Major AI conference in Montreal explores if artificial intelligence can help tackle Canada’s doctor shortage

Canada’s health-care systems face numerous challenges, a major one being the shortage of health-care professionals. Could the solution lie in artificial intelligence, which is now capable of recognizing symptoms?

A panel of experts in the field debated this question on Thursday at the Palais des congrès de Montréal during the fourth edition of All In 2026, a major AI conference.

Approximately 5.9 million Canadian adults lack a designated primary care provider — such as a family doctor or nurse practitioner — according to the 2025 “NosSoins” survey conducted by Unity Health Toronto in partnership with the Canadian Medical Association.

One of the panellists believes AI could assist patients without a primary care provider. That expert is Muhammad Mamdani, director of the Temerty Faculty’s Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine and Clinical Lead for AI at the University of Toronto.

To illustrate his point, he describes a patient at home who is feeling unwell. The patient doesn’t know what is wrong, which is precisely why they seek medical attention, often at an emergency department if they lack a family doctor.

The doctor questions the patient, observes symptoms, and performs tests and examinations. “They analyze this information mentally to try to make a diagnosis. Can AI do that?” asked Mamdani. The answer requires nuance, but it leans toward the affirmative.

He cites Google’s project, AMIE (Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer), which enables video consultations with AI

“It will hear your cough. It will see you wrapped in a blanket. It will know you have the chills. So, you begin providing it with this multimodal data. We have six million people without a primary care physician. Can we now start to remedy this situation using AI? It won’t replace doctors, I hope. But it will certainly alleviate the pressure,” argued Mamdani.

In June, the federal government launched “AI for All,” Canada’s new national AI strategy. During Thursday’s panel, Elissa Strome, executive director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), highlighted the “significant” focus placed on health care.

“About 30 per cent of our 150 CIFAR Canada AI research chairs are working to advance the science and application of AI within the health-care system,” she stated.

Public concerns

Strome spoke about the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration among computer scientists, clinicians, patient partners, and healthcare administrators.

“That is what we need to do within our healthcare system in Canada. We really need to work together to solve these problems, and we really need to embrace AI,” noted the CIFAR executive director.

The research institute has several long-term projects in the pipeline, including an AI application “that integrates medical imaging across a range of different modalities” and an application that “is developing a dashboard for diabetes prevention and prediction.”

Public trust in artificial intelligence and data protection were cited repeatedly by panel experts as major challenges.

“We need to have a dialogue with the public to better understand their fears and highlight the benefits. We need to include patients, clinicians, and developers in a single conversation,” Strome indicated.

Moreover, the new “AI for All” strategy plans for the development of a world-class AI supercomputer and investment in sovereign computing power and cloud infrastructure.

The government also aims to strengthen measures protecting Canadians’ personal information, including against deepfakes, and to establish an online safety framework to better protect users of social media and chatbots.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews