Artificial intelligence is no longer a topic of the futureo. It is increasingly penetrating medicine - from diagnostics and analysis of medical data to personalizing treatment and organizing healthcare services.

What does this mean for doctors, patients, and medicine itself? Will AI be a tool that expands the capabilities of medical professionals, or will it fundamentally change the way we understand the medical profession?

Career Daily News reached out to leading professors, doctors, and experts from various fields of medicine with one key question:

“How do you think medicine will look in the next 2-3 years in the era of increasingly developing artificial intelligence?”

The responses show different perspectives on the future of healthcare - from the enormous potential of technology to the risks associated with its use.

One thing, however, seems increasingly clear: AI will not simply add another tool to medicine. It will change the way doctors work, make decisions, and interact with patients.

The question is how we will find the right balance between technological capabilities and human expertise.

But let's give the floor to our local luminaries in medicine, what do they think?

Assoc. Prof. Nikolay Gabrovski, Head of the Neurosurgery Clinic and Deputy Director for Medical Activities at UMHATSM “N. I. Pirogov”, Chairman of the “Council for Brain Health” Foundation

The introduction of large language models into our daily lives can be defined as revolutionary and nothing less. If the internet and digitization made vast amounts of information accessible to all of us, so-called artificial intelligence (AI) has provided an impressive opportunity to quickly extract information from these large datasets, synthesize and analyze it. It is undeniable that this will change every aspect of our lives and will inevitably affect medicine as well.

General expectations are that this will happen as early as tomorrow, but in my opinion, in healthcare, AI as a tool will enter more evolutionarily than revolutionarily. The reason for this is that medicine cannot tolerate even the smallest analytical errors, and refining reliable tools will take time. Currently, the focus is primarily on training models with high-quality and reliable information, and this is starting to bear fruit.

Although not immediately, daily life in medicine may be changed by AI through the introduction of decision support systems. There are high expectations in the field of imaging diagnostics. AI is already performing a significant part of the calculations in complex spinal (as well as various other types of) surgery. I hope that one constant burden accompanying the medical profession - extensive documentation and paperwork - will be significantly altered by AI, which will synthesize what has been done during the treatment process, integrate voice notes, and generate a considerable part of the documents we need. AI will also be very useful in planning patient movement and navigating them through the treatment process, especially when it comes to complex, multi-step diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. I believe these will be the first steps.

At a more fundamental level, AI is expected to change the search for new drug molecules and, most importantly, to change the way their capabilities are tested. It is likely that entirely new classes of medications will be discovered or significantly higher efficacy will be achieved by modifying already existing drugs.

In the medium term, I see enormous progress in connecting our brain and nervous system with external devices and machines (brain-machine interface). This will provide incredible opportunities for patients with impaired motor, visual, and other functions on one hand, and for direct, easy communication between us and the surrounding technologies, machines, and devices on the other.

Recently, there has been much talk that thanks to the exponential development of AI, we will soon be able to treat every disease and even stop the aging of cells. This may indeed be possible one day, but I am convinced that it will take us not years, but decades. Our body is an incredibly complex biological machine, with processes that have evolved over millions of years, and the idea of controlling it with a few commands from a computer keyboard is naive. But there is no doubt - we are embarking on a very interesting, long, and largely unpredictable path in our development as individuals and as a society.

Implementing AI without a strategy is like buying a plane without a pilot

Prof. Dr. Kostadin Angelov, MD (Chairman of the Health Care Committee of the National Assembly)

“In my opinion, in the next 2-3 years, AI will not replace the doctor. It will start to replace the doctor who refuses to work with AI. This is the essential difference. In medicine, we are entering a period where the speed of technological development outpaces the ability of systems to adapt to it. AI can already analyze vast amounts of medical information, imaging studies, laboratory results, and scientific publications in a time that a human cannot achieve. The next step is for this information to start actually changing clinical decisions. But I would not entrust medicine to an algorithm. Because medicine is not just mathematics. It is judgment, experience, intuition, communication with the patient, and above all, bearing responsibility. Therefore, the future, in my opinion, will not be “doctor versus AI,” but doctor + AI versus doctor without AI. However, there is something we talk about much less - security. When medicine becomes increasingly dependent on AI, data, and connected systems, the hospital will no longer be just a healthcare institution. It will be part of the critical infrastructure of the state. A cyberattack on a hospital could halt surgeries, diagnostic equipment, electronic records, medications, and communications. At some point, this is no longer an IT incident. It is a risk to human life and potentially a matter of national security. Therefore, the future of AI in medicine must also be a future of AI security. We will need to know not only whether an algorithm is accurate but also who has access to it, what data it was trained on, whether it can be manipulated, what happens when it gives an incorrect result, and who is responsible for the consequences. And here, in my opinion, will be the greatest challenge. Because the most dangerous scenario is not that AI makes mistakes. The most dangerous scenario is that a person stops checking because they trust the machine. In the coming years, we will also see another significant change - medicine will gradually shift from treating an already existing disease to predicting and preventing risk. AI will allow us to see patterns that a human can hardly detect on their own. This could change healthcare much more than automation. But in the end, I believe in one thing: AI will not make the doctor redundant. It will make the good doctor even stronger. And the best doctors of the future will not be those who know everything. They will be those who know what to ask the machine, when to trust it, and even more importantly, when not to trust it.”

Professor Dr. Ruja Nikolova, MD (Faculty of Public Health “Prof. Dr. Tsekоmir Vodenicharov, MD, Medical University of Sofia)

Regarding: Medicine in 2026 - 2029 in the time of artificial intelligence from the perspective of the complex interaction in the socio-technical system of the components “human/doctor – artificial intelligence – social environment”

“The current opinion examines the likely development of medicine in the period 2026–2029 through the prism of the accelerated introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, including generative and multimodal models, clinical decision support algorithms, medical imaging analysis systems, predictive models, and intelligent automation of administrative processes.

The main thesis is that in the next three years, medicine will not transition to a model where AI replaces the doctor. It is more likely that a new hybrid model of medical practice will form, based on the complex interaction between three main components: the human and the doctor – artificial intelligence – the social and institutional environment. The quality of future medicine will depend not only on the accuracy of algorithms. It will be the result of how technologies are integrated into clinical thinking, professional responsibility, the relationship between doctor and patient, the organization of the healthcare system, access to technologies, legislation, and public trust.

Artificial intelligence is likely to significantly change the diagnostic process, the processing of medical information, the personalization of treatment, medical documentation, scientific research, and the management of health systems. At the same time, its use creates risks associated with algorithmic error, data bias, automated trust, weakening of professional skills, violation of privacy, unequal access, and the transfer of excessive power to technological structures.

Therefore, the central question in the next three years will not be whether medicine will use AI, but under what conditions the human will remain the active bearer of medical responsibility and how technologies will be organized to enhance rather than undermine human relationships in healthcare. The period 2026–2029 is likely to be a transitional phase in which AI will move from limited experimental applications to broader integration into real medical practice. The most significant change will not simply be the emergence of new algorithms, but the transformation of the relationships between the patient, the medical professional, the technological system, and the social environment.

Therefore, the future of medicine should not be viewed through the simplified dilemma of “doctor or artificial intelligence.” It is more accurate to analyze it as a socio-technical system, in which the clinical outcome is formed by the interaction between three interdependent components: human/doctor ↔ artificial intelligence ↔ social and institutional environment. Scientific data show that AI has significant potential to assist in diagnostics, medical data analysis, treatment personalization, medical documentation processing, and the organization of healthcare services.

The current opinion defends the thesis that during the period 2026–2029, medicine will develop most successfully not by replacing the human with an algorithm, but by building a human-centered system of joint decision-making in which AI expands the cognitive and organizational capabilities of the medical professional, while the social environment provides the ethical, legal, and institutional conditions for its safe use.

During the period 2026–2029, medicine will enter a phase of accelerated integration of AI. However, this change should not be understood as a technological revolution that occurs independently of humans and society. AI will change diagnostics, information processing, labor organization, and the relationships between patient and doctor. At the same time, it will create new risks - algorithmic errors, biases, excessive dependence on automated decisions.

Therefore, the main task for medicine in the next three years is to build a human-centered socio-technical system. In this system, the human must remain the goal of medical care, the doctor - the bearer of critical professional judgment and responsibility, and artificial intelligence - a tool for expanding human capabilities. The social environment has the task of creating the necessary conditions through education, regulation, data protection, equitable access, and public oversight.

Therefore, the future of medicine should not be formulated as a question of whether AI will replace the doctor. The more essential question is whether healthcare systems will succeed in organizing the interaction between humans and technology in such a way that AI improves medical care without undermining human autonomy and professional responsibility. It is precisely this balance that will determine the state of medicine by 2029. The most successful model will not be the one with the most algorithms, but the one that manages to combine technological efficiency, scientific reliability, and human responsibility.”

Prof. Dr. Svetoslav Yovev (Cardiologist, specialist in invasive cardiology and electrophysiology, Head of the Department of Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology at UMHAT “Prof. Dr. Alexander Chirkov”)

“In my opinion, in the next 2–3 years, artificial intelligence will enter medicine much more seriously, but it will not replace the doctor. It will be a tool that will help us work faster and more accurately.

In electrophysiology, this is already evident. AI can analyze vast amounts of information, assist in mapping and localizing arrhythmias, and there is data that it can shorten the duration of some procedures. But when it comes to the actual intervention, the hand and experience of the operator are still irreplaceable.

The same applies to cardiac pacing. Pacemakers, defibrillators, and CRT systems provide a vast amount of information. AI will increasingly assist in analyzing it, in the early detection of problems, and in the individual monitoring and programming of patients.

For me, the main question is not whether AI will replace the doctor. It will not replace it. But the doctor who knows how to use it correctly will have an advantage over the one who does not use it.”

Prof. Dr. Alexander Oscar, PhD - (Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, MU - Sofia)

“In my opinion, in the next 2–3 years, medicine will change more than we are used to seeing in a decade. The main driver of this change will be artificial intelligence.

AI will not replace the doctor, but the doctor who knows how to use artificial intelligence will have a huge advantage over the one who does not use it.

We will see an increasingly wider application of algorithms that analyze imaging studies, laboratory results, and vast amounts of medical information in seconds. They will assist in early diagnosis, assess the risk of developing diseases, and allow us to choose increasingly personalized treatment for the specific patient.

In ophthalmology, this is already happening. The analysis of retinal images and OCT studies can assist in the detection of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other diseases in their early stages. The next step is not just to detect the disease but to be able to predict its development more accurately.

Artificial intelligence will also change the daily life of the doctor by reducing the time for administrative work, assisting in the analysis of medical documentation, and providing us with much faster access to current medical knowledge. But there is something that technologies will not be able to replace - the human connection between the doctor and the patient. Medicine is not just about diagnosing based on data. It is trust, empathy, responsibility, and the ability to see the person behind the disease.

Therefore, I believe that the future will not be “artificial intelligence instead of the doctor,” but the doctor and artificial intelligence together. And paradoxically, the more technological medicine becomes, the more important it will be for it to remain human.”

Prof. Dr. Georgi Chernev (Founder and Owner of “ONCODERMA” and Head of the Clinic of Dermatology, Venereology, and Dermatological Surgery at the Medical Institute of the Ministry of Interior)

Perhaps it is appropriate to introduce a brief retrospective on the topic: cognitive activity and subsequent decisions: the machine (AI) or the human?)

Alan Turing is an English mathematician who introduced the concept of “machine intelligence” back in 1950, proposing the Turing test to assess whether a computer can think like a human.

John McCarthy is an American computer scientist who introduced the term “artificial intelligence” and organized the historic seminar at Dartmouth in 1956, which is widely considered the beginning of AI as a distinct academic discipline.

In 1943, Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts created the first mathematical model of artificial neurons, laying the foundations for modern neural networks. Eighty years later, this model becomes more relevant than ever and begins to displace humans from various types of activities.

Medicine is one of the fields that can be seriously influenced by AI. And here arises the question: can AI change medicine for the benefit of humanity?

Medicine globally does not look good at the moment, even in the absence of AI. The frighteningly rising incidence of all forms of cancer, for example, which does not correspond with the loud daily discoveries of new, revolutionary therapies, is solid evidence of the lack of adequate solutions in the healthcare sector. I mean “adequate human solutions,” whose results are also “unpleasant.”

Will humanity listen to the recommendations of AI? Will it be given a chance to re/manage the healthcare map and health policies, starting from ground zero? Or will its application be limited to avoid confronting the unpleasant truth about health lobbying and its regulators?

These are personally the dilemmas I face.

AI and Regulatory Policies in Medicine

At the national level, there is an oversupply of personnel - doctors and institutions/hospitals that cannot be secured as jobs, pay, and good qualifications. This raises the question: can they be replaced by AI?

The answer for me is a big yes!

The reason is the motto of the new era: mass instead of class! And quick profit at any cost! The lack of control over the effectiveness and quality of medical activity, the number of healthcare facilities, and their actual accreditation creates serious problems.

Will AI help?

The answer is unclear, but rather positive. I think it should be given a chance, even though AI will limit to some extent the intervention of the human factor - and perhaps for the better.

The replacement or use of AI in medicine is likely possible initially in certain areas such as pathology, imaging diagnostics, administrative activities, quality control, and digitization.

But can AI find optimal organizational solutions to problems that have remained unresolved until now? Can it introduce innovations, guide towards new horizons, and plan health insurance systems in certain regions?

At the moment, the answer is at least unclear for me. But probably - yes.

Can AI bear responsibility in medicine?

This is an extremely important question. AI cannot bear responsibility and engage in risky, life-saving operations in medicine. Even da Vinci robots are operated by humans. At least for now.

In specialties such as surgery, reconstructive, dermatological and plastic surgery, neurosurgery, and vascular surgery, the human factor remains paramount.

The question is whether AI will be given the green light to verify the accuracy of its decisions and to conduct a comparative analysis with the human factor.

AI and Regulatory Health Policies

The lack of real objectivity in making certain human decisions in leading health policies could certainly be replaced not only by AI but also by most eighth graders in the country. But AI has no legislative power and cannot change the system on its own.

Due to this fact, I see a potentially serious role for it not only in decision-making but also in shaping future policies.

But will it be allowed to deal with corrupt models in medicine?

Independence and incorruptibility - these are probably the two strong qualities of AI.

AI could reduce the profits of certain circles, but it also has a chance to guarantee progress. And progress is an expensive gift, and someone has to pay the price.

The fear of its introduction in certain areas of medicine, in my opinion, is primarily based on the danger of terminating unhealthy health policies that benefit certain lobbies. Sometimes the decisions are human and unhealthy, personal, selfish, and well-funded.

There are numerous perspectives that speak in favor of artificial intelligence and its application in medicine, but at the moment this application is rather limited.

For younger specialists, it is certainly helpful - educational and informational. I myself refer to it regarding various topics.

But decisions for one or another type of therapy can only be made by clinicians - influenced and verified by AI. Having access to an objective information array that searches, analyzes, and provides data saves time and can help the human factor make more adequate medical decisions.

AI is a golden opportunity for those seeking solutions and needing quick analyses of large amounts of data and searching for connections between information arrays and various spheres of our existence, including medicine.

But responsibility in medicine is personal and is always borne personally.

Humanoid robots will likely disrupt this balance!”

Prof. Dr. Venelin Gerganov, MD (Professor of Neurosurgery, Senior Physician at the International Neuroscience Institute, Hanover, Germany, and Neurosurgeon at UMHATSM “N. I. Pirogov”, Sofia.)

“The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine will lead to profound changes in almost all its aspects. The scope and consequences of these transformations can currently only be partially predicted.

When AI is used as an extension of the capabilities of the doctor or researcher - as a tool for solving problems previously considered unsolvable - it will allow for much deeper exploration of fundamental questions related to the emergence and development of diseases, as well as the functioning of the human body. Particularly significant progress is anticipated in the fields of neuroscience, oncology, and infectious diseases.

AI will make possible the planned and targeted creation of new medications, significantly shortening the time to synthesize the final product. The path to their clinical application will also be shortened thanks to new capabilities for simulating and analyzing large datasets. This will likely reduce the need for prolonged studies of the effects of drugs on animal models and limited groups of people. Thus, the period from fundamental discovery to its application in a specific patient - “from bench to bedside” - will be substantially shortened.

Particularly exciting will be discoveries in the field of brain-computer interfaces, which will allow for the restoration of lost brain functions through technological solutions. Along with the enormous therapeutic potential, however, a number of ethical dilemmas will arise regarding the possibility of using these technologies not only to restore impaired functions but also to augment and expand the natural capabilities of the human brain.

Clinical practice will also undergo significant change. Many of the processes involved in making medical decisions will be supported, and in certain cases - entirely taken over by algorithms. This applies to both daily medical work and tasks on a more global scale: monitoring, analyzing, predicting, and controlling epidemiological processes, as well as solving problems in the field of hygiene and social medicine. A large part of routine activity will be transferred to AI.

Mastering basic clinical skills will become easier, and the training process will be more effective. In this way, the average level of clinical practice could be raised and unified, providing higher quality and accessible healthcare.

However, top medicine will continue to require highly competent doctors who master and apply AI-based technologies while retaining their critical, controlling, and guiding role. The most human aspect of the medical profession will remain unchanged - the conversation with the patient, the need for empathy and understanding, the ability to share pain and instill confidence.

According to some authors, the introduction of AI cannot be compared to the Industrial Revolution. The steam engine, locomotive, and assembly line were new “tools of labor” in the hands of humans, revealing new horizons. Workers retrained, and their labor became more efficient and productive.

AI is also a new “tool of labor,” but one that at some point could replace not just individual activities but the very person who uses it. When AI ceases to be a tool in the hands of the doctor and displaces the doctor themselves, medicine will change fundamentally. A topic for reflection…”

Prof. Dr. Kosta Kostov (Professor of Pulmonary Diseases and Consultant in Pulmonary Diseases at UMHAT “St. Anna” - Sofia, Consultant in Pulmonary Diseases and Scientific Director of the INSPIRO Medical Center, Chairman of the “INSPIRO” Foundation and Editor-in-Chief of the “INSPIRO” magazine)

“I would like to start with a phrase that I often use, probably mine, until someone else appears with authorship claims:

The human mind is like the stomach - it digests knowledge if it is healthy or returns it if it is sick.

The same will happen with the doctor’s mind when using AI. Either it will be used healthily, processing and analyzing its data and advice, or it will become ill from its mistakes.

I do not know what awaits us in the more distant future when a real threat looms over humanity to lose control over AI. Ray Kurzweil in his book “The Singularity is nearer: When We Merge with AI” warns of the ongoing exponential, not linear development of technologies and AI, which will soon reach human levels of intelligence and begin to merge with it. Thus, around 2045, we will enter the stage of the so-called “singularity” - the merging of human and artificial intelligence. There will be a gigantic increase in collective human intelligence to the point where humans will gain access to control over their own biology. This sounds frightening if humanity does not safeguard itself and allows unclean forces to seize control over long-term health and longevity - both physical and digital. It sounds both inspiring and optimistic, but also frightening, especially if control over AI is lost and it begins to live a completely independent life, turning us into its subordinates.

But let’s not rush, we still have a few years of independent life from AI to use for the development of our own minds and to prevent merging, but only friendly assistance. In the next few years, the doctor will still not be replaced by artificial intelligence, but will rely on it as the closest assistant in daily work with patients and in scientific laboratories. It will continue to assist more intensively in the operating room, in therapeutic units, in laboratories, and scientific research. I also consult it when analyzing data and for quicker orientation in new developments and articles from medical journals, as I do not have that powerful capacity for quick and selective analysis.

AI gives the doctor a tool with a richer memory, something like an additional, added “brain,” which enhances our cognitive abilities, speed, and accuracy in decision-making through the interpretation of diverse clinical data for more precise diagnosis and more justified treatment based on evidence-based medicine. AI helps us with a gigantic memory, based on an immense database and powerful analytical capacity, with which the doctor’s intuition checks and corrects itself. In other words, the doctor has access to an informational capacity that enriches their knowledge and intuition to make fewer mistakes. AI saves the doctor immeasurable time for reading and wandering through literature, presenting summaries of vast amounts of scientific literature, daily information on medical news, selected news, and summarized articles that can be reviewed in the little free time during the workday. These are added capabilities beyond human cognitive capacity.

AI adds something fundamentally different: it integrates a vast number of information sources and offers clinical hypotheses, differential diagnostic possibilities. The information from the imaging study of a specific patient can be compared, contrasted with data from millions of patients, and guide the imaging diagnostician towards the most correct decision. A good and prepared doctor can rationally use the medical data of the patient, processed and analyzed by AI, which they interpret through their own experience and intuition to make an informed decision about the accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Diagnosis and treatment will become a decision of a joint “consilium” involving the human brain and AI, which will facilitate the work of the doctor, who needs an interdisciplinary team, and decisions will be made in a narrower circle, with the “collective” participation of the “colleague” AI. For me, such “consiliums” happen daily. AI is my closest collaborator, but I do not allow a change of roles - the final decisions are made by me. This is the right and morally justified model of working with AI - a backstage “assistant” who stands beside me and at the bedside because the sick person needs understanding, compassion, and trust in the healer, not the cold flesh of the machine.

I have many chronic patients, long-term sufferers with several folders of medical documentation, with dozens of files of medical information - discharge summaries, laboratory tests, functional respiratory tests, imaging studies of the lungs, several hospitalizations, accompanying diseases, and therapeutic prescriptions with corresponding side effects, complex medication schemes that require careful reading. In my busy schedule, I often need more time for the more complex cases when there is diverse chronic pathology and a lot of available data to analyze. This time is needed for the patient, not for reviewing a vast amount of documentation. With AI, my time for processing and analyzing data will be saved, and I will have more time for each individual patient and will review more patients. AI can analyze the entire history of the patient in seconds if it has access to a unified database for all patients. This will allow the doctor, with the help of AI, to quickly prepare exit documentation, time that doctors today spend on administration rather than treatment. This is a completely different medicine, closer to its holistic version, which views the patient as an individuality in three dimensions - mind, soul, and body - rather than the modern conventional medicine that treats the patient primarily as a sick body. This is not a personalized approach, far from the concept of Marcus Aurelius and René Descartes. The processing of medical documentation will happen very quickly, and this change will be met with enthusiasm by doctors because it will increase job satisfaction and pleasure. Today, the doctor spends more time in front of the computer than at the patient’s bedside, and the time saved in front of the computer will go to the benefit of the patient. This will significantly increase diagnostic and therapeutic success, and the benefits will be entirely for the patients. The doctor will talk more with the patient and less with the computer. This, in my opinion, will be one of the most positive effects because the patient wants to share their problems with a compassionate soul, to share the psychological burden of suffering, and this is an important and indispensable part of the therapeutic outcome. While the doctor talks with the patient, AI can process the information from the history and the details of the conversation and provide a quick direction towards the likely diagnosis to guide the doctor in the decision. It is important for the doctor to rely on their own mind and not to overtrust AI, as they may become infected by its “hallucinations” or develop a dependency on it, which will be fatal for their professional intellect. Boundless trust in the competence of AI and its infallibility is a threat to the professional reflexes and skills of the doctor, who loses the ability to recognize its mistakes. AI should assist clinical thinking, not replace it.

The greatest revolution with the help of AI is already happening in personalized medicine, where AI does incredible things beyond human capabilities - analyzing the human genome and adapting treatment models, metabolic impacts, lifestyle, external influences to minimize the risks for certain diseases embedded in the structure of the genome. This is a fundamental change. Two patients with the same diagnosis are not viewed as identical but as different individuals - not the disease, but the suffering person. Such a personalized approach is gaining momentum most noticeably in oncology, but has been underway for at least 20 years in pulmonology, in socially significant diseases such as COPD and bronchial asthma.

Fundamental changes are also occurring in medical scientific research, which seeks a personalized approach, and the results will be directed towards increasingly refined groups of patients who share similar endotypes (disease characteristics).

The role and structure of medical specialties will also change. Some specialties will be more strongly affected than others, especially those that are part of the so-called para-clinics, supporting the work of clinical specialties. Radiology, pathology, and laboratory medicine will be particularly affected. I assume that AI will significantly impact general medicine specialists, as AI will provide more opportunities for quick “home” diagnosis of patients and will redirect them more often to narrow specialists and give them opportunities for remote access to medications. However, I am sure that the need for well-prepared doctors will increase, as the competition from AI will increase the need for good, capable, thorough, patient-dedicated doctors who can integrate all data and make informed decisions. AI will save technological time for the doctor, but will increase the value of true clinical thinking for those who strive for it and will more clearly highlight the valuable doctors, and they will remain the most competitive.

Medical education will also change dramatically. Students will receive not only basic medical knowledge but also training models on how to use AI to reach diagnostic and therapeutic decisions, but also how to recognize the mistakes and “hallucinations” of AI. Future doctors will be better than today’s, as they will benefit from additional, enhanced intelligence.

The use of AI will require even more scientific, specialized knowledge to avoid mistakes for which the doctor will bear responsibility, not AI. From here arise some legal questions - how far will the responsibility of doctors extend when using AI, how far will the responsibility of institutions, manufacturing companies, society, and the state extend.

The most important function of the doctor cannot be taken away by AI - the compassionate relationship with the patient, the meeting of two souls - the suffering and the co-suffering. The doctor will continue to carry the deepest meaning of the profession - mercy, human presence, compassion - at the core of therapeutic success. Doctors dedicated to the profession, understanding its fundamental role - to give hope and support in the difficult days of pain and suffering - will remain sought after. No one can replace the moral responsibility for the fate of the sick. AI should not be allowed to escape the control of the doctor to dictate the fate of the sick.

I expect that in the next 5 years, specialized national and international consensus (recommendations) for behavior in specific diseases will begin to account for the role of AI and introduce its use in diagnostic and therapeutic standards. This will make public healthcare more effective, and treatment more efficient, as they will become less dependent on the limited mental capacity of the individual doctor and will enable things that today require the collective capacity of an entire team.

I also have personal fears related to the likelihood that in highly developed technological societies, machines similar to today’s ATMs will soon appear, which will be used by people as doctors for outpatient problems - common infections, physical and mental discomfort, to receive advice from them, to prescribe medications, and why not even directly dispense medications according to a quick analysis of complaints. Then it will become frightening.”

Prof. Dr. Ivan Gruev, MD (Deputy Director for Medical Activities at NMTB “Tsar Boris III”, Professor of Cardiology and Elected Chairman of the Bulgarian Cardiologists Association for the term 2026–2028)

“Medicine will receive powerful support from AI for more precise diagnostics and for analyzing large databases, but the responsibility for decisions and human communication will remain entirely the priority of doctors.”

Dr. Yavor Vladimirov, MD (Medical Director of the In Vitro Clinic “Sofia”)

“In the next 2–3 years, artificial intelligence will become part of the daily work of the doctor, just like many other technologies, without which today it is hard to imagine medicine.

The greatest benefit will likely be in processing the enormous amount of information we work with every day - medical documentation, laboratory and imaging studies, scientific literature. This can save a lot of time for the doctor and, I hope, leave them more time for the patient.

However, I do not think that AI can replace clinical thinking. Medicine is rarely black and white. Two patients with the same diagnosis may require different approaches, and the result that an algorithm offers is not always the right one for the specific person.

Therefore, in my opinion, the role of the doctor will even become more responsible. It will not be enough just to have access to a vast amount of information. You will need to be able to assess which of it is true, which is applicable to the specific patient, and when the technology is wrong.

And there is something else we must not lose. The patient does not come to us just for a diagnosis or test result. They need someone to explain what is happening, to understand their concerns, and to make a decision together with them. This is difficult to reduce to an algorithm.

Therefore, I do not expect AI to make the doctor less necessary. Rather, it will change the way we work. A good doctor will need to use the new technologies but also to know when not to trust them. And the responsibility for the decision must ultimately remain theirs.”