Taiwan hospitals keep AI in-house to guard patient data

An ageing society and thin medical staffing are driving hospitals to adopt AI agents for daily work.

Taiwanese hospitals are turning to in-house artificial intelligence systems as an ageing population increases demand for care and staff shortages stretch medical teams.

At the Medical Taiwan 2026 last June 2026, Bull Hsu, Business Development Director at Ubitus, said hospitals are considering AI for routine administrative and patient-facing work, but many remain reluctant to process sensitive records through external global platforms.

“We are facing a big problem because we have an ageing society,” Hsu said. “People get old and need medical resources, but we don’t have enough medical staff.”

The shortage is pushing hospitals to consider AI agents, virtual assistants and service robots for tasks that do not require direct clinical judgement. These may include answering routine questions, supporting online services and helping staff manage daily workloads.

Patient privacy, however, is shaping how the technology is deployed. Hsu said hospitals prefer to keep data within their own facilities rather than send it to outside computing services.

“Hospitals are afraid of their data running on a global platform,” he said. “They want their data to run in their own data centre. They can control the data and help protect patient privacy.”

Running AI on private hospital infrastructure may allow providers to train models and use automated tools without transferring patient information beyond their systems. It also places greater responsibility on hospitals to maintain cybersecurity, control access and check the accuracy of AI-generated responses.

Hsu expects artificial intelligence to become a standard hospital service in Taiwan over the next three years as workforce shortages continue.

“I believe AI will become an important part of hospitals,” he said. “We lack human labour and human resources, so AI may become a standard service for hospitals.”

The wider challenge will be ensuring that AI reduces repetitive work without weakening patient safeguards or replacing decisions that require trained medical professionals.