Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has announced a significant increase in its investments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline operations and alleviate the workload of its medical staff. This decision aligns with a broader trend among Indian hospitals that are increasingly adopting AI to improve efficiency and patient care.
The hospital chain, which operates over 10,000 beds, has allocated 3.5% of its digital budget to AI in the past two years and plans to increase this investment. Sangita Reddy, the Joint Managing Director, stated that the goal is to free up two to three hours a day for doctors and nurses through AI interventions. Apollo is currently developing AI tools designed to analyze electronic medical records (EMRs) and provide recommendations for diagnoses, tests, and treatments. These tools will also assist in transcribing doctors' notes, generating discharge summaries, and organizing nurses' schedules. Furthermore, Apollo is working on an AI-powered system to help clinicians select the most appropriate antibiotics.
Apollo Hospitals aims to expand its bed capacity by one-third in the next four years and intends to allocate some of the revenue from this expansion to further AI development without significantly increasing operational costs. The hospital hopes that the use of such AI tools will help lower nurses’ workload as it tackles a 25% attrition rate among nurses, which it expects to increase to 30% by the end of fiscal year 2025.
Other major hospital chains in India, including Fortis Healthcare, Tata Memorial Hospital, Manipal Hospitals, Narayana Health, Max Healthcare, Medanta, and Aster DM Healthcare, are also investing in AI-powered tools. Despite the potential benefits, the implementation of AI in Indian healthcare faces challenges such as high implementation costs, inconsistent data formats, and the limited availability of electronic medical records.
In addition to its AI investments, Apollo Hospitals announced a robust financial performance for the first quarter of the fiscal year. The company's consolidated net profit rose by 42% to ₹4.33 billion ($49.40 million) for the April-June quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates of ₹3.86 billion. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of profit growth for the hospital chain. Revenue for the quarter increased by 14.9% year-on-year, reaching ₹58.42 billion. Operating income, or EBITDA, rose by 26.2% year-on-year to ₹8.52 billion, with the EBITDA margin expanding to 14.6%.
The company's strong financial results were driven by higher demand for its healthcare services. Revenue from Healthcare Services reached ₹29.7 billion, growing by 13% year-on-year, while revenue from Diagnostics & Retail Health was ₹4.35 billion, up 19% year-on-year. The Digital Health & Pharmacy Distribution segment recorded revenue of ₹24.7 billion, a 19% increase year-on-year.
