addleshaw Goddard, said image analysis is one of the most common applications
Tapscott noted that semi-autonomous AI, also known as agentic AI, could become more common in lower-risk areas such as elder care, offering adaptive solutions that help reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Blyth pointed to the need for regulatory clarity, particularly around ethical use. She said frameworks should address 'algorithm vigilance,' which involves regular monitoring to minimize bias and ensure safe use in clinical settings.
Looking ahead
Saudi Arabia's digital health strategy continues to evolve, with future developments likely to include greater use of wearables, predictive modeling, and AI-assisted diagnostics.
Blyth said a major step forward will be the national biobank overseen by the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center. 'The real advances in telemedicine will come at the state level with the establishment of the national biobank,' she said, which will serve as a valuable resource of clinical data from the Saudi population.
This will be further supported by computing infrastructure investments made through the Saudi Company for AI.
Gibson said triage systems powered by AI could soon become a regular feature across healthcare facilities, helping to direct patients to the appropriate level of care from the beginning.
As adoption grows, Saudi Arabia is developing a healthcare model that blends digital access with AI-backed insights, aimed at improving outcomes and supporting a more resilient health system.