Will Doctors Still Know You? (Now vs. 2055—Episode 13)

Aug 19, 2025

 

 

 

As AI becomes the first step in triage, diagnosis support, and care recommendations, the system might work faster and more accurately. But the connection between people that builds trust could slowly fade away.

The real question is not if AI can help doctors. Whether patients will still feel known, understood, and safe in a care system that is mostly automated.

Healthcare in 2055: efficient, personalized, and… less human?

Data platforms, remote monitoring, and AI-assisted diagnosis are already changing the way healthcare works. The first “person” to look at your symptoms in 2055 might not be a doctor at all. It could be an AI system that knows your family history, your genetics, your lifestyle signals, and your risk profile before you even say anything.

That can help find things earlier and cut down on wait times. But it also makes a tough question about leadership:

Will patients still feel like their doctors know them, or will care turn into a series of automated choices?

What happens when AI is the first line of care?

When AI is in the middle of patients and doctors, the healthcare experience changes in small ways:

  • Relationships are no longer necessary: systems optimize for throughput, not human connection
  • Trust can break down when patients don’t understand why a recommendation was made.
  • Bias can grow: if training data is missing, care can become unfair.
  • Privacy becomes important: health data is personal, important, and easier to share.
  • When a model makes the wrong call, who is to blame?

Healthcare leaders will need more than just “adopting AI.” They will need rules, openness, and a plan for building trust.

A practical leadership lens for digital health

If you’re in charge of making changes in healthcare or a regulated industry, keep these three things in mind:

  1. There is no way to negotiate human-first moments.
    Figure out where the human relationship is most important, such as in diagnosis talks, consent, end-of-life choices, mental health, and high-impact interventions.
  2. Transparency must be built in.
    Patients and doctors need clear explanations, not vague suggestions.
  3. Data discipline means keeping patients safe.
    Quality, security, and consent are not technical details. They are the basis for results and trust.

Digital transformation and AI consulting are useful here because they help turn big AI goals into working models and rules that work in real clinical settings.

This video is part of a series based on my book Life in the Digital Bubble. It looks at how AI, automation, immersive technology, and social media will change our daily lives over the next 30 years and how we can protect our rights and our humanity.

I’m not concerned about predicting every little thing that will happen in the future. I care more about one thing:

How can we stay free and human in systems that can see and remember almost everything?

Digital privacy, surveillance, and civil liberties are no longer just things that lawyers and activists talk about. They have an impact on leaders, workers, and families in every field.

 

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