How Physicians Can Protect Themselves from Being Replaced by AI
- Jun 8
- 6 min read
It’s hard to ignore the numerous claims out there by AI tech companies, entrepreneurs, and hospital CEOs that physicians can be replaced by AI. The incentive to do so is strong. While physicians only make up 8% of healthcare costs, doctors are still a large expense where cost cutting measures have been heavily targeted, especially over the past decade as many companies and hospital systems have looked to replace doctors with non-physician clinicians such as NPs and PAs. A physician claiming that they have no chance of being replaced would be naive, especially as AI is already replacing so many other jobs in other industries, and it's just a matter of time before those impacts are also felt in healthcare. The good news, however, is that there are several things a physician can do to protect their career. Below, we’ll go over ways doctors can protect their jobs from advances in artificial intelligence. .
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Who faces the greatest risk of being replaced by AI?
Overall, specialties that rely on pattern recognition, where a lot of the diagnostic workups and treatment pathways are algorithmic, and where human interaction is limited face the largest threats of having a significant percentage of their work taken over by AI. This includes specialties like pathology and radiology. That said, even in those cases, where volume is only increasing (and may increase further as more algorithmic workups happen secondary to AI and non-physician clinicians), the consultative needs from other physicians as well as the contextual knowledge that needs to be incorporated into treatment decisions will protect these fields as well from being completely replaced.
Of course, AI is improving every day, and its capabilities and competency continue to increase. No specialty is completely immune from the effects of AI, but there are things you can emphasize in your career to enhance your job security.
What should physicians do to make themselves more immune to being replaced by AI?
Don’t downplay the value of human interaction and relationships
Healthcare is human. Most people would prefer to get serious news from a human who demonstrates empathy and answers their questions in a way that’s tailored to them. That takes knowing a patient’s personality, having emotional intelligence, and building long term relationships.
Engage in shared decision making that brings in the patent’s individual preferences, demographics, and realities
Make sure that you focus on the nuances of a patient’s situation and clearly present different options to them. Incorporate their realities when it comes to the decision to work something up or not or which medication to choose, have end-of-life discussions, what research shows and how it applies - and doesn’t apply - to them. Involve their families in the decision making process. This is all the art of medicine that would be difficult to automate.
Don’t be scared of AI; find ways to use it to make you a better clinician
There are so many ways that AI can help physicians in their clinical practice. To name just a few, these include clinical decision support, optimizing workflows to give yourself more time with patients, using AI to identify clinical trials applicable to your patient, getting better paid for what you do by using AI in your revenue cycle management processes so that you open up more options within your practice or personal life to optimize your life as a clinician, etc. etc. AI should work alongside you, not against you.
Add procedures to your practice
While you could cite the example of the Da Vinci Robot, it hasn’t replaced the need for surgeons yet, despite being excellent at what it does. Procedures are much harder to replace with AI, and specialties that do a lot of procedures are always going to have more protection, in the same way a plumber has more job security in the era of AI than a scheduler at your office.
Specialize in areas within your field that require more complicated thought processes, unpredictable situations, or human interaction
AI thrives in automated, algorithmic processes. Developing out niche areas of expertise that are complicated and involve more complex decision making processes are areas that are harder to replace physicians in. Similarly, high acuity situations that can require rapid adjustments, such as what emergency medicine physicians engage in routinely, are much harder to automate, even if there is a role for clinical decision support. Specialties such as psychiatry or hospice care that require a lot of sensitive discussions and emotional intelligence are also relatively protected.
Upskill yourself and acquire new skillsets that most doctors don’t have
If you’re in the unique position of having a technical background or a leadership background, you may be invaluable to a healthcare organization. Many hospitals require CMIOs to be the bridge between clinicians and technology and to weigh in on what might work and what won’t. Getting a degree in clinical informatics or getting your MBA could position you for committees and leadership positions that allow you to diversify your career.
Develop a personal brand
Piggybacking off of the last point, you want to differentiate yourself from your colleagues. Maybe this is by developing a personal following on social media that makes patients want to see you specifically, maybe it’s by being a key opinion leader that reflects well on the institution, or maybe it’s by allowing you to develop out a side hustle. By doing this, you could become THE person to see for a certain condition, you could get appointed to special committees, or get recruited to join a health tech company. The more you depend on yourself and not others to bring you work, the more AI proof that you are.
Don’t volunteer to take on the liability for AI, and if you do have a role in this space, be paid according to the expertise you have
One of the things all physicians will need to be careful about is the request to just sign off on the work of the AI programs or products. Much like the concerns about supervising non-physician clinicians, you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you are taking on the liability of someone or something that doesn’t have the same credentials as you and you’re just being used for your license. Be wary of companies or employers that try to use you in this way, as this is one of the remaining regulatory layers that many have not been able to address in fully shifting physician work to others. If others are going to replace you, they should also take on that liability.
If anybody wants to use you in this role, they should be willing to pay you not for the time it takes to do things, but for the expertise that you have, and that requires paying physician rates.
Join advocacy efforts to ensure patient safety and respect of physician expertise
There’s a joke that the only professions that won’t be replaced by AI are lawyers and politicians, because they will make it illegal to replace them. Similarly, doctors have to advocate for safe patient care, and in many of these cases, having a human layer in healthcare is essential to ensure the best possible care and outcomes. Computers and corporations inherently care less about individual patients than healthcare workers do, and it’s important to insist that decisions in healthcare are made by people, not just by companies incentivized to make more money and cut costs.
Conclusion
The unfortunate truth is that physicians will likely have to be more vocal about protecting themselves, and will have to work harder to prove their value over AI in certain situations. That said, it’s hard to imagine a system where physicians aren’t an essential part of the healthcare ecosystem, particularly when it comes to complex cases, the human aspects of healthcare delivery, and future innovation and implementation. Instead of being scared of AI, physicians should use AI as a co-pilot in their careers, allowing them to focus on providing the best patient experiences and outcomes.
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