Artificial intelligence is changing almost every part of our lives and with the passage of time AI it is becoming clearer that how AI can help in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN.
Every year leaders from around the world emphasize this at big events like the “AI for Good Global Summit”, “COP Climate Change Conferences”, “The World Economic Forum (WEF)” etc. These meetings talk about how AI can solve the big challenges like climate change, good health, food security and sustainable water management. Now it’s widely accepted that AI can spark creative solutions to these global problems and help achieve the SDGs and a more sustainable future.
The Key Questions Remain
Despite these advancements, key questions persist:
- Can we end poverty and hunger?
- Can we get clean water and protect the environment?
- Can we educate everyone?
- Can we have peaceful societies and better health and well-being for all?
In 2020, an estimated 5 million children under five died, many from preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea. The reality is that in an age of rapid technological advancement, millions of lives are on the line because of inadequate healthcare systems. This stark reality underscores the urgency of strengthening our healthcare systems.
SDG 3, the UN’s goal for “Good Health and Well-being” aims to change this, from maternal mortality to mental health. AI and automation are emerging as vital tools in this fight, changing how we diagnose, treat and prevent disease. By harnessing big data, AI can predict health outbreaks, personalise treatment plans and streamline patient care and free up resources for those who need it most.
As Co-Founder of Bitaffix I’ve spent over 10 years developing solutions that support these goals. In my role I’ve helped organisations optimise operations, increase productivity and adopt more efficient and sustainable ways of working. My work and experience allows me to share my insights on how AI and automation can actually help achieve the SDGs.
Professionals like myself work every day to identify areas where AI can help achieve essential goals for a better future for the next generation, while also developing the necessary solutions. In the pursuit of sustainability goals, it is crucial to remain realistic and recognize where technology can genuinely make a tangible impact, and where human expertise remains irreplaceable
In this article, I will focus on SDG 3 (good health and well-being) and will explore how AI and automation can help a brighter future.
Good health and well-being through AI
Many aspects of healthcare and medical research can be changed by AI. This includes monitoring health, making diagnoses, running clinical trials, providing medical care and analysing health costs. According to Google AI in Action Research, “AI for SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being” has the most AI use cases of all SDG’s.
The World Health Organization acknowledges AI’s transformative potential in healthcare. Research indicates that 28% of all documented AI use cases (165 in total) fall under SDG 3, covering areas from diagnosis to public health interventions.(Source)
AI can help to track health, diagnose and treat each patient individually at home and in their community. This will personalise healthcare.
Similarly automation can help the hospital to automate all the manual tasks using new technologies to help organisations work better and make less mistakes. Usually healthcare facilities rely on people to do important jobs like booking appointments, managing waiting lists, asking patients for feedback and managing payments.
Automated solutions do these tasks themselves, reducing the work for staff and making administrative, diagnostic or laboratory processes simpler. Machines can’t do all the important jobs done by skilled workers but some slow and outdated tasks can be made easier by using automation.
● Personalised Healthcare
Based on the patient’s past data AI can suggest to the doctor and patient what to do. Based on data processing and predictive modelling AI can analyse, process and interpret the data to find trends, patterns and correlations with the patient’s symptoms and condition. Patients can get clinical decision support from the AI-bots, individualised advice based on their medical history, comorbidities, gender and age.
● Finding and Developing New Medicines
AI helps to find new medicines by looking at lots of information about molecules, living organisms and test results. Machine learning can now guess how medicines will interact, find potential targets for drugs and improve drug options to make them more effective and safer.
The pharmaceutical industry has gone through a big transformation with AI-integrated drug research and development. AI based systems can mimic human intelligence through various tools. But it doesn’t replace human interaction. It can analyse, understand and learn from the input data to make decisions on its own to achieve pre-determined goals. Its implementation in the pharmaceutical sector is growing and the fast pace of AI-driven automation will change the work ethic of society.
● Better efficiency with lower operating costs
Artificial intelligence based automation platforms like Bitaffix help organisations simplify and automate time consuming processes, reduce human error and optimise process delivery. Bitaffix has several ways to improve efficiency especially in the health care sector.
For example in my experience working with the NHS UK, patient management is one of the most time consuming tasks for smaller clinics and surgeries who often have limited staff.
AI based automation can improve communication between patients and health care providers by automating processes such as booking appointments, sending reminders, confirming attendance, managing cancellations and even delivering test results or doctor’s advice directly to patients.
The main benefit of automation is that it helps organisations use their resources better and save money. Business Process Automation (BPA) can make complex tasks easier, make operations work better and reduce expensive mistakes.
● Health Assessment Apps
AI based Health Assessment App can help patients to complete initial assessment forms before seeing a doctor, so doctors and hospital staff can better prepare, especially in emergencies we have developed few AI-powered-health solutions within Bitaffix which have already proved their efficiency.
A first example from my practice is Health tech app, which automates the completion of initial assessment forms before seeing a doctor, so doctors and hospital staff can better prepare for the upcoming patients, especially in emergencies, the app asks patients questions about their health conditions and based on their responses our AI-based bot provides initial recommendations.
Once the app has the data the bot reviews the patient’s previous medical history, checks external databases, other clinical guidelines and research literature. The bot then analyses, processes and interprets the data to identify patterns and correlations with the patient’s symptoms and his health condition.
From these insights the bot provides clinical decision support including recommendations based on age, gender, medical history and comorbidities. We believe the more the bot/Algo is used the better it will get. As more people interact with the bot its capabilities will improve, resulting in more accurate diagnoses and treatments and ultimately better health care outcomes.
A second example is the Pregnancy Life Cycle App which was designed for pregnant women to monitor their pregnancies, detect complications early and assist doctors in diagnosing pregnancy risks automatically. The continuous monitoring and alert system can improve clinical pathways in maternity care, prevent high risk pregnancies, ensure safe deliveries and maintain stable conditions for mothers.
The solution ecosystem built on an automation platform includes a web portal for doctors, a mobile app for pregnant women, integration with IoT wearables (smartwatches and clinical medical devices) and an AI algorithm trained on maternity data to predict complications.
This health tech solution benefits the health care sector by providing real time AI driven recommendations and sharing the workload of health care professionals. It simplifies patient triage, easy access to medical advice and delivers personalised care. This will be especially useful in remote or under served areas.
As someone working in the health tech space which contributes to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), I’ve seen the growing demand for AI-powered solutions and the rapid growth of this sector. Health tech is one of the fastest moving industries with several unicorns popping up recently. For example:
- Flo Health ($1 billion): This fertility-tracking app raised $200 million in a Series C round and is now valued at over $1 billion in 2024 according to TechCrunch.
- Grow Therapy ($1.4 billion): Launched in 2020, this platform helps users find therapists and raised $88 million in a Series C round in April and is now valued at $1.4 billion according to PitchBook.
- Blink Health ($1.3 billion): Founded in 2014, this online pharmacy raised $81 million in private equity funding and is now valued at $1.28 billion.
These few examples show how fast the health tech market is moving with AI playing a big role in bringing innovation and scaling these solutions globally. Looking at these trends and my experience in the health tech space I would say SDG No. 3 is one of the most promising and achievable goals that can be realized through AI and automation.
End Note
AI may not be a one-size-fits-all solution, but it plays a critical role when applied thoughtfully. Successful AI deployment depends on several key enablers including data, computation, utilization and technical skills. For example in healthcare AI can help diagnose diseases early but also personalize treatments, improve overall patient outcomes.
Healthcare is heavily regulated, which while necessary for patient safety, slows down the deployment of AI solutions. Streamlining the regulatory pathway for AI innovations without compromising safety is key. Collaboration between AI developers and regulatory bodies can create a more agile environment for introducing AI.
AI can transform healthcare but we need to remove the systemic barriers to its rapid adoption. By prioritising data interoperability, cross sector collaboration, patient centricity and continuous learning we can create an environment where AI solutions are adapted to the many different healthcare systems.
The successful implementation of AI technologies must also address the concerns around responsible AI including ethics, risk management and data privacy.
