Germany is making progress in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the healthcare sector, but still lags behind the global leaders in international comparisons. Countries such as Saudi Arabia are setting new standards for the enterprise-wide implementation of AI technologies.
This is shown by the latest study, “The State of AI in the Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry 2025-2026”, by the technology company HTEC. For the study, 253 executives from the healthcare and life sciences sectors in Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were surveyed.
International mid-range
According to the study, 52.8 percent of German healthcare organizations have already integrated AI into multiple functional areas. This places Germany in the international mid-range. In terms of the proportion of organizations that have fully embedded AI, Germany stands at 43.6 percent. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, reaches 53 percent, while Spain stands at just 39 percent.
The study’s authors attribute Saudi Arabia’s strong position to factors including central digitalization strategies, high levels of investment, and modern IT infrastructures. While many European healthcare institutions continue to struggle with legacy systems and technical debt, organizations in the Middle East often benefit from cloud-enabled, newly built IT landscapes.
Operational hurdles
Germany also has ground to make up when it comes to alignment between management and implementation levels. 43.4 percent of German executives cite a lack of alignment as a key hurdle to AI adoption. At the same time, 77.3 percent state that their organization is strategically strongly or fully aligned with AI.
In practice, however, there is often a lack of consensus on which use cases should be prioritized, how investments should be allocated, and how AI solutions can be scaled securely. The study thus describes a typical discrepancy between strategic aspirations and operational reality.
Skills shortage slows down innovation
The challenges regarding technical skills are particularly evident. All surveyed German decision-makers report skills gaps. They see the greatest deficits in the areas of cybersecurity, data protection, AI and machine learning expertise, as well as DevOps and automation.
According to the study, the consequences are measurable: 49 percent of organizations report a slower pace of innovation, 47 percent longer time-to-market cycles, and 34 percent rising costs. Despite these challenges, confidence in new technologies remains high. For example, 95.3 percent of German respondents express confidence regarding the adoption of edge AI solutions.
Many organizations are relying on hybrid strategies combining edge and cloud technologies. Partnerships with external providers play just as much of a role as third-party platforms and internal development resources.
Scaling Is the biggest challenge
According to the study, the real bottleneck lies less in the technology itself than in scaling. Only about one-third of German healthcare organizations currently see themselves as capable of rolling out AI solutions quickly and comprehensively.
The executives surveyed estimate that the development and implementation of an edge AI roadmap alone takes an average of 1.65 years. According to the respondents, those who do not consistently leverage the potential of AI and edge AI risk a competitive disadvantage of 1.84 years on average.
The study’s authors draw a clear conclusion: Healthcare organizations must move beyond pilot projects and isolated AI applications and implement AI strategically, in a coordinated manner, and across the entire organization to remain competitive in the long term.
