The rise of the medical autonomist: How Agentic AI is rewiring healthcare

By Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta

For decades, “AI in healthcare” meant sophisticated pattern recognition: a computer flagging a suspicious shadow on a lung X-ray or a chatbot answering “What are the symptoms of the flu?” But in 2026, we have moved beyond the era of passive assistants. We are entering the era of Agentic AI; autonomous, goal-oriented systems that do not just suggest; they act. That is why , in my functional pyramid AI Model, I call them ‘doers’.

Unlike traditional AI, which requires a human to prompt every step, agentic systems are capable of reasoning, planning, and executing multi-step workflows. They are the “medical autonomists” of the modern clinic, and their arrival is the most significant disruption to healthcare delivery since the electronic health record (EHR).

From “Chat” to “Do”: The Agentic Shift
The fundamental difference lies in agency. Traditional AI is reactive; Agentic AI is proactive ...