The evolution of forensic pathology through digital innovations: Attaining accurate identification from broad to detailed levels

In forensic pathology, the primary challenges encompass determining causes of death, estimating postmortem intervals, assessing wound timing, and investigating injury mechanisms. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have shown significant potential in addressing these challenges, particularly through applications in digital pathology, virtual autopsy, multi-omics analyses, and finite element analysis. This review summarizes recent progress and representative applications of AI-based approaches, with a particular focus on their practical implementation in forensic pathological investigations. By critically synthesizing both the opportunities and limitations associated with the integration of AI into forensic practice, this review highlights current methodological challenges and barriers to translation and provides insights into future directions necessary to support more objective, quantitative, and reproducible forensic pathology.