As agentic AI systems become capable of assuming increasingly consequential clinical functions, clear approaches are needed to determine what these systems should be permitted to do, under what conditions, and who is accountable for their actions and outcomes.
The AMA is bringing physicians together with those who build, deploy and regulate AI to shape responsible governance in service of better patient care.
Download the governance framework for agentic AI assuming clinical functions (PDF).
This framework sets out how the AMA is approaching the governance of agentic AI assuming clinical functions and how we will focus our work in this area. It starts with the simple principle that clinical authority should be earned through evidence and maintained through demonstrated performance. Authority and oversight can evolve as evidence, performance, risk or the technology itself changes.
The AMA’s work will focus on four connected questions:
- Function: What clinical function is the AI performing?
- Evidence + risk: What demonstrates that it can perform that function, and what happens if it fails?
- Authority + oversight: What should the AI be permitted to do, and under what conditions?
- Accountability: Who is responsible for the risks and outcomes?
These questions will guide how the AMA works with physicians and other stakeholders to advance approaches to liability, licensure, and regulation, licensure and liability as increasingly capable AI assumes clinical functions.
AMA Center for Digital Health and AI
The AMA Center for Digital Health and AI builds partnerships with regulators, policymakers and technology leaders to shape benchmarks for safe and effective use of AI and other digital tools in medicine. Learn more about the center.
