Artificial intelligence in the management of inflammatory bowel disease: What’s next?

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing-remitting autoimmune disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. The management of IBD is complex and requires accurate assessment of disease extent and severity which guide therapeutic decisions. Endoscopic evaluation with biopsy remains the standard for diagnosing and assessing disease activity. Additionally, other modalities such as computed tomography enterography are used for suspected small bowel involvement. However, these processes are costly, time consuming, and often rely on subjective interpretation which is influenced by clinician experience. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used to standardize and improve efficiency in many facets of healthcare. Similarly, in the past decade, there has been growing interest in the applications of AI in the management of IBD. The applications of AI in IBD to date include automated endoscopic and histologic assessment, analysis of non-invasive imaging, discovery of novel biomarkers for the development of disease prediction models and the use of chatbots. In this article, we will discuss recent advancements in the use of AI in IBD as well as some of the practical and ethical concerns with large scale implementation of AI into clinical practice.