Healthcare in the UK is accelerating digital transformation, with widespread deployment of artificial intelligence across clinical and operational workflows. Yet progress is unequally matched by the resilience of underlying systems. Many organisations still depend on legacy infrastructure while expanding fleets of connected devices that handle sensitive patient information. At the same time, reported security incidents remain high even as fewer leaders cite data protection as their top concern. The combination of rapid AI adoption, ageing platforms and expanding device estates underscores an urgent need to align modernisation with robust, proactive security.
AI Adoption Rises Amid Persistent Breaches
AI is now deeply embedded in UK healthcare. IT leaders report that AI is being used for patient care by 94% of organisations, up from 47% in 2024, signalling a rapid shift from pilots to routine deployment. The most common applications include processing or analysing medical data at 61%, updating patient records at 60%, personalising treatments at 57% and planning the best course of treatment at 52%. These patterns reflect a broad-based effort to use data-driven tools to enhance diagnostic accuracy, tailor therapies and streamline care pathways.
This momentum coincides with policy ambitions to move NHS services from analogue to digital under the government’s Plan for Change. Within that direction, AI is expected to scan NHS systems to flag safety issues in real time and alert IT teams before threats cause harm. The prospect of automated detection and earlier intervention aligns with a more predictive model of digital operations, where insight and action converge to reduce risk while sustaining performance.
Despite these advances, recent experience highlights the scale of the security challenge. Since 2023, 84% of respondents say their organisation has experienced one or more data breaches, up from 71% last year. In parallel, only 24% now select data security as their top concern, down from 33% in 2024. The divergence between incident prevalence and perceived priority suggests a risk of normalising exposure, even as the environment grows more complex with new applications and device types. Sustaining trust in AI-enabled care will require security posture to rise at least as quickly as adoption.
Legacy Infrastructure Strains IoT and Telehealth
Legacy systems remain a pervasive constraint. Almost all UK health IT leaders, at 99%, report challenges linked to legacy platforms, IoT and telehealth. At the same time, the same proportion say their organisations use connected devices or telehealth to support patients remotely, from tablets facilitating virtual consultations to smart monitors transmitting physiological data. This dual reality places modern workflows onto foundations that were not designed for today’s connectivity, data flows and security demands.
Must Read: Observability Strengthens Healthcare IT and Security
Integration shortfalls are widespread. Nearly three quarters, at 73%, run unintegrated, outdated systems for IoT and telehealth, a higher level than the global average of 65%. The consequences include fragmented interoperability, slower access to real time patient data in one place and heightened exposure to vulnerabilities. When platforms cannot exchange information reliably, clinical teams lose timeliness while security teams lose visibility.
Operational stability is also affected. Nearly two thirds, at 64%, frequently face downtime and technical issues, while 43% say legacy systems make networks vulnerable to attack. Device management compounds the strain. UK staff report difficulty deploying and managing new devices or printers at 47% compared with 38% globally, limitations in supporting devices remotely or accessing detailed diagnostics at 53% versus 38% globally and excessive time spent troubleshooting at 41% versus 39% globally. These gaps slow rollouts, complicate support and divert scarce resources from value creation to firefighting. Ultimately, the impact reaches patient care when tools designed to enhance access and communication are undermined by unreliable infrastructure.
Budget constraints make wholesale replacement unrealistic in many settings. Instead, organisations need to integrate new capabilities within fragile environments with precision and dependable partnerships. Compliance obligations such as the UK’s Data (Use and Access) Act add formal requirements that must be met while systems are optimised in real time. The task is not only technical but operational, demanding governance that spans procurement, deployment and lifecycle management for heterogeneous device fleets and mixed-generation platforms.
From Reactive Defence to Proactive Resilience
Given the speed of AI adoption and the breadth of connected endpoints, security must be embedded into modernisation rather than added after implementation. A shift from reactive to proactive strategies is central to this alignment. Real time monitoring can surface anomalous behaviour earlier, enabling teams to detect and prevent issues before they affect clinical services. When combined with automation, routine administrative tasks can be digitised, freeing staff time, increasing consistency and reducing manual error pathways that often become threat vectors.
Proactive resilience depends on end-to-end observability across devices, applications and networks, including those anchored in legacy systems. With unintegrated environments, blind spots proliferate and incident response slows. By contrast, consolidated oversight shortens the distance between detection and action. As AI tools take on roles that touch patient records, care planning and data analysis, assurance must extend to the models, the data they process and the systems that host them.
Partnerships play a role where internal teams face capacity pressures. Where budgets preclude full replacement, targeted integration can harden high impact interfaces, improve device management and raise the floor on security for critical workflows. Meeting compliance requirements while improving operational reliability requires vendors that can operate within existing constraints without adding complexity. The goal is to preserve availability and integrity while the state evolves, not to defer security until a future refresh.
UK healthcare is advancing fast on AI, using it to analyse data, update records, personalise care and plan treatments, yet the foundation remains stressed by legacy platforms, fragmented integration and rising device counts. Reported breaches are common even as fewer leaders list security as their top concern. Progress now depends on coupling modernisation with proactive defence, integrating within existing infrastructures, strengthening device management and adopting real time monitoring to prevent disruption. By digitising processes and automating routine tasks, organisations can improve efficiency, protect sensitive information and keep patient care at the centre of digital change.
Source: HealthTech Digital
Image Credit: iStock
