Cluj-Napoca, Romania – July 22, 2025 – Research by NTT DATA, a global leader in business and technology services, reveals that healthcare organisations are struggling to create cohesion between their GenAI ambitions and strategies. More than 80% of healthcare organisation leaders surveyed said they have a well-defined GenAl strategy, but only 40% agreed their GenAl strategy strongly aligns with their business strategy. Only 54% classified their GenAI capability as high performing.
GenAI already is transforming healthcare through enhanced quality and user experiences as well as better financial outcomes. Yet even greater improvements and return on investment (ROI) are hindered by challenges in data security, privacy, ethics and regulatory compliance. These findings are among the highlights of NTT DATA’s new executive insight report, GenAI: The Care Plan for Powering Positive Health Outcomes. The report is based on responses from 425 healthcare decision-makers and influencers across 33 countries.
Key Findings
- 94% of respondents say GenAI accelerates R&D to enable faster access to new treatments, improved diagnostics, predictive analytics and task automation.
- 95% believe cloud-based solutions are the most practical and cost-effective option for their GenAI technology needs.
- 75% acknowledge a lack of necessary skills to work with GenAI effectively, while 93% are addressing GenAI’s impact on employee roles and responsibilities.
Our report analyses the importance of AI to healthcare, which has just been demonstrated in the contents of the UK Government’s latest 10 Year Health Plan for England. The plan aims to make the NHS the most AI-enabled health system in the world and calls for all hospitals to be fully adopt AI, driving the UK to the forefront of investment and adoption. To achieve this, it aims to support all doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals with trusted AI assistants, signalling a bridge across the skills gap exposed in the report, whilst securely leveraging the wealth of health data within the NHS.
Improved compliance and process adherence are among top outcomes from current GenAI investments, yet a massive 91% of healthcare executives are fearful of privacy violations and potential misuse of Protected Health Information (PHI). Just 42% strongly agree their existing cybersecurity controls effectively protect current GenAI applications. That said, 87% of respondents agree the existing benefits and long-term potential of GenAI outweigh security and legal risks. 59% plan significant GenAI investments over the next two years.
Other challenges for rapid and responsible GenAI implementation in healthcare include outdated technology infrastructure and data readiness. 91% say legacy infrastructure greatly affects their ability to use GenAI, while 44% strongly agree they have sufficiently invested in data storage and processing capabilities for GenAI workloads. Only 48% have assessed the GenAI readiness of their data and platforms.
Producing better patient outcomes
Human-centric GenAI solutions enable clinicians and administrative staff to work more efficiently while maintaining a safe, patient-centred approach to healthcare. For instance, GenAI technology can predict chronic diseases to enable early intervention and can also reduce handling time for prior authorisation inquiries. This is exemplified in NTT DATA’s current work with the Royal Marsden, one of the world’s leading cancer centres, where together they are building an advanced AI-powered radiology analysis service for the development and evaluation of AI in medical imaging, designed to transform cancer research and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
This partnership illustrates how AI technology can be harnessed for good. The ethical and secure use of AI in healthcare is central to our mission to build a smarter, healthier society, and this project is a blueprint for what responsible innovation looks like in practice. We are proud to support The Royal Marsden in pushing the boundaries of cancer research.
To achieve GenAI’s full potential in healthcare, organisations must align the technology to their business strategies, develop comprehensive workforce training, and implement multi-layered governance strategies that prioritise people and keep humans in the loop. It’s vital to transparently show how the technology benefits patients by complementing human workers.
Download the full report here, and visit our website to learn more about NTT DATA’s GenAI solutions for healthcare.
Methodology
Of the 425 respondents:
- 81% represent large enterprises with more than 10,000 employees.
- 70% are from the C-suite; 28% are a vice president, head or director; and 3% are senior managers or specialists.
- 28% hold IT-specific roles.