January 2026
HealthTech & AI in 2025: clinical AI breaks through, agentic AI falls short
Thomas Hagemeijer
Founder & CEO, HGM Advisory
Key takeaway
2025 was the year clinical AI crossed from pilot to production — led by OpenEvidence reaching 10,000+ hospitals and a record 258 FDA AI approvals — while agentic AI failed to deliver on its transformative promises in healthcare settings.
Clinical AI (with OpenEvidence) made a breakthrough, while agentic AI has not delivered on its promises yet. A review of the events that shaped HealthTech & AI in 2025 across clinical AI, hospital IT, agentic AI, consumer health, and MedTech acquisitions.
Clinical AI: the breakthrough year
OpenEvidence emerged as the dominant AI-powered clinical decision support tool, active in over 10,000 hospitals with 8.5 million monthly consultations. Its $210M raise at $3.5B valuation cemented its status.
The FDA approved a record 258 AI-enabled medical devices, bringing the total to 1,387. The nature of approvals shifted: 2025 saw the first wave of AI tools approved for treatment planning, not just diagnosis.
AMBOSS launched Lisa 1.0, which topped the NOHARM AI-CDS benchmark, outperforming Google, Glass Health, OpenAI, and human physicians.
Hospital IT shifts
Epic’s expansion into Europe accelerated, with new go-lives at over 15 NHS trusts, Karolinska, and several Danish regions. Oracle Health launched its Clinical AI Suite in September 2025. Palantir’s GBP 330M NHS Federated Data Platform contract became operational.
Agentic AI: the great disappointment
Several high-profile agentic AI pilots were quietly paused or scaled back. Core issues: reliability (5-15% error rates), workflow integration struggles, and liability concerns — no hospital was willing to assign clinical responsibility to an AI agent.
Narrow, well-scoped AI agents (Hippocratic AI’s follow-up calls, Commure’s documentation) did show traction. But fully autonomous multi-step agents remained demos, not products.
The lesson for 2026: companies that position agents as ‘copilots’ rather than ‘autopilots’ will win.
Key events of 2025
Summary of the year’s defining moments across categories.
| Category | Key Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical AI | OpenEvidence reaches 10K+ hospitals, $3.5B valuation | AI-CDS reaches production scale |
| Clinical AI | 258 FDA AI approvals (record) | Regulatory acceptance accelerating |
| Clinical AI | AMBOSS Lisa 1.0 tops NOHARM benchmark | European AI-CDS competes globally |
| Hospital IT | Epic expands to 15+ NHS trusts | Epic becomes dominant European EHR |
| Agentic AI | Multiple agent pilots paused | Reliability and liability gaps persist |
| Consumer Health | D2C pharma models scale (Lilly Direct >$800M) | Disintermediation of pharma channels |
| MedTech | Stryker acquires Inari Medical ($4.9B) | Consolidation around AI + device integration |