When I had hernia surgery, my surgeon informed me that it was being done with a robot. Sitting at a console and looking through a 3D viewpiece, the surgeon controlled robotic arms that translated hand motions into ultra-precise micro-movements inside my body.
I winced, learned more (The robot is part of something called the da Vinci system), and proceeded. All went well.
The only parallel I could wrap my brain around was drone warfare, when machines extended human reach into places the human hand couldn’t go. War was never the same, and that same logic is reaching operating rooms around the world.
In this case, machines are metaphorically extending a surgeon’s hands. Don’t panic. They are not replacing the surgeon’s judgment.
Expect more sci-fi dazzle with AI
“Embodied artificial intelligence” — robotic systems equipped with cameras, sensors, and “world models” that learn how tissue and instruments behave — is rapidly coming to operating rooms, hospitals, clinics, and medical centers.
AI-driven surgical systems are being trained on thousands of procedures, learning to recognize tissue types, anticipate complications, and adapt in real time to what they discover inside the body. But the systems don’t operate alone.
A surgeon guides every motion, but the robot is the instrument and not the decision-maker.
Robotics is migrating to prosthetics, surgical assistance, and monitoring systems that can see what human eyes miss, respond in microseconds, and operate without getting tired. As self-driving cars reduce automobile accidents, surgical robotics is improving outcomes and shortening recovery times.
Robotics also democratizes complicated and expensive procedures. The expertise concentrated today in a handful of elite medical centers is starting to become accessible to patients in Tulsa, Morocco, and Nairobi alike.
The hospital itself is also getting smarter. Embodied AI can continuously monitor patients — tracking vital signs, detecting subtle behavioral changes, and flagging early signs of deterioration before a human nurse could reach the room.
The most costly and tragic events in hospital care (sepsis, cardiac arrest, and falls) are almost always preceded by warning signals that get lost in the noise of a busy ward.
Medical errors kill an estimated 251,000 Americans a year, third only to heart disease and cancer. Most of those deaths were preventable.
Early data suggest embodied AI can catch what exhausted humans miss, which could meaningfully reduce that toll of those errors.
None of this displaces the irreplaceable role of a doctor. The science is clear that the relationship between patients, their doctors, and their nurses is itself therapeutic — patients who feel heard heal faster, comply with treatment, and report less pain.
The Human touch
The human touch has many physical benefits. Quite literally, it can lower cortisol, while eye contact builds trust that can improve patient outcomes.
Similarly, the placebo effect is both real and measurable, and it is delivered almost entirely through human connection. The goal of embodied AI is to keep the human in medicine while clearing the paperwork, fatigue, missed signals, and preventable errors that paperwork can cause.
When machines absorb what machines do best, what’s left for physicians and nurses is human connection, arguably the most important part of healing.
In post-surgery rehabilitation, embodied intelligence is already changing what recovery looks like.
Exoskeletons guided by AI are helping stroke patients relearn how to walk. Prosthetics controlled by neural signals are restoring not just function but sensation.
Nowhere will the impact be more visible than in the emergency room — AI-assisted triage, diagnostics that read imaging with radiologist-level accuracy, and robotic dispensing systems that fill orders without error. Patients move faster. Doctors spend less time on the routine and more on the decisions that require human judgment.
I worried when my surgeon mentioned the robot. I shouldn’t have
The robot doesn’t get tired or distracted. The judgment about when and how to use it still belongs to the surgeon — and that’s exactly why I trusted it
How did you enjoy today's newsletter?
The information provided about wellness and health is for general informational and educational purposes only. We are not licensed medical professionals, and the content here should not be considered medical advice. Talk to a doctor before trying any of these suggestions.
