Beyond the pilot phase: exploring the sustainable implementation of artificial intelligence in the English NHS

Background: We explore the experiences of Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovators who had received funding to pilot their innovation in the English NHS, with the aim of understanding what hinders and supports, from their perspective, the sustainable implementation of their innovation beyond the funding period. Methods: We first identified a list of companies that had received funding from two national schemes supporting AI innovations in the NHS, focusing on early rounds of these schemes. We then used personal contacts to identify key individuals from these companies, and used a snowball approach as well as LinkedIn contacts to increase our sample. We interviewed participants individually, using semi-structured interviews and analysed the data thematically. Results: We interviewed 18 individuals from 11 AI companies, who had received funding from two national schemes. Our findings show that the funding offered the companies a unique opportunity to pilot their innovations, show early successes and grow recognition around AI and its potential. Yet, innovators faced several barriers in their effort to implement their AI innovations beyond the pilot phase, including misaligned expectations regarding the programmes' goal, fragmented adoption efforts with little national coordination, and inadequate evaluation mechanisms to generate the evidence needed for wider adoption. Conclusion: The UK has set great ambitions for the adoption of AI in the NHS and has invested significantly in public funding to support its use. Our findings show that public investment alone is not sufficient to achieve this ambitious target. A better understanding of the implementation challenges of using AI innovation in practice is needed.