Will AI Replace GPs? The Wrong Question

Every few months, another headline proclaims that AI will soon replace doctors. The stories follow a familiar pattern: an AI system beats clinicians on some diagnostic task, leading to breathless speculation about the obsolescence of medical professionals. As someone building AI for healthcare, I find these predictions not just wrong, but actively unhelpful.

The Replacement Fallacy

The "AI will replace doctors" narrative fundamentally misunderstands what doctors do. Yes, a significant portion of clinical work involves pattern recognition - looking at symptoms, test results, and history to reach a diagnosis. AI can help with this, sometimes dramatically.

But medicine is far more than pattern recognition. It's about building trust with patients who are scared and vulnerable. It's about navigating uncertainty when the textbook answer doesn't fit the patient in front of you. It's about having difficult conversations about prognosis and treatment options. It's about the therapeutic value of being seen and heard by another human being.

These aren't incidental to medical care - they're central to it. And they're precisely the areas where AI has no prospect of replacing human clinicians.

The Current Reality

Here's what's actually happening in general practice today: GPs are drowning in administrative work. They're spending more time on documentation, referrals, and bureaucratic processes than on patient care. The average GP consultation has shortened to around 10 minutes, barely enough to address one problem.

Meanwhile, demand keeps rising. An ageing population, more chronic disease, rising mental health needs, and increasing patient expectations all put pressure on a system that's fundamentally capacity-constrained.

In this context, the question isn't "Can AI replace GPs?" but "Can AI help GPs do more of what matters?"

"I didn't spend years in medical training to spend my time on paperwork and phone queues. I want to practice medicine - to be there for my patients when they really need me. AI that helps me do that isn't a threat; it's a lifeline."

The Right Question

The real opportunity isn't replacing doctors - it's amplifying them. AI can handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that currently eat into clinical time. It can gather initial information from patients, structure clinical data, and flag urgent cases - leaving doctors free to do what only humans can do.

The practices using AI effectively aren't replacing staff - they're giving their staff the gift of time. Time to listen. Time to think. Time to care.

That's not the end of medicine as we know it. It's the beginning of medicine as it should be.