Practical, by specialty
Pick your branch. Each page says what is in routine use and what is still research, lists the tools and where to learn them, and gives you a project you can do on a weekend. Start with “Every doctor” if you are new to this.
Every doctor
Most doctors meet AI first as a chat assistant, an evidence-search tool or an ambient note-taker.
Radiology
Radiology has the most AI tools of any specialty.
Pathology
Pathology AI depends on whole-slide scanning, so it is strongest where labs are digital.
General Medicine
In general medicine, the AI most residents meet first is the large language model: for drafting notes, summarising literature and checking a differential.
Cardiology
Cardiology has the second largest number of FDA-cleared AI tools after radiology, mostly for ECG, echo and imaging.
Neurology
The mature use of AI in neurology is acute stroke: tools that flag large vessel occlusions and bleeds on CT and speed up transfers.
Emergency Medicine
In emergency care, AI works best where there is a clear, fast signal: ECGs, stroke CT, chest X-rays and sepsis alerts.
Anaesthesiology and Critical Care
Anaesthesia has the most mature clinical AI of the five specialties here.
General Surgery and surgical specialties
AI in surgery is mostly about video and data.
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
AI in obs and gynae is strongest in ultrasound and cervical screening.
Paediatrics and Neonatology
In children and newborns, most AI work is still research: sepsis prediction in the NICU, retinopathy of prematurity screening, and brain injury imaging.
Orthopaedics
Fracture detection on X-ray is the most mature AI use in orthopaedics, with cleared tools used as a second reader.
Ophthalmology
Diabetic retinopathy screening from fundus photos is the clearest success.
Dermatology
Image models match dermatologists on tests of melanoma and lesion classification, but real-world proof is thinner.
ENT (Otorhinolaryngology)
ENT AI is spread across subspecialties: ear imaging and otoscopy, hearing devices, endoscopy, voice analysis and head and neck cancer imaging.
Psychiatry
Psychiatry uses mostly language-based AI: notes, intake chatbots and therapy support.
Oncology (medical + radiation)
In radiation oncology, auto-contouring and AI-assisted planning are the most mature uses, and professional bodies have published guidance for them.
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
AI is routine in chest X-ray reading for TB and in gene-based tools that find antibiotic-resistance genes in sequenced bacteria.
Pharmacology
AI is in routine use for predicting protein structures and basic drug properties, and growing in pharmacovigilance for sorting adverse event reports.
Community Medicine / PSM / Public Health
In Indian public health, AI is used most in TB screening from chest X-rays and in scanning news for disease outbreaks.