NVIDIA's second annual State of AI in Healthcare and Life Sciences survey has found that artificial intelligence is moving beyond experimental projects into operational use, with organisations reporting measurable returns in areas including medical imaging and drug discovery.
The survey found 70% of respondents said their organisations are actively using AI, 69% are using generative AI and large language models, and 47% are using or assessing agentic AI, software that can plan and execute tasks autonomously.
Adoption was highest among digital healthcare organisations at 78% and medical technology companies at 74%.
Medical imaging emerged as the leading applied use case, with 61% of medical technology respondents reporting AI deployment in that area, while 57% of pharmaceutical and biotechnology respondents cited AI-driven drug discovery as a primary workload.
The survey linked adoption to commercial outcomes: 85% of executives said AI is helping increase revenue and 80% said it is reducing costs.
Returns on investment were reported by 57% of medical technology respondents in medical imaging and by 46% of pharmaceutical and biotechnology respondents in drug discovery.
Budget expectations were broadly positive, with 85% of respondents anticipating increased AI spending, 46% planning rises of more than 10%, and 12% expecting budgets to remain flat.
Dr Annabelle Painter, clinical AI strategy lead at Visiba UK, said scaling generative AI in healthcare required a focus on real clinical and operational problems rather than the technology itself.
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John Nosta, president of NostaLab, a healthcare think tank, said the most visible near-term impact of AI would come from logistics and administrative streamlining.
The full findings are available in the report, State of AI in Healthcare and Life Sciences: 2026 Trends.
The recap
- NVIDIA publishes second annual State of AI survey.
- 70% of respondents report active use of artificial intelligence.
- Report available: State of AI in Healthcare and Life Sciences, 2026.
